Mike Huckabee

Announced as Trump’s pick for Ambassador to Israel

Trump has announced he will nominate former Republican governor of Arkansas, Fox media and Trinity Broadcast Network host, and Baptist minister Mike Huckabee to be the next U.S. ambassador to Israel. Huckabee’s appointment, according to the Atlantic, “is a transaction meant to reward evangelical Christians.”

Huckabee has claimed “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian” and portrayed Arabs as enemies in his “Kids Guide to Israel.” Unlike many Americans, he rejects a two-state solution if it involves any Arab-governed state within the biblical “Judea and Samaria,” which includes the entire West Bank.

Huckabee has asserted that he thinks “Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria… There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighbourhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.” Leaders of the Israeli settler movement have celebrated Huckabee’s nomination.

Huckabee, a Baptist minister, has led about 100 trips to Israel, since the 1980s. Trump has relied on the ardent support of white evangelical Christians, like Huckabee, many of whom prophesize that the founding and expansion of the state of Israel will bring about the Rapture–the end times When asked recently about his support for settlements, Huckabee responded that such judgments were not his to make, vowing to follow Trump’s policies.

Huckabee has advocated for a nationwide abortion ban. During his 2016 run for president, he refused to rule out using the military or the FBI to prevent the medical procedure. He has also publicly opposed abortion access for a victim of rape and incest and compared abortion to the Holocaust, 9/11, and slavery.