Settlers rejoice as Hard-Liner Mike Huckabee was elected Israel’s ambassador

The appointment of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as the next US ambassador to Israel has received enthusiastic support from Israeli settler communities and advocates of the country’s territorial claims to the West Bank.

Huckabee, an evangelical Christian who has previously expressed his belief that God gave historic Palestine to the modern state of Israel, is a strong advocate of Israel’s expansion into the occupied West Bank, which he refers to as Judea and Samaria. He also has a close relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

After the appointment, Yishai Fleisher, spokesman for the Jewish community in Hebron, expressed excitement, calling Huckabee a “great friend of Israel.”

“We are very excited about Mike Huckabee. Governor Huckabee is a great person, both in his spiritual and political awareness,” Fleisher said Newsweek. “He is a great friend of Israel. He really understands the issues, has a heart for the people of this region, and we are happy to have him.”

Fleisher also pointed to Huckabee’s support for the controversial “Pompeo Doctrine,” a policy initiated by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that recognized Jewish settlement rights in the West Bank.

Huckabee, the father of Trump’s former White House press secretary, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is a staunch defender of Israel. His intended nomination comes as President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to align US foreign policy more closely with Israel’s interests as it wages wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“Mike has been a great public servant, governor and leader of faith for many years,” Trump said in a statement. “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!”

Huckabee has led paid group trips to Israel for years and has often advertised the trips on conservative news outlets. According to Axios, he wanted to be appointed ambassador to Israel in Trump’s first term, but Trump decided to appoint his former lawyer, David Friedman.

The new ambassador has also been a visible supporter of settler communities in the West Bank, famously stating that “There is no such thing as an occupation.”

“I think Israel has title to Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee told CNN in 2017, 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 occupation.”

Huckabee’s nomination, along with the recent appointment of Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the UN, are the latest signals of support for Netanyahu’s hardline government, which is already the most pro-settler in Israel’s history. Some Israelis are hoping right now that Trump’s second administration will be the most pro-settler ever in the United States