The next U.S. ambassador to Israel will be Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas who ran twice in the Republican presidential primaries for the presidency, Presidedt-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday. Huckabee will replace Jack Lew, who was appointed by President Joe Biden.
Huckabee ran in the 2008 Republican primaries and lost to John McCain, and eight years later lost to Trump. Huckabee is identified with the evangelical Christian right in the United States, and defines himself as a great supporter of Israel. He is an evangelical minister by training, and served as a political commentator on the right-wing Fox News.
In 2015, while running for the Republican Party's presidential nomination, Huckabee visited the ancient West Bank site of Shiloh, the site of the biblical tabernacle. "Judea and Samaria are an inseparable part of the State of Israel and everyone needs to understand that. Anyone running for the presidency of the United States should visit here," he said while at Shiloh, using the biblical designations for the West Bank.
In an interview with Ynet at the time he said that "Israel needs to control Judea and Samaria". He said, among other things, that Jewish settlement is "a factor leading to regional peace."
Huckabee, who is considered an ardent supporter of the annexation of the West Bank, has also said in the past that he is considering buying a house in the settlement of Efrat. Apart from his visit to Shiloh, he also prayed at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus and has rejected the two-state solution. "What has been built here is a bridge to peace," he said when he visited Efrat in the Etzion bloc in 2018, while emphasizing the economic partnership with Palestinian workers who, according to him, receive improved wages and conditions compared to in the Palestinian Authority. Huckabee called for continued construction in the area, as opposed to freezes that were customary during the Obama administration.
The choice of Huckabee is also interesting because it was thought that if Trump did not appoint David Friedman as Secretary of State, he might ask him to return to serve as ambassador to Israel. In the end, Marco Rubio has been appointed Secretary of State; Rubio also was defeated by Trump in the Republican primaries in 2016.
Mike Huckabee on a tour of ancient Shiloh in 2015
Huckabee is also considered a vocal critic of singer Beyoncé, claiming that her content and shows are not suitable for children. He criticized her cultural influence, especially on young people, and called her conduct "too provocative." Huckabee even addressed Beyoncé's relationship with her husband, the rapper Jay-Z, and claimed that he sometimes presents her in a disrespectful way.
His positions received widespread reactions in the media, and some have seen them as part of the conservative trends and religious values that guide him, while others have accused him of an unnecessary entry into the popular cultural discourse.
Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: