Mike Huckabee stacks the deck on Israel
Israeli citizens were evicted from their homes “at gunpoint” during Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005, presidential Mike Huckabee said at Brooklyn, New York fundraiser on Sunday. “I’ve seen the film of Gush Katif. You see good Jewish families taken at gunpoint out of their own home and marched out,” he said, adding that the sight made him weep. It was the Israeli government, not a Palestinian militia, that evicted these Gaza residents from their homes. But that fact is secondary to the point Huckabee is trying to make: The displacement of Israeli citizens proves yet again that they, rather than the Palestinian people, are the primary victims in this conflict.
The story Huckabee is telling is not flat out wrong, but it is incomplete. It’s a common tactic used by many on both sides of this debate—including more than a few conservative Christian leaders—to stack the deck in favor of their side by telling simplistic and partial narratives that mask a glaring double standard. The approach makes for great sound bytes, but it’s no way to have a conversation about an issue as complex as this one.