Mike Huckabee, Trump's pick to be Israel ambassador, to face senators as
war in Gaza restarts
[March 25, 2025]
By MATTHEW LEE and FARNOUSH AMIRI
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to
Israel will face a confirmation hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill as U.S.
and Arab mediators struggle to get a ceasefire deal between Israel and
Hamas back on track after Israeli forces resumed the war in Gaza last
week with a surprise wave of deadly airstrikes.
Trump nominated Mike Huckabee, a well-known evangelical Christian and
vehement supporter of Israel, to take on the critical post in Jerusalem
days after the Republican president won reelection on a campaign promise
to end the now 17-month war.
If Huckabee is confirmed by the Senate, his posting will likely
complicate an already unstable situation in the Middle East as the
former governor of Arkansas has taken stances on the conflict that
sharply contradict longstanding U.S. policy in the region.
Huckabee, a one-time presidential hopeful, has spoken favorably in the
past about Israel’s right to annex the West Bank and incorporate its
Palestinian population into Israel. He has repeatedly backed referring
to the West Bank by its biblical name of “Judea and Samaria,” a term
that right-wing Israeli politicians and activists have thus far
fruitlessly pushed the U.S. to accept.
Most notably, Huckabee has long been opposed to the idea of a two-state
solution between Israel and the Palestinian people. In an interview last
year, he went even further, saying that he doesn't even believe in
referring to the Arab descendants of people who lived in
British-controlled Palestine as “Palestinians.”
“There really isn’t such a thing,” he said on the podcast show “Think
Twice” with Jonathan Tobin. “It’s a term that was co-opted by Yasser
Arafat in 1962,” referring to one of the early leaders of the Palestine
Liberation Organization.
During the same interview, Huckabee described himself as an
“unapologetic, unreformed Zionist.”
As the situation in Gaza has deteriorated with the recent collapse of
the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage release deal, Israeli officials
have begun to talk more seriously about re-occupation of the territory,
something to which the Biden administration had been adamantly opposed.
Trump has made his own proposals about a potential U.S. takeover of
Gaza, which have attracted attention as well as strong criticism from
Arab nations and others.
Huckabee will likely be asked about all of these points in addition to
ongoing Israeli military action against Hezbollah in Lebanon and
persistent threats to the country from Iran and Iranian-backed proxy
groups, like the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee gestures as a campaign event at
the Drexelbrook Catering & Event Center, Oct. 29, 2024, in Drexel
Hill, Pa. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
In remarks prepared for his testimony, obtained by The Associated
Press, Huckabee does not specifically mention either annexation or
Trump’s Gaza plan. But he can be expected to offer qualified praise
of both, given that he blasts many past Mideast policies as “failed”
and speaks of the need to look “at entirely new ways” of promoting
peace.
He plans to reaffirm his strong endorsement of Trump's policies
toward Israel during his first term in office, notably his
recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, his decision to move
the U.S. embassy to the holy city from Tel Aviv, his recognition of
the Golan Heights as sovereign Israeli territory and his sealing of
the Abraham Accords, in which several Arab nations normalized
relations with Israel, including the United Arab Emirates and
Bahrain.
“President Trump’s first term was the most consequential for Israel
and the Middle East ever with his historic Abraham Accords, and
finally moving our embassy to Jerusalem, the ancient, indigenous and
biblical eternal capital of the Jewish people,” Huckabee’s prepared
remarks say.
Trump's pick for ambassador to Panama also testifying
Another nominee testifying before the committee on Tuesday is Kevin
Cabrera, Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to Panama, a country that
has bristled at the president’s repeated calls for the U.S. to
retake control of the Panama Canal for national security reasons due
to potential threats from China. The status of the canal was one of
the top items on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s agenda when he
visited Panama City on his first trip as America's top diplomat in
February.
“One of the key aspects of our cooperation is ensuring the security
of the Panama Canal, a critical international waterway that
facilitates global trade and economic growth,” Cabrera will say
according to remarks prepared for the hearing.
He plans to praise decisions by the Panamanian government to
withdraw from China’s Belt and Road Initiative and to review
contracts with a China-based company that is running ports at both
ends of the canal. The company has preliminarily agreed to sell its
interests in the subsidiaries that run the ports, but the deal is
not yet complete.
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