Why I'm NOT voting for Mike Huckabee (Doug)

I know we don't really go into politics this directly on this blog that much but when this came to our attention I couldn't stay silent. I was kind of interested in this Mike Huckabee guy who's put his hat in the ring for the presidential race. He seems like an interesting candidate so I've been doing my homework. But my interest immediately ceased when I read this about him...

When asked about a Palestinian state, Gov. Huckabee stated that he supports creating a Palestinian state, but believes that it should be formed outside of Israel. He named Egypt and Saudi Arabia as possible alternatives, noting that the Arabs have far more land than the Israelis and that it would only be fair for other Arab nations to give the Palestinians land for a state, rather than carving it out of the tiny Israeli state.

I guess this leaves me with a question for Mike Huckabee. My question would be this "Mr. Huckabee, would you not agree that by your train of thought that since there are plenty of other European countries in the world, the people of the state of Arkansas should give the land back to the Choctaw and Illinois indians who lived there first since there are "far more" lands that people of Anglo-Saxon descent could use to live in?" To simply banish the Palestinians from the lands and homes they've owned for centuries out to the desert somewhere is the most degrading inhumane suggestion I can think of short of an all out ethnic cleansing. In fact, what should scare us is that historically speaking, mass relocations of people are typically a precursor to genocide. The thought process usually goes like this...'Hmmm these people are a real problem for us. It would be better if they weren't here. Let's move them. Hmmm they're still a problem. Let's just kill them since nobody really cared when we moved them all. Obviously nobody will really miss them all that much." Well let me just say, I'd miss them.

I'm sorry if my statements here make some of our readers angry but frankly this needs to be said. The discussion over "who was here first" is not relevant. There are two groups of people who live here NOW. The issue is what to do now, not how do we figure out who came first. Secondly, the issue of the Biblical "right" to this land is also severely abused by Christian dispensationalists who have no idea what the modern state of Israel is really like. Do the Jewish people have a right to a homeland here...YES. Is the modern state of Israel the same as Biblical Israel...NO. I feel like the confusion between these two points shapes many American viewpoints including many of those in power. Fact: Biblical Israel was a theocracy. Fact: Modern Israel is a democracy (a VERY secularized one at that). It is irresponsible of us obliterate the livelihoods of millions of Palestinian people and displace them from their homes because we think the state of Israel is the equivalent of Moses and the 12 tribes running around knocking down all the evil Canaanite high places.

So thanks for letting me vent. I'm sorry if I've made you angry but I'm not sorry if I got you to think about this a little more and to question what the various candidates say about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This one single issue is probably one of the biggest problems that most Arab nations have with the U.S. today. God help us if someone like Mike Huckabee becomes president and continues to create policies towards the Palestinians that only make matters worse.