President-elect Donald Trump has selected former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as his ambassador to Israel.
“Mike has been a great public servant, governor, and leader of faith for many years,” said President Trump via Truth Social. “He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him.”
Huckabee has been a staunch supporter of the state of Israel and has previously been cited as endorsing Israeli settlements in disputed areas such as the West Bank.
Trump further claimed Huckabee would “work tirelessly” to bring peace to the Middle East.
Huckabee’s selection heralds changing winds in the US’ current foreign policy toward Israel, which has often clashed with the current conservative Israeli government’s policy priorities.
Indeed, President Joe Biden’s administration has collided with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s management of Israel’s wars against Hamas and Hezbollah.
President Biden’s administration has attempted to balance supporting Israel’s military with the humanitarian concerns of Palestinians and Palestinian supporters in the US.
Some conservatives have criticized Biden’s policies as conciliatory towards the terrorist groups targeting Israel and Iran, their ultimate financial backers.
Another of Trump’s recent cabinet picks, Representative Mike Waltz (R-FL), condemned Biden’s Israel and broader Middle East policy as having “completely failed.”
At what point does Biden just sit down with his team and admit, 'our Middle East policy has completely failed?' And we have gone from the Abraham Accords to open warfare between Israel and Iran,” said Representative Waltz.
Waltz, a former Green Beret and Trump’s future National Security Advisor, has instead argued for the US to apply a maximum-pressure style of diplomacy with American and Israeli enemies.
Moreover, Waltz repeated his familiar demand for the Biden Administration to tamp down on Iranian oil sales through the SHIP Act previously introduced by Representative Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and greater pressure on Iran through strict enforcement of sanctions.
