If I Say 'Dolly Parton', What Do You Think Of?

Well, yes and no:

“President Dolly Parton”? She says “no, we’ve had enough boobs in the White House!” Tune in for this and more when the Governor speaks with the country star. Plus: Obama’s war on the rich! How every American is a casualty. April 14 at 8p ET on Huckabee.

Hey, I didn't say it.


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Ben Smith Errs

Writing in his Politico column, Ben Smith reviews Mike Huckabee's Israel positions and especially his pro-Yesha stance.

However, he does make an error in writing

"Huckabee isn’t getting any votes in Israel"

Both Democrats and Republicans have "Abroad" organizations in the country.

I would guess there are tens of thousands of American voters in Israel, and in Judea and Samaria alone approximately 10,000. And if we include those who are sympathetic to the rights of Jews in their historic homeland in the rest of Israel and, importantly, in America, both Jewish and non-Jewish, - those who would make that issue an agenda item for their vote - I would say there are millions.

So, who knows how many votes Huckabee mighty garner here.

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Quotable Words

Mike Huckabee:-

“I’m not against a Palestinian state, I’m just being realistic – I don’t see how it works to put two people and two governments right on top of each other.”

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Pictures of the Huckabee Visit to Samaria and Benjamin Councils

Pictures of Mike Huckabee's visit to Samaria and Binyamin (a video clip is here and another better one here):

1.  Naftali Bennet with the new map explaing the topography of Judea and Samaria.

2. David Ha'Ivri (l) and Gershon Mesika (c), Samaria Council Chairman with Gov. Huckabee

3.  Dany Dayan (l), Gov. Huckabee, Naftali Bennet and Binyamin Council Spokesperson Tamar Ashraf (r).

4.  Ariel Fund Director Avi Zimmerman (l), Gov. Huckabee and Naftali Bennet

5.  Avi Zimmerman, Charlie Levine (behind), Jeff Daube (behind), Gov Huckabee, Shilat Kahalany (r).

5.  Yes, we do have guitars.



Pics from Roman Yanushevsky and Yigal Dilmony

Media Manipulating

A case of media manipulation:

Here's the story -

Huckabee: Palestinians Should Be Resettled In 'Muslim' Territory

...Mike Huckabee told a crowd of Jewish Israelis yesterday that he'd be just as mad as they are if anybody tried to kick him out of America the way Israelis are being asked to not build or live in disputed lands.

"I cannot imagine as an American being told that I could not live in certain places in America because I was Christian, or because I was white, or because I spoke English," Huckabee said. "I would be outraged if someone told me that in my country, I would be prohibited and forbidden to live in a part of that country, for any reason."

Huckabee was attending a cornerstone-laying ceremony for a new neighborhood on the Mount of Olives in east Jerusalem -- a disputed territory in the Middle East that Huckabee says should belong to Israel.

...Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Huckabee said, should settle in "territory that [is] in the hands of Muslims, in the hands of Arabs," as determined by the "international community."

The attempt of this media pieced is to convince you that Huckabee supports a transfer of Arabs out of Israel.

But all that he said was that Jews can live where their ancestral heritage was and that Arabs should live in Muslim territory.

In essence, it could be simply a restatement of the Clinton parameters:

...at the Camp David summit in 2000, President Bill Clinton broached an outline for partitioning Jerusalem based on the principle: "What is Jewish to the Jews, what is Palestinian to the Palestinians."

Tricky that.

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With A Presidential Candidate in Maaleh HaZeitim

I was, this evening, a guest at a reception for some special guests visiting Israel, and specifically the new areas of Jewish residency in Jerusalem's newer neighborhoods on Mount Scopus, at the Beit Orot compound, and on the southern slope of the Mount of Olives, in a building complex known as Maaleh HaZeitim where over 60 families already live and where there is room for more.

The occasion was another visit of former Governor Michael Huckabee. (Here's a post from August 2009).

He was earlier in the Knesset and then over at Beit Orot for a cornerstone-laying ceremony..

Here's one news report:

Potential 2012 U.S. presidential candidate Mike Huckabee told Jewish settlers residents Monday that attempts to prevent them from building in east Jerusalem are as outrageous as housing discrimination in the United States.

"I cannot imagine, as an American, being told I could not live in certain places in America because I was Christian, or because I was white, or because I spoke English," he said.

Huckabee dismissed the notion that Jewish settlements communities on land the Palestinians want for a future state are obstacles to peace. Instead, he backed the settlers' residents view that they have the right to build anywhere in "the place that God gave them."

And here is an expanded version:

"It is inconceivable in many ways that we would have to even argue and debate whether or not Israelis could live in Israel, not just in parts of Israel but anywhere in Israel they wished to live," Huckabee added. "I cannot imagine as an American being told that I could not live in certain places in America because I was Christian, or because I was white, or because I spoke English. I would be outraged if someone told me that in my country, I would be prohibited and forbidden to live in a part of that country, for any reason."

At this evening's reception, sponsored by Ateret Kohanim and Dr. Irving and Cherna Moskowitz, at whose home I spent a few days a goo dfew years ago (Cherna addressed us via a video clip), Huckabee made the important point that American settlers, when they arrived in North America, had no ancestral heritage connection with the land unlike the Jews who have had a 3500 year link, based on religious, cultural and historical elements, with this Land.

There were many people there I have known for decades and it was a pleasure to be invited.

Some photographs:

a) Mike Huckabee addressing the guests - that's Effie Eitam to the left

b) Jon Voight is in the center, Yoran Ettinger to the right and Moshe Saperstein front left -

c)  the guests

d)  Dassie & Arthur Marcus of the Cedntral Fund for Israel with me, old and dear friends -

Arutz 7 has a clip.


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Huckabee Profiled

One Ariel Levy has a long piece in The New Yorker on Mike Huckabee, entitled: "Prodigal Son - Is the wayward Republican Mike Huckabee now his party’s best hope?"

Short excerpt relevant to Israel:

Sun was bouncing off the miles of Jerusalem stone and the black hats of the Hasidim on the afternoon when Mike Huckabee went to visit the Wailing Wall, earlier this year...wearing yarmulke[s]. “I think what I should do is convert,” Huckabee said, squinting in the sunshine. “This covers my bald spot completely.”

...Huckabee does not believe that Palestinian is a legitimate nationality.

...Conservative Christians are desperate for a leader who will govern according to their values. Some feel betrayed by George W. Bush, who, though stalwart on social issues, increased debt and spending, consolidated federal power, and bailed out the banks, all in violation of small-government principles. Many right-wing Christians are also disheartened by politicians who have risen from their ranks only to fail, sometimes spectacularly, to uphold family values...

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One Governor in One United Jerusalem

Mike Huckabee on...Mike Huckabee in Israel.

I was there and here are three quick pics:

a) Rabbi Daniel Moskowitz, son of Cherna and Irving Moskowitz greeting Governor Huckabee at the Shefer Hotel:


b) Former Emunah Women's International Vice-President Toby Willig and granddaughter with Mr. Huckabee:
c) and a bunch of Peace Now demonstrators who pushed their way into the structure set aside for the garbage bins and then complaining they were put behind 'barbed-wire':



and more from Ruthie J's camera:

d) MK Tzipi Hotveli


e) Gush Etzion Regional Council Head Shaul Goldstein and me


f) Ariel University Center's Administrator Peter Wurm and me


g) Gov. Huckabee and, l-r, Jeff Daube, Toby Willig, Ruthie J., MK Hoteveli and I'm way in the back obscured by shade umbrella


h) NY State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, Beit Orot's Chaim Silberstein and Gov. Huckabee: