Huckabee Reportedly Chosen As Ambassador To Israel In Trump Administration [UPDATED]
The former governor is seen as a...
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Update: Independent Journal Review is now reporting that a Trump transition team official has denied reports of Huckabee being selected as ambassador to Israel.
President-elect Donald Trump reportedly plans to appoint former Republican primary rival Mike Huckabee as the next ambassador to Israel.
The Jerusalem Post reported several members of Trump’s transition team have confirmed the former Arkansas governor for the position.
Huckabee is a long time, outspoken proponent of Israel.
Earlier this month, he wrote on his website that the U.N. stands for “utterly nuts” in the wake of UNESCO’s resolution claiming Jews have no connection to Jerusalem or the Temple Mount.
“We rightly excoriate Holocaust deniers, so why do we offer money and support to an organization that is hardly any less anti-Semitic in its absurd denial of the Jewish people’s historic and religious heritage?” wrote Huckabee.
“It’s time for America once again to stand up forcefully beside our staunch ally, Israel. The last time we were silent in the face of attempts to erase Jews from the pages of history, it didn’t turn out well,” he added.
In July, the former Arkansas governor chastised the Obama administration for giving $465,000 to a “leftist political group that smeared and interfered in the election of another nation’s leader [Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel — a staunch ally of America but a thorn in the side of Barack Obama for pointing out the dangerous folly of his Iran nuclear policy], then attempted to hide it by purging emails that are supposed to be public record.”
Huckabee’s statements on Israel have been a target of the Left, including when he invoked the Holocaust while criticizing the Obama administration’s Iran deal.
“This president’s foreign policy is the most feckless in American history. It is so naive that he would trust the Iranians. By doing so, he will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven,” Huckabee told Breitbart News.
He continued, “This is the most idiotic thing, this Iran deal. It should be rejected by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress and by the American people. I read the whole deal. We gave away the whole store. It’s got to be stopped.”
Critics, including then-Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee Debbie Wasserman Schultz, were not pleased with Huckabee’s statements.
“This rhetoric, while commonplace in today’s Republican presidential primary, has no place in American politics,” Wasserman Schultz said in July 2015. “Cavalier analogies to the Holocaust are unacceptable. Mike Huckabee must apologize to the Jewish community and to the American people for this grossly irresponsible statement.”
The former governor is seen as a nod to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has had a strained relationship with President Barack Obama.
During the 2016 campaign, Trump met with Netanyahu at Trump Tower and pledged to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Israel’s capital. This is a move many previous presidents have refused to make because of opposition from Arab nations, many of which still refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
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