Israel bears no responsibility for the 50,000 Palestinians — one-third of whom are minors — killed in Gaza, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told National Public Radio May 21.
Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist pastor, has been described as the most Zionist U.S. ambassador to Israel in the nation’s 80-year history.
He spoke with NPR’s Daniel Estrin shortly after Israel launched a new offensive in Gaza on Sunday, killing hundreds of Palestinians and forcing the closure of remaining hospitals. Israel has enforced a total blockade on food, medicine and other goods going to Gaza for nearly three months. A small amount of aid is to be allowed this week but the new aid has not yet been distributed to civilians in Gaza, where children are malnourished and dying.
“They need to start putting the pressure on Hamas. Right now, they’re willing to give Hamas a victory.”
None of this human carnage is Israel’s fault, Huckabee said. All the responsibility lies with Hamas, the terrorist organization that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israeli communities, killing more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking an estimated 250 people into captivity.
Israel, led by strongman Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has pounded Gaza into near oblivion in the subsequent months. U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed forcing out all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and turning it into an international beach resort. Israel’s latest plans also appear to involve forcing all Palestinians from the land.
US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is presented with a gift as he visits the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews are allowed to pray, while accompanied by Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch. (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images)
Earlier this week, leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Canada issued a joint statement calling Israel’s actions in Gaza “wholly disproportionate” and “egregious” and said the amount of food Israel has allowed in to feed starving people is “wholly inadequate.”
“I’m outraged that the UK, Canada, France — they’re blaming the wrong perpetrator,” Huckabee said when asked about the situation. “They need to start putting the pressure on Hamas. Right now, they’re willing to give Hamas a victory.”
In reality, leaders from the UK, Canada and France have acknowledged there is no excuse for the horrific Hamas attack but have said Israel’s response is disproportionate.
“Israel suffered a heinous attack on October 7. We have always supported Israel’s right to defend Israelis against terrorism. But this escalation is wholly disproportionate,” the statement said. “We will not stand by while the Netanyahu government pursues these egregious actions. If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response.”
NPR’s Estrin asked Huckabee if the Trump administration shares any frustration about Israel’s disproportionate attacks on Gaza and the Palestinians who live there.
Huckabee replied: “What I’m hearing is they’re frustrated — they want the hostages out but they’re not blaming the Israelis for it; they’re not blaming the prime minister for it; they’re blaming Hamas for it, which we all ought to be doing.”
“As awful as the crimes were in the Holocaust, they weren’t worse and in some cases they weren’t as malicious as now.”
As for Israel’s actions that have been uniformly condemned by most allies of the U.S., Huckabee said: “I think we recognize the sovereignty of Israel. Israel had people murdered in the most vicious, horrible way that we’ve seen — and I wanted to say since the Holocaust, but in all candor, as awful as the crimes were in the Holocaust, they weren’t worse and in some cases they weren’t as malicious as now.”
In the Holocaust, from 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered 6 million Jews, about two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population. The murders were carried out primarily through mass shootings and poison gas in extermination camps. The Nazis also murdered an equal number of non-Jewish civilians and prisoners of war, including the disabled and gays.
That’s at least 12 million people dead over six years, compared to 1,200 Israelis killed by Hamas in one day and 50,000 Palestinians killed by Israel in retaliation.
Estrin questioned Huckabee again about the criticism from European allies that what Israel is doing is itself genocide and intolerable. “You’ve seen the pictures of dead children every day. Do you agree with that?”
Huckabee replied: “No, what I agree with is that Hamas could have stopped this on October 8 and they didn’t. They prolonged suffering for everybody.”
Pressed again about Israel’s actions in Gaza, Huckabee returned to a World War II analogy saying European leaders don’t question the Allied bombings on the Nazis so they should support Israel’s campaign against Hamas.
“I just find that so disgustingly hypocritical on the part of some of these European nations that forget their own history,” he said. “And it wasn’t that long ago, and they ought to just go back and maybe take 10th grade civics and refresh themselves.”
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