Dismissing talks with Hamas, Huckabee says allies’ pressure on Israel ‘makes no sense’

US Ambassador Mike Huckabee says he is “outrage[d]” by anger at Israel over the war in Gaza and diplomacy won’t work with an organization like Hamas.

“This kind of savagery can’t be dealt with by diplomacy and talking,” Huckabee says at the Reichman University World Summit of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism. “One has to have some level of morality to sit down and talk – and Hamas does not. If that’s diplomacy, I want no part of it. Diplomacy that is nothing more than babble and vanilla-coated nonsense, and believing that everyone is on the same side, with slight variations of opinion, that’s going to get us killed. We have to understand that is a difference between the forces of heaven and the forces of hell. If we don’t understand that, we’re only going to see more terrorism that will kill more innocent people across this planet.”

Israel, he says, has “no choice but to end the Hamas occupation of Gaza.”

“To do anything less than end Hamas rule in Gaza would be as ridiculous as it would have been to leave the Nazis in power in Germany after World War II,” Huckabee continues. “The Europeans, the Canadians, and others are taking a direction that makes no sense. It’s not Israel that needs to end this — Hamas needs to end this. Trump has consistently said that Hamas has no future, and that Hamas cannot rule in Gaza, and that all the hostages need to be released immediately.”

Huckabee, a longtime Christian Zionist, says allowing Hamas “even a modicum of victory… will only invite more October 7s and more hostages being taken.”

He urges Israel to prioritize its own defense over catering to the opinions of critics abroad.

“Despite the pressure you’re facing from people like the Europeans — who ought to be on your side — or from university campuses or other entities, I hope Israel never forgets that, like the US, our jobs as nations is not to live our lives so people will like us, but to live our lives so that we have a life to live. And we are willing to fight our enemies to the death for that.”