In Israel, Huckabee defends Iran deal ‘ovens’ remark

Hours after landing in Israel, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee on Tuesday defended his comparison of the Iran nuclear deal to the Holocaust, and called the West Bank part of the Jewish state.

Huckabee was speaking to reporters at Ancient Shiloh, for which a modern settlement nearby is named and where tradition holds the ancient Israelites kept the tabernacle with Moses’ tablets on its way to Jerusalem.

“I am delighted tonight to be here at Shiloh. It is an exciting place and an important place. It is the place where the tabernacle once was. It’s a place of Biblical history,” he said.

He told reporters “if you’re going to visit Israel you should visit all of Israel, and that would include Judea and Samaria,” the biblical names for the West Bank.

The presidential candidate also defended his comments last month, in which he accused US President Barack Obama of marching Israelis “to the door of the oven” by trusting the Iranians to hold up to the terms of an agreement aimed at curbing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.

“It was the Iranians who invoked the imagery and very word Holocaust, they have said that they have developed missiles that will deliver Israel to the Holocaust. Those are their words,” he said. “Israeli officials regularly remind the people of Israel and the people of the world that the Iranians’ intent is to wipe Israel off the map.”

Israel and American Jewish groups have distanced themselves from Huckabee’s analogy, calling it “inappropriate.”

Huckabee arrived in Israel on Tuesday to raise money and discuss the Iran nuclear deal with “a number of officials.” He did not elaborate on which officials he was slated to meet.