Radical Arab Muslims or Israel — which poses a greater threat?

Serwan Zangana | Exclusive to iKurd.net

The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, expressed a view that was perceived as dangerous by many Arab and Muslim nations in the region, after he was asked in an interview with the host, Tucker Carlson, about the right of Israel to the Middle East.

As Carlson cited to Ambassador Huckabee that in Genesis 15, God sent a message to Abraham that his descendants will inherit the land from the Nile to the Euphrates River, which is much of the Middle East, however, Carlson asked Ambassador Huckabee if Israel had biblical rights to this land, which would include the entire region of the Middle East.

In response, Ambassador Huckabee said, “It would be fine if they took it all. But I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about here today.” Obviously, the majority of U.S. politicians, including Ambassador Huckabee, believe in the ideological connection between Christianity and Judaism, with Israel being the follower of the biblical rules in retrieving Jews’ land. This ideological belief has been embraced by American evangelicals and most of the other Christian denominations in the U.S.

Huckabee’s response to Carlson was condemned by the nations in the region, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, and Pakistan. The leaders and officials of these nations said that Ambassador Huckabee’s statement was “Dangerous and inflammatory remarks,…and pose a grave threat to the security and stability of the region.”

The religious mindset of the American right-wing politicians, including Ambassador Huckabee, has been nurtured since Donald Trump’s victory in the White House. Generally, right-wing groups and individuals in the U.S. are embracing the religion of Christianity, and in fact, they perceive both Christianity and Judaism as one and Israel as the promised land of the Jews, according to some verses of the Bible.

Recently, conservatives and individuals from the right wing, including Tucker Carlson and former U.S. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, distanced themselves from the extreme rhetoric and harsh language of prominent figures and politicians, including President Trump, and criticized the U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

Apparently, President Trump’s rhetoric, perhaps inadvertently, has incited his supporters in some circumstances to act violently, and further, such rhetoric became a source and citation for the right wing to be reviewed and followed by the public.

Obviously, Ambassador Huckabee’s comment on Israel ruling the Middle East emerged from his long-standing relationship with Israel. The wave of Christian politics in the U.S. is actively striving to further influence American society and implement Christian principles.

However, as the Arab and Muslim nations condemned Ambassador Huckabee and accused him of being an extremist and his remark, as the Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry described it, an “extremist rhetoric”, the same Arab and Muslim nations ignored condemning Syria’s radical President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Turkey’s extremist Recep Tayyip Erdogan for abridging the political rights of the Kurds and killing innocent Kurdish civilians in Syria.

The Arab League, which is composed of 22 countries, including Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Egypt, Djibouti, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates, unanimously condemned Ambassador Huckabee and stated that the comment, “violated all the basic principles and established norms of diplomacy, as well as defying logic and reason.”

The American Evangelical Christians see today’s modern state of Israel, which was established in 1948, as biblical, and thus, the victory of the Jewish nation is guaranteed by God. Apparently, 82% of the White Evangelicals in America believe that Israel was given to the Jewish people by God. (Chicago Council on Global Affairs) Therefore, Ambassador Huckabee did not cross his line as he expressed his view to Carlson in embracing Christian Zionist beliefs.

However, with the Arab and Muslim nations’ condemnation of Ambassador Huckabee’s remark, Oman also said, “Threatened the prospects for peace.” But the questions that emerge are: Are the Christian Zionists posing a greater threat to the region or the radical Arab Muslims and Erdogan’s regime? What is the definition of peace in their perspective?

The radical Muslim and the Arab chauvinism have been a great threat to peace and stability in the region, and in the name of Islam, they impose the concept of Ummah, which means a unified community that shares the belief of Islam. The Arab nations are indeed applying such a concept to their society and clearly disregard other religions and ethnicities.

The attack on the Yazidi religious community in the Sinjar region of Iraqi Kurdistan and the sweep of their villages in 2014, by the Islamic State (ISIS), and the murder and kidnapping of nearly 12,000 Yazidis did not spark outrage or condemnation by the Arab Muslim nations.

The massacre of the Yazidis was condemned and classified as a genocide by many organizations and the Western countries, including the United Nations (UN), the European Parliament, the British Parliament, the Australian Parliament, the Canadian Parliament, the United States Congress, and the National Assembly of Armenia.

Obviously, the Arab and the Muslim nations, including Turkey, refrained from condemning or mentioning the atrocity perpetrated by (ISIS) against the Yazidis. In fact, in 2021, Iraq was the only country in the region to condemn the genocide of the Yazidis.

The Iraqi Parliament passed the “Yazidi Female Survivors” Bill, which classified the (ISIS) action against the Yazidis to be a genocide and provides assistance to the survivors. However, along with the Yazidis, the Bill does include Christians, Shabaks, and Turkmen as victims of genocide and crimes if attacks are perpetrated against them.

Thank you for supporting the Kurds by doing the exact opposite. From left: Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, UAE’s Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the King of Jordan Abdullah II, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. February 2025. Photo: The Press Office of the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

However, evaluating allies or enemies should be determined based on their views regarding the Kurdish ethnic and political identity, and in fact, the majority of the Arab Muslim nationals are in an opposing position regarding the Kurdish political identity in an independent land or an autonomous region. The simplest example is the Kurds in northeast Syria (Rojava) with an ongoing opposition against their legitimate rights to autonomy.

The issue is not only contained in one country of the region, but every Arab country believes that the independence of the Kurds is a threat per se. For example, the referendum of 2017, in which the Kurds voted for the independence of the Kurdistan region in Northern Iraq, sparked an outrage as the majority of the Arab Muslims promptly expressed their opposition to the idea of the referendum.

Saeb Erekat,right, an adviser to the Palestinian authority president Mahmoud Abbas, left, October 24 2015. Photo: U.S. Department of State.

“Kurdish independence would be a poisoned sword against the Arabs,” Saeb Erekat, an adviser to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said.

In contrast, Israel was supportive of the referendum as the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, ”Israel supports the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to achieve their own state.”

Mainly, the Arab Muslim leaders are becoming itchy to hear the idea of Kurdish independence and self-governing, as they embrace a chauvinistic and Islamic ideology, which is the tool they use to continue their domination in the region.

Now, the question is: Who poses a greater threat to the Kurds and the region, radical Arab Muslims or Israel? As history witnesses the heinous acts that have been committed against the Kurds by the Arab regimes and Islamic militias and groups, they are indeed the dire threat, not Israel.

Serwan Zangana, a contributing writer for iKurd.net, lives in Virginia, U.S. He serves as a correction officer.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of iKurd.net or its editorial team.