Trump taps evangelical Christian for Israel ambassador

JTA – President-elect Donald Trump named Mike Huckabee as his ambassador to Israel, picking an evangelical Christian who favours Jewish sovereignty in parts of the West Bank and who, if confirmed, would be the first non-Jew to fill the role in 13 years.

“Mike has been a great public servant, governor, and leader in faith for many years. He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East,” Trump said on announcing the appointment on 12 November.

The nomination may be seen in Israel as a boost for long-delayed plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex parts of the West Bank. In 2008, Huckabee said, “There’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.” In his run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Huckabee said he saw the West Bank as an “integral part” of Israel, and vowed to back settlement expansion there.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister, tweeted Huckabee’s name alongside images of the American and Israeli flags with a heart emoji between them. Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right Israeli finance minister whose portfolio includes West Bank settlements, has in the wake of Trump’s election victory launched plans to annex parts of the territory, though former Trump administration officials have reportedly warned that the incoming president may not support annexation.

Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the pre-eminent evangelical pro-Israel movement, welcomed the pick. “There’s no better person to represent the American people in Jerusalem at this time,” said Sandra Hagee Parker, the chairperson of the CUFI Action Fund. “Governor Mike Huckabee believes in Israel’s right to self-determination and defence, not because it’s politically convenient but because these are immutable tenets of his core beliefs.”

J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy lobby, said the pick portended a turn away from peace making. “The mask is off,” its president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, said. “This announcement is further proof that ‘pro-Israel’ for Trump is totally disconnected from any concern for Jewish values, safety, or self-determination.”

Ben-Ami urged the outgoing Biden administration to take action in its lame-duck session to mitigate the changes coming. “Biden has a narrow window of opportunity to blunt the impact before he leaves office. He must use it,” he said.

A pastor by training who frequently leads evangelical Christian tours of the country, Huckabee once described his relationship to the country as “not so much political as it is visceral, personal”.