There will be happiness in the Obama White House but not in much of the Arab world if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is defeated in his re-election bid Tuesday, says former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
"There's going to be popping of corks of champagne in the White House," Huckabee said Monday on
Fox News Channel's "The Kelly File."
"But, ironically, the real lamentations are going to be coming from places like Jordan and Egypt and Saudi Arabia," he said.
That's because Isaac Herzog, Netanyahu's primary opponent, has said he trusts President Barack Obama to get a good nuclear deal with Iran, Huckabee said. Netanyahu opposes the current deal, saying it would lead to a nuclear-armed Iran that wants to wipe Israel off the map.
The leaders of the countries Huckabee mentioned have sided with Netanyahu on the desire to keep Iran from gaining nuclear status.
Netanyahu reversed his previous position over the weekend on
Palestinian statehood, saying that if he is re-elected there will be no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Huckabee called that "a position of realism."
The expected 2016 Republican presidential candidate called the two-state plan "a wonderful political concept," but added that having two different governments, "one of whom doesn't really even acknowledge the existence of the other one," trying to govern the same piece of real estate is "utterly unrealistic."
Huckabee noted that even after Tuesday's votes are cast Netanyahu's fate won't be known because it could be weeks before a coalition government is formed among Israel's 11 political parties.
"In fact, Netanyahu came in second in 2009 but still ended up becoming prime minister," Huckabee said.
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