Trump picks Mike Huckabee as US ambassador to Israel

Washington
CNN
—

President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he has named former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as U.S. ambassador to Israel.

“Mike has been a great public servant, governor and faith leader for many years. He loves Israel and the people of Israel, and the people of Israel love him in the same way. “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, was Trump's press secretary during his first term.

Huckabee has been a strong defender of Israel throughout his career – including, he says, the country's claims to the West Bank.

His election will be a welcome culmination of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long mission to strengthen ties with American evangelical Christians.

Huckabee has spent a lot of time in Israel and led a tour of the country for Senior Adult Travel Inc. as recently as May 2024, according to the company's website.

He was a supporter of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, among other things, in 2017 laid the foundation stone for a new neighborhood in one of the largest Israeli settlements in the West Bank, east of Jerusalem.

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

“I think Israel has a title deed to Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee said, using biblical terms for the West Bank. “There are certain words I don’t want to use. There is no West Bank. They are Judea and Samaria. There is no such thing as an agreement. They are communities, they are neighborhoods, they are cities. There is no such thing as a job.”