Why Republican candidate Mike Huckabee worries Jewish voters

Mike Huckabee isn't said to have a particularly good chance at snagging the Republican nomination. Irrespective of his achievements so far, the experts simply find it hard to believe he can take the big, important states with most of the delegates.

After his win in Iowa, 32 percent of Republicans surveyed in the National Journal's Political Insiders Poll said he was the candidate most likely to capture the nomination. Nevertheless, in this week's issue, a majority (56 percent) said that evangelical Christian voters would still be more important for clinching the nomination than "independent" voters, who are the main support base for candidates like John McCain.

If he fails to win the presidential nomination, Huckabee is considered the leading candidate for the position of vice president. He's from the South (Arkansas), he is an evangelical Christian and he could balance a ticket headed by Mitt Romney, a Mormon, or by McCain or Rudy Giuliani, neither of whom are popular with the Christian right because of their positions on issues such as abortion and immigration.

In Jewish circles, this prospect has been met with dismay. Huckabee has a long record of expressing a longing for a more Christian America. Late last week, the American Jewish Committee criticized him for views it characterized as "a prescription for theocracy."

This is what Huckabee said: "What we need to do is amend the Constitution so it's in God?s standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other."

A rather opaque statement, but one message is clear: Huckabee wants to change the U.S. Constitution to reflect what he sees as divine law. It's not exactly what the Jewish voter wants.

It's not the first time Huckabee has butted heads with the principle of the separation of church and state that is so dear, for obvious reasons, to America's Jewish minority. On the eve of the Iowa caucus, an ad went on the air in which he declared himself a "Christian leader."

The following day, he received a letter from Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League: "We presume you seek the presidency in order to be the leader of all Americans, regardless of the faith they hold." The ad, Foxman said, causes us to be "concerned." The relationship between the Jews and the Christian evangelical community is delicate, containing both satisfaction for the latter's support for Israel as well as fears about its domestic positions.

One month ago, Richard Cohen of The Washington Post wrote one of the most critical columns against Huckabee in this context, comparing him with the president. "He infused government with religion," Cohen wrote about George Bush."Even the war in Iraq had and undeniably religious cast to it." About Huckabee, Cohen wrote he "shows a similar religious inclination." There is already an argument over the extent of Huckabee's support for Israel, and his reasoning.

"As president," Huckabee promises in a position paper, "I will always ensure that Israel has access to the state-of-the-art weapons and technology she needs to defend herself from those who seek her annihilation." He often mentions that he has visited Israel nine times. "I've literally traveled from Dan to Be'er Sheva," he said in a candidates' debate a few days ago.

He didn't mention that most of the visits were religious in character, not political. He led believers to churches and archaeological sites. A few Jewish community leaders question whether his support for Israel stems from his sense that "we've got one true ally in the Middle East, and that's Israel," or whether it's linked to his desire to hasten the End of Days, Armageddon.

Even the members of the Israel Factor panel, who have been following the U.S. election campaign for Haaretz, have no clear answer to this question. They look at Huckabee and see, first of all, a governor with no international experience and no clear record. For that reason, Huckabee is still near the bottom of their candidates' list.

A contributory factor is Huckabee's frequent confusion: On one hand, he declares that a nuclear Iran can be "contained," and is thus less dangerous than Jerusalem holds it to be. On the other hand, he offers relatively radical statements, such as the one cited on the Yeshiva World News Web site after he attended a campaign event in the home of Jason Bedrick - the first Orthodox Jew elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, and one of Huckabee's few Jewish supporters.

Huckabee reportedly said he supported the establishment of a Palestinian state, as long as it was formed outside of Israel. He meant outside of Biblical Israel and suggested Egypt or Saudi Arabia as possible locations. On Friday, Rabbi Moshe Bleich of the Wellesley-Weston (Massachusetts) Chabad Center, who asked the question about a Palestinian state, confirmed Huckabee's response to Haaretz.

Bleich likes Huckabee, but as a resident of Massachusetts he also has an obligation to Romney, a former governor of the Commonwealth, and as a former New Yorker he has a duty to Giuliani. Bleich mentions that Huckabee has promised to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but he has no illusions: Everyone promises to do so.

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