From: The Washington Post November 12, 2024 Mike Huckabee is Trump's U.S. ambassador to Israel
Far-right Israeli minister welcomes Mike Huckabee as Trump pick for ambassador President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement that he would nominate former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as U.S. ambassador to Israel was welcomed by a far-right Israeli government minister on Tuesday.
Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, offered an endorsement of Trump’s pick, posting emoji of a U.S. flag, a heart and an Israeli flag next to Huckabee’s name on the social network X shortly after the announcement was made.
Ben Gvir, who lives in the militant West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, has been a lawyer in some of Israel’s most notorious far-right terrorism cases. He is an acolyte of Meir Kahane, the Brooklyn-born rabbi who founded the vigilante Jewish Defense League.
Huckabee has been a vocal supporter of Israel for decades and has strongly criticized the Biden administration’s push for Israel to make a deal with Hamas.
Over the years, he has made numerous statements that showed support for Israel’s settler community in the occupied West Bank and rejected calls for a Palestinian state.
Trump, announcing the move on Tuesday, said in a statement that Huckabee “loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!”
During a visit to Israel in 2015 Huckabee told journalists that Israel’s connection to “Judea and Samaria,” a biblical term for the West Bank used by some Israelis, was stronger than America’s relationship with Manhattan.
“If I came and said, we need to end our occupation of Manhattan, I’m pretty sure that most Americans would find that laughable,” he said, according to the Times of Israel.
On Monday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told supporters he welcomed Trump’s victory and said it meant “the time has come” to exert full Israeli sovereignty over parts of the occupied West Bank.
Smotrich wrote on X that Huckabee is a “steadfast and loyal friend of the state of Israel and a supporter of the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria.” He said that Israel, alongside Huckabee, will “strengthen Israel’s security and power and reinforce our hold over all its territories.”
Huckabee was Arkansas governor from 1996 to 2007 He is an ordained Southern Baptist pastor, which would make him the first non-Jewish ambassador to Israel in 14 years if appointed in 2025
