‘Mr. President, Visit the Museum’

By COLlive and Israel National News

Former Arkansas governor and Fox News regular Mike Huckabee spoke at the Gush Katif Museum Dinner which was held on Saturday night at the Razag Ballroom in Brooklyn, NY.

Huckabee, who brings groups to Israel on a regular basis, said during his remarks that “it is impossible to be Christian and not have a complete relationship with Judaism, because it is the foundation upon which every Christian believes and understands that Israel is G-d’s chosen land.”

“The nations that bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed,” said Huckabee. “It is time we recognize that you don’t negotiate with people who do not believe you have the right to even exist, much less live next to you.”

Huckabee said he recommended that before President Barack Obama asks Israelis “to make sacrifices for peace” during his upcoming trip to Israel, he visit the Gush Katif Museum located in Jerusalem.

“I would love to escort him personally to the Gush Katif Museum and say, ‘Mr. President, the Israelis have made many sacrifices for peace. Can you show me one sacrifice that the Palestinians have made for peace?'”

The museum documents the 2005 expulsion of Jews from the Gaza strip by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a peace gesture. Today it is visited and championed by many within Israel’s post disengagement era government.

Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpo, founder of the museum, organized the dinner in New York, with Dr. Joseph Frager acting as Chairman of the evening. The dinner committee was chaired by Dr. Paul Brody and included many distinguished members of the Jewish community.

Huckabee said that instead of asking the Israelis to stop building bedrooms for their children in Judea and Samaria, President Obama should “demand that the Iranians stop building bombs” that threaten Israel.

“If the President makes the absurd suggestion that Israel move back to the pre 1967 borders, I’m thinking, if we’re going to roll back, let’s just roll back all the way to Abraham and let the borders be the way the borders were originally established?!” he said.

Huckabee, a former Republican presidential contender, said in the past that if he were president of the United States he would move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The emcee of the evening was businessman and activist Dudi Farkash. Guests of Honor included philanthropist R’ Sholom Ber Drizin, Rabbi David Algaze, Assemblyman Dov Hikind, and Helen Freedman.

World renowned Rabbi YY Jacobson was a keynote speaker. Multimedia displays about the lives of the Gush Katif residents were shown, as well as work executed by the former residents themselves.

Musicians Yoni Z and Choni Milecki performed during the evening.

Find out more and give your support at gushkatifmuseum.org

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Full transcript of Gov. Mike Huckabee’s Message to
Pres. Obama
on his Upcoming Visit to Israel,
Keynote Address at Gush Katif Museum Dinner,
March 9th 2013, Razag Ballroom

Well, first let me say thanks for the wonderful frank reminder of Gush Katif… It has been a delight getting to share a fellowship with you, to share a mutual passion with you, for the protection of the security of Israel. And I was asked earlier, “Why would a Goy, a Christian, be interested in Israel?” Sometimes I feel that my passion for the goodness of Israel, maybe exceeds even my Jewish friends – and I tell people, I say, “you have to understand – It is entirely possible to be Jewish and not have a complete relationship to Christians – but it is impossible to be Christian and not have a complete relationship with Judaism – because it is in fact the foundation upon which every Christian believes and every Christian understands – that Israel is G-d’s Chosen Land! And we recognize that, and respect it and understand that the Nations Who Bless Israel Will Be Blessed And Those Who Curse Israel Will Be Cursed!

My first trip to Israel was exactly forty years ago this year, when in July 1973, just a couple of months before the Yom Kippur war, I made my first trip to Israel when I was just a teenager. I’ve been going back to Israel ever since 1973 for 40 years! You know Moses had the children in the wilderness for 40 years…There has got to be some connection there…

When I visited the Gush Katif Museum just a couple of years ago, it was a brutal reminder of what happens when politicians make decisions that don’t involve their brains! Because in a way, when you ask people – no, when you demand that people abandon their homes, when you do it because you somehow believe you can trust radical Islamic fascists to keep their word and make nice if you make nice, then it shows a level of naiveté that make Chamberlain look like Churchill.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is time we recognize you don’t negotiate with people who do not believe you have a right to exist–much less live next to you! I cannot understand why the Secretary of State visited Egypt and handed over a check of $250,000,000 when we are closing the White House to tours? That makes no sense at all! Why did he give F16’s and Abram tanks to a country whose elected President is associated with a terrorist organization who has openly and publicly called Jews bloodsuckers and the descendants of apes and pigs. Why would you reward someone with that kind of behavior? And even in his Senate confirmation hearing, Mr. John Kerry said they will be held accountable. I got to wondering, “Is accountability being given F16’s, tanks and $250 million?” Dear Mr. Secretary. Please hold me accountable ‘cause I’d like $250,000,000. And if that‘s what it takes, to make radical, ridiculous, offensive and inexcusable statements like this– then we should all share in the spoils.

This is absurd!

And now word is that when the President visits Israel later this month, that he will ask not the Israeli gov’t leaders – because it would be seen as bad form to lecture them (although, he’s been willing to do it before!) – but it is reported he will ask the Israeli people to make sacrifices for peace. If that is the case, I would like to escort him personally to the Gush Katif Museum and say, “Mr. President, the Israelis have made many sacrifices for peace, and show me one sacrifice that the Palestinians have made for peace! I have yet to see it!” I would say “Mr. President, I believe the Israelis have given and given and given, and so far have received nothing in return!”

