Israel's Transport Minister: Huckabee 'Genuinely Concerned' About Israeli People

Israel's Transport Minister has spoken out in regard to recent comments made by GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee regarding the recent U.S.-Iran nuclear deal, saying that although he believes the politician is "genuinely concerned" about the wellbeing of the Israeli people, he should not have made a Holocaust reference when criticizing the deal.

Israel's Transport Minister Yisrael Katz took to Facebook this week to respond to Huckabee's recent comments regarding the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal reached in June.

Katz wrote that while he believes Huckabee is "genuinely concerned" about the welfare of the Israeli people, the Arkansas politician's comments on the Holocaust were "wrong and unnecessary."

"Dear Mr Huckabee, no one is marching Jews to the ovens anymore," Katz, who belongs to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political party, wrote in a comment on Facebook.

"That is why we established the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces, and if necessary, we will know how to defend ourselves by ourselves," Katz said.

Huckabee received criticism over the weekend when he said that the recent nuclear arms plan reached by Iran and U.S. "would take the Israelis and basically march them to the door of the oven."

Huckabee later sought to defend his comments, telling "Today" that the response from the Jewish community to his comments has been "overwhelmingly positive."

"We need to use strong words when people make strong threats against an entire group of people as the Iranians have made toward the Jews," Huckabee told "Today's" Matt Lauer.