‘UNCIVILIZED SAVAGES’: Gaza can flourish like Singapore, but Hamas will never rule again, Amb. Huckabee tells ALL ISRAEL NEWS
‘Gaza could have been Singapore’ already ‘but Hamas turned it into Haiti,’ Huckabee says
WASHINGTON, DC — After eight decades of darkness, death, and destruction, the future of Gaza can be bright and beautiful, says U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s point man in Jerusalem.
When this bitter war is over, Gaza – with its beautiful beaches on the Mediterranean and its massive reserves of natural gas right off its shores – can truly flourish.
Gaza could emerge from the smoking rubble as a small but immensely successful territory like Singapore, peaceful and prosperous.
But the Palestinian people must abandon radical Islamism, embrace peace with Israel, and renounce Hamas forever.
This was one of the most important messages that Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, shared with my wife and me as he briefed us on the discussions that President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had last week.
Lynn and I sat with him for an hour at the J.W. Marriott Hotel, just a block from the White House, to get some of the inside story and his assessment of the week’s high-level and high-stakes meetings.
ALL ISRAEL NEWS published Part One of the interview on Friday.
Today, I’d like to share more of our conversation with you.
WHAT IS PRESIDENT TRUMP’S MESSAGE TO HAMAS?
President Trump “has been incredibly consistent, incredibly clear” about the future of the Gaza Strip, Huckabee insisted.
“He said Hamas has no future in Gaza.”
“Hamas will not be able to stay and help run Gaza. They're done,”
Huckabee laughs as he describes those in the media and the political and diplomatic worlds that keep asking whether Trump will force Netanyahu to surrender in Gaza and let Hamas emerge from the terror tunnels, declare victory, and run Gaza in whole or in part in the future.
“There are people saying, ‘Well, what role will they have?’”
Such questions are crazy, Huckabee says.
“Did you hear what the President said? They don't have a role.”
“You know, I've said it this way, ‘When the President is this clear on it, they ought to be understanding that this is equivalent to saying, ‘Well, the Nazis might be able to stay in Germany post/World War II, and maybe they can help run the place – just to give Holland back or something – but they can stay.’”
“No,” Huckabee says.
HUCKABEE: WOULD ANYONE HAVE SUPPORTED THE NAZIS REMAINING IN POWER IN GERMANY?
“Nobody would have ever said that that would have been acceptable. The Nazis had to absolutely be defeated. They could not stay because of the incredible crimes they committed.”
The same is true with Hamas, Huckabee told us.
“Joel, you've seen the video. You've seen with your own eyes what Hamas did [on October 7th].”
‘UNCIVILIZED SAVAGES’
“This is not the act of a country warring against soldiers. These [Hamas terrorists] are savages – uncivilized savages – who carried out the most horrific crime against civilians and intentionally did it in such a way as not only to massacre their mortal bodies but to humiliate them in the most ungodly ways.”
Hamas sent their forces to invade Israel “to rape women in front of their small children, to cut off the heads of babies in front of their mothers, to set fire to a grandmother in a wheelchair in front of her family, and to videotape it for all to see because they were actually proud of these things.”
“That is a level of indecency that I just don't know of a parallel in human history.”
“So, for anyone to pretend that there's a space for Hamas in the future of Gaza, I would have wondered what's wrong with you?”
“What planet do you live on in which you think that people who could do those sort of things murder 1,200 people, take 250 people hostage, torture them, murder a bunch more of them, take the bodies of those who are dead, and not even let their families have those remains back?”
“What makes you think that somehow these people are going to turn a new leaf and be able to do anything other than murder innocent civilians?”
“So, I just say again and again the President has said Hamas won't be there, they won't have a future.”
Huckabee didn’t pretend to know exactly when or how the war would end.
But he was crystal clear that Israel would emerge unequivocally victorious.
“I can't tell you when it ends,” he told us.
“But I do believe I can say, based on my confidence in the President's promises, Hamas has no future in Gaza.”
GAZA COULD HAVE BEEN SINGAPORE
“I think the tragedy of Gaza is this,” Huckabee reflected. “It could have been Singapore. But Hamas turned it into Haiti.”
“It could have been something extraordinary. You know, most people don’t know that the tunnels under Gaza are more extensive than the London Underground. When people have ever been to London and they travel in it, it's everywhere. You can go anywhere you want to in London and even to the suburbs on the underground because it's massive. It's massive.”
“The tunnels under Gaza, this is a strip of land, they're more extensive than the London Underground. So they spent all these billions of dollars that countries have given them, not on building an economy for their people or building a future, or building a resort, or building even just decent housing and schools. No, they built tunnels so they could one day murder Jews, and that's what they've done for all this time, is prepare for October the 7th.”
Hamas didn’t invade and savage Israel with regret, Huckabee noted.
“They did it with outright joy and glee.”
“And that's why the President is right to say they have no future” in Gaza whatsoever.
They must and will be utterly defeated.
Joel C. Rosenberg is the editor-in-chief of ALL ISRAEL NEWS and ALL ARAB NEWS and the President and CEO of Near East Media. A New York Times best-selling author, Middle East analyst, and Evangelical leader, he lives in Jerusalem with his wife and sons.
