It must be easy to sell Donald Trump swampland in Florida (now that I think of it, somebody did) and then pay the seller back in gold. This is essentially what happened between Trump and the evangelicals. Evangelical Christians have been criticized for taking a moral political stance on issues such as abortion, immigration, the relationship between church and state, and others. But they have refused to condemn Donald Trump, whose egregious behavior in the world of business, politics, sexual behavior, and others have followed him for decades. So, when Trump appointed Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel it was clear that he was simply rewarding the evangelicals for their support even in the face of their hypocrisy.     

It is true enough that Huckabee and evangelicals should be ashamed of themselves for their blatant politicalization of religion by refusing to condemn Trump and his crude behavior. Huckabee is familiar with Israel in the same way that an American tourist is – by traveling there often and having an interest in Jews and their religion. But Huckabee is no expert in Israel and holds numerous positions that will be simply damaging and indefensible. For example, Huckabee has espoused the old canard that “there is really no such thing as a Palestinian.” This is an extremist statement. Try to erase the Palestinian culture and political institutions. The Palestinians have certainly struggled in their efforts to establish a state and find some political relationship with Israel that is workable. And the definition of what makes someone part of a political culture is difficult but the Palestinians meet most of the criteria typically assigned. That is, they occupy a certain piece of geographical territory, they have identifiable cultural patterns, and they are group of people who self-identify as “Palestinians.” They have a common language and cultural institutions, Huckabee’s preference for Israel is clear. He sees no compromise as necessary in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. He has been appointed ambassador to Israel and any old extreme position on both religion and politics. Huckabee has been to Israel on religious pilgrimages and opposes the two-state solution, which is generally considered a rational model. Huckabee holds three positions that are troublesome and extreme.

One, Huckaby does not believe in the separation of church and state.  The only way to guarantee one’s religious freedom is to make sure it is not under the thumb of the authoritative state. Huckabee, consistent with evangelicalism, believes that the state should nurture religion which is a position contrary to religious freedom.

Two, Huckabee believes in the settlements and their supposed God-given right to land given to them by that God. This is the land settlers called Judea and Samaria and believed to be the holy land given to them by God. Palestinians make the same claim. Just after his appointment Huckabee arrived in Israel and had film of him huddled with settlers and victoriously claiming that the land was Judea and Samaria of the Bible and belong to no one else. The settlements are a major problem and regardless of how this conflict is solved something has to be done for the Palestinians. There are two groups of people making legal and cultural claims on the land and some mechanism to solve this problem is not to claim that the land belongs only to one group. This is what makes this conflict so intractable and Huckabee will not contribute to smoothing out the intractability.

Three, Huckabee, as he wrestles with his own evangelical text, is an evangelical of the sort who supports Israel because it is supposed to be an ingathering of Jews at the end of days. And after the ascension of Christ everyone must convert to Christianity in order to ascend and find their way to heaven. But unless the Jews convert they cannot make it to heaven. So, evangelicals actually are supportive of Jews only now in the present moment because the Jews cannot be granted the ascension to heaven unless they convert to Christianity. The informed Israeli might think evangelicals are supportive of Israel and the Jews but the true evangelical is just trying to hurry along the ascent to heaven by supporting the Jewish ingathering and return Israel.

Huckabee and his Orthodox religious tenets are not good for Israel whether it be land claimed by two peoples or scriptural demands.