Trump taps Huckabee as his envoy to Israel

President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as US ambassador to Israel.

Trump said he “highly respected” Huckabee, a Southern Baptist pastor who “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.”

A staunch supporter of the Jewish state based on his biblical beliefs, Huckabee visited Israel many times and led thousands of US Christians on solidarity tours. His first trip to Israel right out of high school was just before the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

In the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist massacre in southern Israel, Huckabee led evangelical leaders on a visit to the hard-hit communities along the border with the Gaza Strip.

“After 50 years of coming here, nothing prepared me for this visit,” he said after walking through the charred remains of a border kibbutz.

During US-Israel Business Alliance symposium in Jerusalem in 2017, he delivered an impassioned speech highlighting the Biblical and historical connection between the land of Israel and the Jewish people.

Huckabee told an alliance dinner at the King David Hotel that Israel does not “occupy” Judea and Samaria. “They don’t occupy, because they’ve owned it,” he said. “The only occupiers have been the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Turks, the Brits.”

In August 2018, Huckabee laid a ceremonial brick at the Israeli city of Efrat in Judea and said he might one day buy a “holiday home” there.

“If President Trump could be here today, he’d be a very happy man,” he stated at the time, standing in front of a red sign that said, “Build Israel Great Again.”

During his run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Huckabee had said he saw Judea and Samaria as an “integral part” of Israel and vowed to back settlement expansion there, a JTA report recalls.

In 2018, he said that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.”

On Tuesday, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir tweeted Huckabee’s name alongside images of the American and Israeli flags with a heart emoji between them, JTA reported.

David Friedman, who served as the US envoy to Israel during Trump’s first presidency and was reportedly under consideration for the role again, stated that Huckabee is “a dear friend and he will have my full support.”

“Congrats Mike on getting the best job in the world,” Friedman wrote.