Trump picks Mike Huckabee to serve as US ambassador to Israel

Washington
CNN
—

President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he has nominated former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to serve as the United States ambassador to Israel.

“Mike has been a great public servant, governor and leader of faith for many years. He loves Israel and the people of Israel, and in the same way the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring peace to the Middle East!” Trump said in a statement.

Huckabee’s daughter and current Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders previously served as Trump’s press secretary during his first administration.

Huckabee has been a staunch defender of Israel throughout his career — including what he says are the country’s claims to the West Bank.

His selection will come as a welcome culmination of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long mission to strengthen ties with American evangelical Christians.

Huckabee has spent considerable time in Israel, leading a tour of the country for the company Senior Adult Travel Inc. as late as May 2024, according to the company’s website.

He has been a supporter of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including laying a cornerstone for a new neighborhood in one of the largest Israeli settlements in the West Bank, just east of Jerusalem, in 2017.

He told CNN’s Oren Lieberman at the time that he rejected the use of the word “settlements.”

“I think Israel has title to Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee said, using the biblical terms for the West Bank. “There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It is Judea and Samaria. There is no such thing as a settlement. They are communities, they are neighborhoods, they are cities. There is no such thing as an obsession.”