Uproar continues after US Envoy says Israel has right to much of Middle East

Tel Aviv: An uproar continued Sunday, February 22, after the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said Israel has a right to much of the Middle East, as more Arab and Muslim countries objected and the US said his comments were taken out of context.

Huckabee spoke in an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that aired Friday. Carlson said that according to the Bible, the descendants of Abraham would receive land that today would include essentially the entire Middle East, including parts of modern-day Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. He quoted from Genesis Chapter 15 and asked Huckabee if Israel had a right to that land.

Huckabee responded: “It would be fine if they took it all.”

A spokesperson for the US Embassy said Sunday that Huckabee’s comments were taken out of context and that there is no change to US policies on Israel.

In the interview, Huckabee added: “They’re not asking to go back and take all of that, but they are asking to at least take the land that they now occupy, they now live in, they now own legitimately, and it is a safe haven for them.” He added that Israel isn’t trying to take over Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, or Iraq but is trying to protect its own people.

A joint statement Sunday by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Syria, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, the Palestinian territories and several Arab governing bodies called Huckabee’s remarks “dangerous and inflammatory” and ones that endanger the region’s stability.

“These statements directly contradict the vision put forward by US President Donald J Trump … based on containing escalation and creating a political horizon for a comprehensive settlement that ensures the Palestinian people have their own independent state,” the statement said.

During the six-day 1967 Mideast war, Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan, Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria. Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula as part of a peace deal with Egypt following the 1973 Mideast war. It also unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Since the ceasefire with Hamas began in October, after two years of fighting, Israel’s military controls most of Gaza’s eastern half.

Israel has attempted to deepen control of the occupied West Bank in recent months. It has greatly expanded construction in Jewish settlements, legalised outposts and made significant bureaucratic changes to its policies in the territory. Trump has said he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank and has offered strong assurances that he’d block any move to do so.

Huckabee, an evangelical Christian and strong supporter of Israel and the West Bank settlement movement, has long opposed the idea of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinian people.

Carlson has been critical of US support for Israel in the war in Gaza and has come under fire for his own far-right views, including the white-supremacist theory that says whites are being “replaced” by people of color.

Israeli concerns about Iran

Meanwhile, tensions are high in Israel as the country prepares for a possible attack from Iran. Iran previously said it will attack both Israel and US bases in the Middle East if the United States attacks it.

Trump warned on Friday that limited strikes against Iran are possible, even as the country’s top diplomat said Tehran expects to have a proposed deal ready in the next few days following nuclear talks with the United States.

The movements of additional US warships and airplanes to the region, with the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier near the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, don’t guarantee a US strike on Iran, but they bolster Trump’s ability to carry out one if he chooses.

Netanyahu warned last week that if Iran attacks Israel, they will risk a “response that they cannot even imagine.”

Israel attacked Iran last year during indirect US-Iran talks, sparking a 12-day war. The United States inserted itself in the war by bombing Iranian nuclear sites.