June 21, 2010

Huckabee Said WHAT About Jews?

 

When The New Yorker writer Ariel Levy profiled Mike Huckabee for the magazine this week, Israel and Judaism came up. A lot. Huckabee, the ex-Arkansas governor, current Fox TV showman, and rumored 2012 presidential hopeful, had just made his 14th trip to the Holy Land. He spoke to Levy at length about his philosemitism—in fact, the profile starts with Huck and buddy Pat Boone (yes, that Pat Boone) um, praising the Hebrews, sorta:

Both men were wearing yarmulkes. “I think what I should do is convert,” Huckabee said, squinting in the sunshine. “This covers my bald spot completely.”

Huckabee was a Baptist minister before he went into politics, but, like Boone and most of the other people in their group, he is crazy about Israel and extremely enthusiastic about Jews. “I worship a Jew!” Huckabee said. “I have a lot of Jewish friends, and they’re kind of, like, ‘You evangelicals love Israel more than we do.’ I’m, like, ‘Do you not get it? If there weren’t a Jewish faith, there wouldn’t be a Christian faith!'”

Huckabee has a reputation as a good-natured jokester, but he turned deadly serious when discussing non-Jews in the Israeli vicinity, too:

“I have to be careful saying this, because people get really upset—there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian,” Huckabee told a rabbi in Wellesley, Massachusetts, at a kosher breakfast on the campaign trail in 2008. “That’s been a political tool to try to force land away from Israel.”

MoJo has a rich history documenting the rise of the so-called Christian Zionist movement, of evangelical Protestant conservatives courting Jews on the basis of a common fondness for the promised land. (We wrote here in 2004 how 7 in 10 white evangelicals believed Israel was “given to the Jews by God.”) But, as Huckabee’s yarmulke yukking (and the testimony of Texas firebrand pastor John Hagee) has shown, there’s something tenuous and possibly patronizing about the Judaica fetish exhibited by evangelical Christians—who, after all, believe that when the Lord comes, he may be coming to Israel, but he won’t be coming for its Jewish citizens.

So how about it, readers? Is Huckabee’s fondness for Judaism sincere and enduring, or is it a patronizing fetish?

(H/t Wonkette)

 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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