And, every trip I make to Israel, I always venture into the Old City. I go into some of the shops where one can purchase a Palestinian map. This past month, in February, I had two hundred people that I took with me, most of whom were Christians, most of them had never been there before. I wanted them to understand what is unique about this situation. And I get one of these maps and I said. “By the way – Open the map up and show me where Israel is.” And they opened it up and they didn’t see it. And I said, “Interesting isn’t it? And somehow, the people of Israel are asked to make peace with a people who even in their published maps refuse to acknowledge even so much as the existence of the Nation of Israel?”

And that’s why, if our President makes the absurd suggestion that Israel should go back to the Pre ‘67 borders, I’m thinking “Well, if they are going to roll back, let’s just roll all the way back to Abraham and let’s let the borders be the borders that originally were established which goes far back as we can go!”

The Gush Katif Museum is a stark reminder that sometimes things happen in our past that we need to commemorate — not because they were pleasant, but because they are sobering reminders of the mistakes that have been made in the past.

We should not forget that Bull Conner turned the fire hoses on African Americans in the 60’s. We should not forget James Meredith, who was not allowed to attend the University of Mississippi. We should not forget that the Little Rock Prime was blocked from the door of Little Rock High School by the Governor of the State in 1957.

These are not pleasant things, but they are important things because they remind us of what happens when politicians make the wrong decisions and how it affects people and how long it takes to come from beyond it.

And so, I say tonight that I wish that the President — I wish he would be accompanied by as many of the Israeli officials as is possible – would attend the Gush Katif Museum while he’s there and watch those films, and talk to the people like Rivka (Rivka Goldschmidt) who is here tonight, who personally experienced it. I wish that, that could happen. So, that the next time he suggests that the Israelis stop building bedrooms for their children, in the Land that is theirs, that instead, he would spend his time not asking the Israelis to stop building bedrooms, but that he would demand that the Iranians stop building bombs pointing at Israel and the rest of the free world!

Israel often gets criticized for the acts that it takes to protect its citizens. The construction of the security wall which I have flown over, almost in its entirety, in a helicopter, and I personally have seen that security wall, and I tell you today, and you already know, that until that security wall was erected, it was a common occurrence for people to strap bombs to their bellies and board a bus and kill innocent children and citizen. And, with the construction of that fence, those acts stopped immediately and permanently.

Shall we be critical of those who wish to protect their babies? Shall we truly be critical of those who wish to have peace in their neighborhoods, allow their children to play in a park or for their wives to be able to go to a Café or a supermarket without the fear of being blown up by a terrorist?

We would never tolerate in our own cities what the people of Sderot have been asked to tolerate. And I have been to Sderot, and I have seen the thousands of Katyusha rockets stacked up behind the Police Station. I stood there with Dov Hikind and Joe Frager and Paul Brody and others who are in this room tonight, and I can tell you that it is an absolute sobering experience to understand that people have fear every day that a Katyusha rocket would land on their children’s bedroom, land in the park where they play, in the schools they attend, in the Synagogues where they worship. And we would not tolerate that!

And I’ll ask Americans, “How many Katyusha rockets fired from Toronto into Buffalo, NY, do you think it would take before Americans would demand that we do something and absolutely stop it? Five thousand? Four Thousand? Three Thousand? One hundred? NO! One Katyusha rocket. We would demand it STOP! And the Israeli’s have been asked to let it go after thousands of them? I say NO! One is enough. Thousands are too many, and it’s time for the Israeli’s to quit apologizing to the world and to say “We have a right for the secure and safe homeland – Not just for us, but for those grandchildren and great grandchildren of our descendants and who come after us – a place that is a safe place, a haven.”

And, if anybody would wonder why that is so necessary – well it was brought back to me, not only by those repeated visits to Yad Vashem, but this past holiday. In January, my wife and I travelled to Poland. We went to Schindler’s factory and then we went to Auschwitz and Birkenau. And I stood in the very room where 1.1 million of your relatives and your friends and your ancestors were marched into that very room and were murdered in cold blood – and I stood there as the chills came over me, as I realized what had happened in that room – and I prayed, “May the world never forget what happened”. Because if we forget what did happen, it can happen yet again! And when people ask why it is important for Israel to have secure borders and safety, I would love to take them to Auschwitz, stand them in that room, and ask them, ”Do you think for one moment that if these had been your parents and your grandparents, that you would be a bit uneasy about being told that if would be all right for people who avow to exterminate and kill every one of you, to live as close as nine miles in a border? I think NOT!

And, that’s why I believe with all my heart, that when the President goes to Israel, it is important that the American people give him the message – rather than him give Israelis a message! And the message is, “Mr. President, Americans stand with Israel because they are a mirror image of our freedom and our democracy in this country. And, we suggest that before you make any demands of the Israeli’s to give anything, you set down and look the Palestinians in the face and ask them ‘What have they given up?’ And tell them – as I would love to do, if I was making that trip as the Chief Executive :

Rather than say to the Israeli’s, “Stop Building in Judea and Samaria,” I would suggest that YOU BUILD AS RAPIDLY AS YOU CAN, AND AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, AND AS MANY HOUSES AS YOU CAN! And tell the Palestinians that if they don’t like that, the way they can fix it is to sit at the peace table and sign an agreement that they recognize Israel’s right to exist, within the borders that G-d gave them and to exist with safety and security!

That my friend will probably never happen!

So I say, “POUR THE CONCRETE, BUILD THE HOUSES AND LET ISRAEL BE STRONG!”

That is the message we need to give to the world!

Thank you and G-d Bless You!