Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Thursday slammed President Obama for “doing nothing” after a teenager with American citizenship was kidnapped by terrorists in the West Bank.
“The president has done nothing. He hasn’t even made a statement, nor has [Secretary of State] John Kerry,” Mr. Huckabee said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
He said the only comment from the Obama administration, which came from State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, was “idiotic.”
“We recognize this is an incredibly sensitive and difficult circumstance on the ground, and we feel all sides should exercise restraint,” Ms. Psaki said last week.
Mr. Huckabee, who was in Israel to visit the teen’s mother, said that equating an equivalence between the kidnappers and the vicims was “insulting.”
“I’m thinking, well wait, one side is a kidnapper, what’s the other side? You know, you come after one of my children or grandchildren and they are going to have to do your funeral in a closed casket.”
Naftali Frenkel, 16, who holds joint Israeli and U.S. citizenship, and Israeli citizens Gilad Shaer, 16, and Eyal Ifrach, 19, were kidnapped June 14. Israeli officials blamed Hamas for the abduction but the terror group has yet to make any demands for the releasing the teens.
Mr. Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination and now hosts the Fox News talk show “Huckabee,” said the inaction by Mr. Obama is “one of the frustrations that a lot of people in Israel have.”
“But the bigger context is there has been such a disconnect between this administration and realistic, reasonable policy, not just for Israel but throughout all the Middle East,” he continued. “I believe a lot of it is because the president is quite naive.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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