President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday he is nominating former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel, a staunch pro-Israel conservative whose choice could shape future U.S. policy toward conflicts in the Middle East. May indicate.
An evangelical Christian, Huckabee has been a vocal supporter of Israel throughout his political career and a longtime defender of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. A former Republican presidential candidate, Huckabee hosted a weekly Fox News TV show for six years, ending in 2015.
“There is no such thing as occupation,” Huckabee said in a 2017 interview with CNN, in which he referred to the West Bank by its Biblical names Judea and Samaria.
A large portion of Trump’s base of evangelicals is pro-Israel and voted overwhelmingly in his favor in the November 5 election.
The announcement of Trump’s nomination drew immediate praise from senior Israeli officials, but was likely to be condemned by Palestinians, whose nationalist causes Huckabee has maligned in the past.
“He loves Israel and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring peace to the Middle East!” Trump said in a statement.
Huckabee, 69, will hold one of Washington’s most sensitive diplomatic posts at a time when Israel is fighting Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah armed group in Lebanon while facing regional arch-enemy Iran.
Huckabee has criticized President Joe Biden for pressuring Israel to moderate its conduct of the Gaza war and opposed the current Democratic administration’s calls for a ceasefire there.
“If someone is pro-Israel, how can you be pro-Biden because the Biden administration has made it clear that they will make concessions to Hamas,” Huckabee said in an interview on News Nation in March.
Israeli officials applauded the nomination
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his aides celebrated the election of Trump, Israel’s staunch but sometimes unpredictable ally. The Republican president, elected in his first term, handed the Israeli leader a major victory.
Members of Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, which includes pro-settler parties that oppose Palestinian statehood, applauded Huckabee’s nomination.
“I look forward to working with you to strengthen the ties between our peoples,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote on Twitter. “As a long-term friend of Israel and our eternal capital, Jerusalem – I hope you feel at home.”
Trump has strongly supported Netanyahu’s goal of destroying Hamas, but has called on Israel to finish the job quickly. He has promised to bring peace to the Middle East but has not said how.
If his first term is any indication, Trump is likely to adopt a strongly pro-Israel stance, going even further than the solid support Biden has given Washington’s top regional ally.
Huckabee, who has led evangelical tours in Israel for years, has been a supporter of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, which Palestinians want as part of an independent state that would include the Gaza Strip.
Most of the international community considers settlements on West Bank land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war as illegal.
Huckabee served as Governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He unsuccessfully bid for the Republican nomination for president in 2008 and 2016.
His daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is the current Governor of Arkansas. She served as Trump’s White House Press Secretary from 2017 to 2019.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
