The US Senate voted Wednesday to confirm former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as US Ambassador to Israel.
The vote was 53 to 46 in Huckabee's favor, with Republicans voting in favor and Democrats voting against the appointment.
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, one of Israel's strongest supporters in the Democratic party, was the lone Democrat to vote to confirm Huckabee.
US President Donald Trump announced Huckabee’s selection for the post on November 12, shortly after his election. Huckabee’s nomination was officially filed with the Senate on February 11.
A longtime supporter of Israel, Huckabee spoke at the Israel Heritage Foundation and Arutz Sheva-Israel National News conference in Jerusalem in August of 2023, during which he described how his love for the State of Israel began with his first visit to the Jewish State in 1973.
Following his nomination in November 2024, Huckabee spoke to Arutz Sheva-Israel National News and described the responses he has received since he was nominated to the position.
“I’ve been overwhelmed with positive responses, both here in the US as well as in Israel. It’s been an interesting mix, because I’ve had very positive responses from American Jews, from American Evangelical Christians, and from people in Israel,” said Huckabee.
Among those who called him, he added, was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whom Huckabee noted he has known for 30 years. “He called me within an hour after the announcement was made. A phone call from Ron Dermer, whom I’ve known for many years, and from the Foreign Minister. Emails and text messages and phone calls from all over, and it’s been very positive.”
“The only negative things that I’ve seen at all have been from whom you’d expect it - from the very far left and typically in the media, who thought that some of my previous positions and/or statements, particularly regarding the two-state solution, which I don’t believe is legit - that troubled some of the people from the far left, but it is what it is. It’s a position I’ve held for many years and, frankly, it’s a position that Donald Trump has held and I expect that he will continue to.”
He pointed out, “As an Ambassador, you don’t get to do what you want. You carry out the wishes and the directions of the President, and it will be his policies, not mine, that we will implement. But I’m very pleased that his policies have been the most pro-Israel policies of any president in my lifetime.”
Huckabee stated that the position of ambassador to Israel was “the only thing that President Trump could have asked me to do that I probably would’ve said yes to. I wasn’t looking for a federal job. I wasn’t even looking for this one. I didn’t campaign or lobby for it. I was as surprised as anybody when I got the call last Tuesday, and the President asked me to do it and it was the one thing I could say to, like Isaiah, ‘Here am I.’”