President-elect Donald Trump has selected former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel, as the Jewish state fights a multi-front war against Iranian terror proxies.
Trump announced Huckabee’s appointment Tuesday afternoon in a statement praising Huckabee’s love for Israel and its people.
“Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years,” Trump said. “He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!”
Trump nominates Mike Huckabee to be his ambassador to Israel pic.twitter.com/7cs8xoFaMU
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) November 12, 2024
Huckabee must be confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate once Trump takes office.
Huckabee is a staunch Trump ally and remains a well-known conservative commentator. Outside of his political work, Huckabee is an ordained Southern Baptist pastor and a longtime leader on the Evangelical right.
“There is no one President Trump could have picked with a greater love for the Israeli people and commitment to the unbreakable bond between America and Israel than him. Love you dad!” Huckabee’s daughter Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on X. Sanders is the current Republican governor of Arkansas and a former Trump White House press secretary.
Mike Huckabee has taken dozens of trips to Israel over the past few decades and brought thousands of people with him on Evangelical tours. His support for Israel is rooted in Biblical prophecy and Israel’s standing as the only democratic nation in the Middle East.
“The evangelical community is, I think, overwhelmingly united in recognizing that Israel has a right to exist and a right to defend itself from those who try to question its existence,” Huckabee told the Times of Israel during a trip last December following Hamas’s rampage on October 7, 2023.
“What I’m seeing here happened because people who claimed to be human beings acted like something other than human beings and did evil.”
Huckabee said in 2015 that supports Israel’s claim to the disputed West Bank territory, a position considered to be right-wing in the context of Israeli and international politics. He called Israel’s connection to the Biblical lands of Judea and Samaria stronger than America’s relationship to Manhattan.
The selection of Mike Huckabee adds to the slate of pro-Israel national-security officials Trump has chosen to steer his administration’s foreign policy.
Representative Mike Waltz (R., Fla.), Trump’s choice for national security adviser, is a decorated military veteran and advocate for an aggressive approach towards counterterrorism. Trump’s reported Secretary of State choice, Senator Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) is another reliable proponent of Israeli security and the destruction of Hamas.
Likewise, Representative Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.), Trump’s pick to be United Nations Ambassador, gained national attention last year for scrutinizing college presidents over campus antisemitism. She is also a leading voice calling for freeing the hostages remaining in Hamas captivity a year after the terrorist group’s mass civilian slaughter on October 7, 2023.
Trump took a pro-Israel approach to the Middle East during his first term and has promised to closely align the U.S. with Israel’s objectives against Hamas and Hezbollah. He also developed a good relationship with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a frequent target of criticism from the anti-Israel wing of the Democratic Party.
Trump has similarly warned colleges and universities that they could lose accreditation and federal funding if they do not crack down on campus antisemitism. College campuses have been hotbeds of anti-Israel demonstrations and antisemitic activity from students and outside agitators.