Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee took part in an international delegation led by Likud MK Danny Danon that came to see the aftermath of the October 7th massacre in Kfar Aza and southern Israel.
In an interview with Israel National News - Arutz Sheva, on December 2023, Huckabee said that the sights in Kfar Aza were "worse than I could have imagined, the unimaginable horror that these people have been through."
"No human being should ever be subjected to the level of atrocity and savagery that the people of Israel have experienced," he said. "I want the whole world to understand what happened here and who did it."
Huckabee said that the world cannot "pretend that there are two sides, because there aren't. There's a side of good, and there's a side of evil. What happened to the Jewish people here was evil, and there's no other explanation for it."
He noted that there remain over 100 hostages in Gaza from 25 countries, including the US. "Hamas didn't take those hostages because they were trying to do some humanitarian effort. They took them as bargaining chips so they can try to buy themselves more time. I want every one of those hostages to be able to come home to their families, but I want Israel to have the full support of the world to fully prosecute this war [and] to eradicate these animals who did this to completely innocent people."
"Innocent lives are being lost in Gaza," he said, "but they're being lost not because of Israel, but because Hamas created an extraordinary level of absolute chaos." He added: "We need to remember that the people in Gaza voted to put Hamas in power. What happened with Hamas is largely due to the vote of the people."
"It was Barack Obama who once said: Elections have consequences. And they sure do. And I'm looking at the consequences of an election where Hamas was elected to lead Gaza - which could be one of the most wonderful resorts on Earth, and it is a hellhole because they took every dime that was given to them for their people and they built tunnels and they built bombs and they bought bullets. Not to help their people, but to kill other people they didn't even know," he said.
Huckabee described the 'second wave' of Gazan civilians who followed the Hamas terrorists across the border to loot from the Israeli homes that were attacked on October 7. "Not only were they looting, they were looting with bodies strewn about, and they were going in and taking food and items from the homes of people whose bodies were laying before them. They had to step over them in order to loot the homes. What kind of person does that?"
He said that he hopes American policy continues to be unequivocal support for Israel. "We don't need to tell Israel how to prosecute this war. They're the only ones who need to make that decision. I don't think we would have enjoyed having other countries dictate to us on December the 8th of 1941 how we should deal with the Japanese right after Pearl Harbor. This is no time for anyone to be giving Israel some instructions or lessons on what they should do. They're in a fight for their lives. This is not a revenge war. This is a war to prevent what we're looking at in this place from happening again. And Israel not only has a right, Israel has a responsibility that this never happens again."