Huckabee: Iran Deal Could Initiate Another Jewish Holocaust

It appears Gov. Mike Huckabee has made yet another bombastic statement, this time by criticizing President Obama’s recently-brokered and much-pilloried Iran deal.

Speaking with Breitbart News over the weekend, he alleged that the accord, if implemented, would do the following:

Governor Huckabee didn’t pull any punches when talking about Obama’s Iran nuclear deal: “This president’s foreign policy is the most feckless in American history. It is so naive that he would trust the Iranians. By doing so, he will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven. This is the most idiotic thing, this Iran deal. It should be rejected by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress and by the American people. I read the whole deal. We gave away the whole store. It’s got to be stopped.”

Not surprisingly, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) immediately seized upon – and repudiated – his comments:

Whatever one’s views of the nuclear agreement with Iran – and we have been critical of it, noting that there are serious unanswered questions that need to be addressed – comments such as those by Mike Huckabee suggesting the president is leading Israel to another Holocaust are completely out of line and unacceptable.

Israeli military and security officials have repeatedly said the Obama Administration has been as strong as any other American administration in keeping Israel secure. Just a year ago, during the war in Gaza, the president signed off on an additional $223 million for Iron Dome anti-missile weaponry to protect the lives of Israeli civilians.

To hear Mr. Huckabee invoke the Holocaust when America is Israel’s greatest ally and when Israel is a strong nation capable of defending itself is disheartening. The great tragedy of the Holocaust saw the Jews of Europe without allies and without power at the worst possible moment. …

President Obama on Monday condemned GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee for invoking the Holocaust while criticizing the Iran nuclear agreement.

Obama said those type of “outrageous attacks” have become “all too commonplace” in the Republican Party and have helped poison American political debate.

Speaking at a press conference in Ethiopia, Obama described the former Arkansas governor’s comments as “part of just a general pattern we have seen that would be considered ridiculous if it weren’t so sad.”

That's rich coming from the president. Nevertheless, as of this writing, Huckabee hasn't walked back what he said – or issued an apology. He even tweeted this yesterday:

Tell Congress to do their constitutional duty & reject the Obama-Kerry #IranDeal --> http://t.co/SaIyuq4w01 pic.twitter.com/2rFJgdDHhV
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) July 26, 2015

Surely Gov. Huckabee could have made that exact same point — i.e., that the Iran accord jeopardizes the national security of the US and therefore its greatest ally Israel — without bringing Nazi gas chambers into the conversation. By doing so he (a) muddled the point he was trying to make and (b) gave Democrats a political opening to accuse Republicans of extremism and incivility. By the way, how does such language advance his cause and win over Americans to his point of view anyway? Answer: It doesn't. The media will now largely focus on his rhetoric, not the substance of what he was trying to articulate; namely, how bad the Iran deal really is.

At the same time (and as the ADL points out) he also inadvertently implied that the Jewish state is completely and totally helpless in defending itself against Iranian aggression. That's totally false.

For that reason alone, shouldn't he think very seriously about apologizing?

UPDATE: Huckabee responded to the president.