US President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is his choice for the next US Ambassador to Israel.
"I am pleased to announce that the Highly Respected former Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, has been nominated to be The United States Ambassador to Israel. Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years. He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!" Trump stated.
The announcement was praised by Trump's former Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who was instrumental in getting the American embassy relocated from Tel Aviv to Israel's capital of Jerusalem.
"I am thrilled by President Trump’s nomination of Governor Mike Huckabee as the next Ambassador to Israel. He is a dear friend and he will have my full support. Congrats Mike on getting the best job in the world!" Friedman wrote.
Israeli officials also welcomed Huckabee's nomination.
Defense Minister Gidon Sa'ar wrote, "Congratulations @GovMikeHuckabee on the announcement of your nomination as US Ambassador to Israel," Sa'ar wrote.
"I look forward to working with you to strengthen the bond between our peoples. As a longstanding friend of Israel and our eternal capital Jerusalem - I hope you will feel very much at home," Sa'ar added.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon stated, "Welcome to Israel Ambassador Huckabee!"
"Congratulations my dear friend Mike on your appointment to the position of United States Ambassador to Israel. I look forward to continuing to work together and further strengthening the strong alliance between our countries!" Danon said.
Last December, Huckabee took part in an international delegation led by Likud MK Danny Danon that came to see the aftermath of the October 7th massacre in Kfar Aza and southern Israel.
In an interview with Israel National News - Arutz Sheva at the time, Huckabee said that the sights in Kfar Aza were "worse than I could have imagined, the unimaginable horror that these people have been through."
"No human being should ever be subjected to the level of atrocity and savagery that the people of Israel have experienced," he said. "I want the whole world to understand what happened here and who did it."
Huckabee said that the world cannot "pretend that there are two sides, because there aren't. There's a side of good, and there's a side of evil. What happened to the Jewish people here was evil, and there's no other explanation for it."
In August 2023, Huckabee spoke at the Israel Heritage Foundation and Arutz Sheva - Israel National News conference in Jerusalem, during which he described how his love for the State of Israel began with his first visit to the Jewish State in 1973.
"Something happened deep within me in that very first trip 50 years ago this summer. I'd never been here before but I felt at home in a place I'd never been. I cannot describe why that is other than that it was not political, it was not economic, it was not geographic, it was spiritual. Because I had an understanding that this is the land that God had set aside for his people 3,800 years ago when he gave Abraham the title deed to all of Israel and said: 'Those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed,'" Huckabee said.
He noted the "extraordinary similarities" between the US and Israel, saying that "both countries having been created by people who escaped the galloping terror of tyranny and wanted their families to live in freedom and to be able to worship and have a liberty that should be the right of every human being on the planet."
"The Zionist movement brought people who had been scattered across the earth for 2,000 years back to the homeland, and over these years we have seen the dry bones come to life as the prophet promised they would, and we have seen the desert bloom," he said. "When people say, 'Why do you keep coming to Israel?' I say: 'Because God is up to something incredible there, and I don't want to miss it."
"There is no explanation for Israel, nor is there an explanation for the United States, apart from the intervention of God," the former governor stated. "I don't see how anyone with a semblance of intelligence can see the miracle of Israel or for that matter, the miracle of the United States, and come to any other conclusion [than] that this is not just man's doing, this is God's doing."
Huckabee reiterated his position that Israel has the most legitimate claim to the ancient heartland of Biblical Judea and Samaria. "When people say, 'Well, what do you think about the occupied territory?' I say: 'Oh, it's occupied, all right, by the people who have the title deed and have an indigenous sovereign right to be in this land! It's occupied by the people who own it!"
"You'll never hear me use the term 'West Bank,' because Judea and Samaria are not the West Bank of something, they are the land that God has given to his chosen people," he said.