President-elect Donald Trump introduced on Tuesday he had nominated Mike Huckabee as US ambassador to Israel below his incoming administration, placing a stalwart supporter of that nation’s authorities in a key function.
“Mike has been a terrific public servant, Governor, and Chief in Religion for a few years,” Trump mentioned in a press release, referring to the Christian pastor-turned-politician.
“He loves Israel, and the folks of Israel, and likewise, the folks of Israel love him.”
Israel’s Overseas Minister Gideon Saar rapidly supplied his congratulations to Huckabee, who has prior to now mentioned there was “no such factor as an occupation” when it got here to Palestinian territories.
“I stay up for working with you to strengthen the bond between our peoples,” Minister Saar posted to Huckabee on X. “As a longstanding pal of Israel and our everlasting capital Jerusalem — I hope you’ll really feel very a lot at house.”
Huckabee, 69, ran twice for the Republican Get together presidential nomination, together with in 2016 towards eventual winner Trump, who Huckabee was fast to again after falling out of the race.
He has typically spoken passionately about his Christian religion and his opposition to homosexual rights.
Huckabee, whose nomination requires affirmation by the US Senate, has traveled to Israel usually since 1973, and has led quite a few excursions there.
In 2017, he was current in Maale Adumim for the enlargement of certainly one of Israel’s largest settlements within the West Financial institution, strongly suggesting he was in assist of Trump’s positions on Israel.
“There is no such thing as a such factor because the West Financial institution — it is Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee advised CNN there on the time, utilizing the Biblical phrases for the world.
“There is no such factor as a settlement; they’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There is no such factor as an occupation,” he added.
In December 2023 he visited Kibbutz Kfar Aza, the place dozens of Israelis had been massacred within the October 7 assault by Hamas militants, and mentioned: “I needed to be right here to say I stand with Israel. I stand with the Jewish folks.”
Huckabee was born in Hope, Arkansas, the identical city that gave rise to Democrat Invoice Clinton, who served because the state’s governor earlier than he grew to become president.
His daughter Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the present governor of Arkansas. She additionally served as Trump’s White Home press secretary from 2017 to 2019.
