Mike Huckabee Slammed by Democrats for Saying Obama Is 'Marching Israelis to the Door of the Oven'
GOP Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has been heavily criticized by Democrats for claiming that President Barack Obama is "marching Israelis to the door of the oven" over the nuclear deal with Iran.
Rep. Deborah Wasserman-Schultz, D-Fla., who chairs the Democratic National Committee, said making "cavalier analogies" to the Nazi-Germany holocaust of Jewish people were unacceptable.
"Mike Huckabee must apologize to the Jewish community and to the American people for this grossly irresponsible statement," Wasserman-Schultz said, according to BBC News.
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Huckabee, who has criticized the deal between the U.S. and Iran aimed at limiting the latter's nuclear capabilities in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, told Breitbart News on Saturday that Obama's foreign policy is "the most feckless in American history."
"It is so naive that he would trust the Iranians. By doing so, he will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven. This is the most idiotic thing, this Iran deal. It should be rejected by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress and by the American people. I read the whole deal. We gave away the whole store. It's got to be stopped," the former Arkansas governor said.
Time magazine noted that the National Jewish Democratic Council has echoed Wasserman-Schultz's sentiment in regard to Huckabee's comments, and said:
"Republicans have fallen over themselves to speak out against Donald Trump's outrageous rhetoric on immigration and veterans. Will they now do the same and speak out against this unacceptable attack against President Obama that smears the memory of Holocaust victims … or will they stand by in silence and implicit approval?"
The implications of the nuclear deal, reached between several Western nations and Iran, have been dissected across political circles.
The Obama administration has argued that there were few other options on the table other than to agree to the deal, and has insisted that the negotiations have moved Iran further away from developing a nuclear weapon.
"Either the issue of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon is resolved diplomatically through a negotiation or it's resolved through force, through war," the president said when announcing the deal. "Those are the options."
Obama's critics have said, however, that there is no significant guarantee Iran will not continue to undermine the international community and persist with nuclear research, and have said the lifting of economic sanctions without assurance Iran will improve its human rights record only emboldens the Islamic Republic.
One such critic, Hassan Hassan, an associate fellow at London-based think tank and independent policy institute Chatham House, recently said that the deal is going to benefit the Islamic State terror group.
"IS will benefit a lot from this deal," Hassan wrote. "Segments of the Sunni community in the region will see Iran as having won and brought in from the dark."
Congress must still approve of the deal before it can be implemented, and has until Sept. 17 to vote on the issue.
Huckabee has urged Congressional members not to go on summer vacation until they strike down the deal.
"This deal is a horrific, humiliating handout to Iran that threatens Israel, emboldens terrorists, and will trigger a nuclear arms race across the Middle East. It must be stopped before it's too late," the Republican candidate warned.
