"They think it's a genocide because they don't know the Bible"

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee made an interesting statement after the rate of Americans expressing negative views about Israel in recent public opinion polls rose to around 60 percent. Speaking to Chicago-based NewsNation television, Huckabee said that anti-Israel sentiment in American public opinion stems from three main reasons: "The first reason for the decline in support for Israel is disinformation and foreign propaganda. Second, hatred toward those who believe in the existence of a God and that He has laid down rules concerning every aspect of life. And finally, the third reason is ignorance regarding the Bible." Huckabee said, "When these three come together, they just want to be angry at Israel and blame it for everything. For example, the claims that a genocide is being committed in Gaza or that Israel is an apartheid regime are completely baseless and false. If Americans were truly after the truth, they would feel more sympathy for Israel."

Public opinion polls, of course, are not mechanisms powerful enough to change the nature and course of relations between the US and Israel. However, considering the multidimensional and multifaceted investments Zionism has made in the US for decades, it is understood that anti-Israel sentiment in American public opinion has escalated to levels that cannot be ignored. This trend will continue to work against Israel and the Zionists, and will even affect ordinary Jews. The Zionists and their supporters know this best.

Mike Huckabee's emphasis on the Bible is a matter that requires further discussion. It is quite clear that even though we live in a "modern" world, even though all standards are supposedly "modern," and even though the period we live in is even called "the age of secularism," religion and religious texts lie at the foundation of the Palestinian issue, which is the most burning problem of international relations today.

The interesting and absurd side of the matter is that Political Zionism, which officially appeared on the stage of history with the First Zionist Congress in 1897, is essentially a secular—even outright atheistic—movement. Theodor Herzl was an atheist who, due to his allergy to Judaism, did not even have his son Hans circumcised. Figures in Herzl's inner circle, such as Max Nordau, David Wolffsohn, and Max Bodenheimer, were all similarly godless personalities. In the lives of Israel's first president, Chaim Weizmann, its first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, its first female prime minister, Golda Meir, and others, Judaism has no place whatsoever. In the speeches and writings of all these figures—and others like them—there are derogatory descriptions of Judaism as "outdated dogmas."

Despite this, while the Zionist Movement fixed its eyes on the ancient lands of Palestine, it was forced to use Judaism and its foundational texts. Because in a "geography of religions" like the Middle East, it was not possible for them to gather supporters with the claim of establishing a secular, godless, socialist, Marxist, etc. state. They inevitably took the stage by exploiting religious texts and beliefs. Mike Huckabee is continuing the same exploitation today. Just like the other Zionists.

At precisely this point, I want to hold up a mirror to ourselves. While those who use the falsified texts in their hands to turn the region upside down stand right before us, are Muslims aware of their own authentic texts? When reading history and geography, how much do these texts guide them? Do they refer to their own original texts in their writings and speeches, or do they see this attitude as "outside academic style"?

The answer to all these questions, unfortunately, is not very encouraging on our behalf. In any book, column, or academic study you write about the Middle East and the Islamic world, when you reference verses or hadiths, what you have written is immediately branded as a "theological text." If you proceed from revealed texts (nass) while speaking, you are accused of "looking at the matter like a theologian"—and therefore of failing to grasp the essence of the subject and being unable to explain the matter in "objective" language. (This happens to me sometimes, so I know from experience.) Yet in the Quran and the foundational sources we have, there are very striking emphases and principles concerning history and geography. Any interpretation made by ignoring them is doomed to remain obsolete. Even if we flee from it and close our eyes, this is the truth.

Let me finish by underlining the same thing once again: In the face of the falsified texts, we must focus on the framework that the authentic sources in our hands place before us.