Follow us on social

Mike Huckabee Israel Palestine Gaza

Huckabee justifies food blockade to people he once said don’t exist

Someone should tell the former governor that starving civilians is a war crime under US and international law

Reporting | QiOSK

U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, acknowledged Monday that Israel is blocking humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, which is a war crime under international law, including the Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute.

In a video posted to social media, Huckabee, who once said Palestinians don’t really exist, said the “real pressure” belongs on Hamas to sign “an agreement” to release hostages first.




The ambassador’s statement came after direct pressure from the World Health Organization to end the almost two-month blockade. Additionally, multiple heads of United Nations agencies released a joint statement earlier in the month, saying “with the tightened Israeli blockade on Gaza now in its second month, we appeal to world leaders to act – firmly, urgently and decisively – to ensure the basic principles of international humanitarian law are upheld.”

Indeed, most aid agencies have ended operations in the strip, and agency officials have reported that children are suffering from severe malnutrition, often eating only one meal a day.

“This action would further aggravate conditions of life calculated to destroy the Palestinian population of Gaza. No one benefits from this—not the Palestinians, not the Israelis, not the North Americans—none of us. Together, we can stop this monstrosity,” said Francesca Albanese, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, in her response. She also reminded the ambassador that blocking humanitarian aid was a war crime.

“This is a flagrant violation of both international law and American law. It is atrocious that an American diplomat would express full-throated support for such an atrocity,” commented the Quincy Institute’s Annelle Sheline.

The cease-fire agreements and proposals on the table have never conditioned aid upon the release of all hostages. In fact, Hamas has offered the release of all hostages under different proposals. Additionally, Benjamin Netanyahu has thwarted the process itself with new demands.

“They (Netanyahu’s government) are not interested in reaching a deal, so no 'pressure' on Hamas is going to change their thinking,” said Sheline.


Top Photo: Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee attends a ceremony marking the construction of a new housing complex in the Israeli settlement of Efrat in the occupied West Bank August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Reporting | QiOSK
Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Ira
Top photo credit: Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran speaking at an event hosted by the Center for Political Thought & Leadership at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

Israeli-fueled fantasy to bring back Shah has absolutely no juice

Middle East

The Middle East is a region where history rarely repeats itself exactly, but often rhymes in ways that are both tragic and absurd.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the current Israeli campaign against Iran. A campaign that, beneath its stated aims of dismantling Iran's nuclear and defense capabilities, harbors a deeper, more outlandish ambition: the hope that toppling the regime could install a friendly government under Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran's last Shah. Perhaps even paving the way for a monarchical restoration.

This is not a policy officially declared in Jerusalem or Washington, but it lingers in the background of Israel’s actions and its overt calls for Iranians to “stand up” to the Islamic Republic. In April 2023, Pahlavi was hosted in Israel by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog.

During the carefully choreographed visit, he prayed at the Western Wall, while avoiding the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount just above and made no effort to meet with Palestinian leaders. An analysis from the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs described the trip as a message that Israel recognizes Pahlavi as "the main leader of the Iranian opposition."

Figures like Gila Gamliel, a former minister of intelligence in the Israeli government, have openly called for regime change, declaring last year that a "window of opportunity has opened to overthrow the regime."

What might have been dismissed as a diplomatic gambit has, in the context of the current air war, been elevated into a strategic bet that military pressure can create the conditions for a political outcome of Israel's choosing.

The irony is hard to overstate. It was foreign intervention that set the stage for the current enmity. In 1953, a CIA/MI6 coup overthrew Mohammad Mossadegh, Iran’s last democratically elected leader. While the plot was triggered by his nationalization of the British-controlled Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the United States joined out of Cold War paranoia, fearing the crisis would allow Iran's powerful communist party to seize power and align the country with the Soviet Union.

keep readingShow less
Emmanuel Macron,  Keir Starmer, Friedrich Merz
Top image credit: TIRANA, ALBANIA - MAY 16: France's President Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz speak during a Ukraine security meeting at the 6th European Political Community summit on May 16, 2025 at Skanderbeg Square in Tirana, Albania. Leon Neal/Pool via REUTERS

The EU's pathetic response to Trump's Iran attack

Middle East

The European Union’s response to the U.S. strikes on Iran Saturday has exposed more than just hypocrisy — it has revealed a vassalization so profound that the European capitals now willingly undermine both international law and their own strategic interests.

The statement by the E3, signed by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and French President Emmanuel Macron, following similar statements by the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, and its high representative for foreign affairs Kaja Kallas, perfectly encapsulates this surrender.

keep readingShow less
iran war tehran
Top photo credit:A man reads a newspaper at a newsstand, amid the Israel-Iran conflict, in Tehran, Iran, June 22, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Israel and US have chosen war, unleashing fresh economic pain

Middle East

The United States has finally entered Israel’s escalating war against Iran, launching targeted strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities to obliterate Tehran’s nuclear threat, a goal once more effectively achieved through the 2015 Iran deal.

President Trump warned Iran that there will be peace or a tragedy far greater than what Iran has witnessed in recent days, signaling that there were “other targets” if Iran wished to escalate.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.