Israelis Say Mike Huckabee Is Stirring Up Controversy
In a July 22 Jerusalem Post opinion piece, Zvika Klein implied that Huckabee and other dignitaries who visited Taybeh were perpetuating a false narrative of “Israeli arsonists gleefully burning down an ancient church.”
Eliana Passentin, an archaeologist who visited the site, said, “I don’t see any signs of a fire…even on the outer walls. Someone has an interest in making you believe Jews burned a church. It makes a great story when you have enough funding to spread the word.”
Yesha Council Chairman Israel Ganz called reports of arson at Taybeh a “blood libel engineered to harvest headlines and diplomatic leverage.”
Perhaps responding to pushback, Huckabee posted on July 21, “I have NOT attributed the cause of fire to any person or group as we don’t know for sure. The press has. I have said that regardless, it was crime & deserves consequences.”
In The Jerusalem Post, Klein called that apparent softening by the ambassador “a gentle about-face” but added that “the damage had been done” to Israel’s image. “The correction will zip around the world at a fraction of the original speed, and many newsrooms will bury it in their overnight updates,” Klein wrote, “if they report it at all.”
