Nov. 12 (UPI) — President-elect Donald Trump says that he wants ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to represent America’s interests in the troubled Middle East region as U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
If he is confirmed — as that most likely will be the case with Republicans expecting to control both houses of Congress, Huckabee would be the first non-Jewish person appointed to the role since 2011.
“I am pleased to announce that the Highly Respected former Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, has been nominated to be the United States Ambassador to Israel,” the president-elect said Tuesday in a social media post.
According to Trump, Huckabee will “work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!”
Huckabee, 69, is a former minister and governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He was chair of the National Governor’s Association from 2006 to 2007 and had a Fox News show from 2008 to 2015.
“Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years,” Trump wrote. “He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him.
The father of current Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was Trump’s White House press secretary in his first term, the ambassador-designee sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016.
On Tuesday, Israel’s foreign minister expressed his delight saying he looks forward to working with Huckabee in order to “strengthen the bond between our peoples.”
“As a longstanding friend of Israel and our eternal capital Jerusalem,” Israeli foreign affairs minister Gideon Sa’ar posted Tuesday on social media. “I hope you will feel very much at home,” he said to Huckabee publicly.
On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Yechiel Leiter will be Israel’s new ambassador to the United States just days after Trump won re-election.
Trump, a close ally of Netanyahu, vowed during the campaign to “stop wars” and end Israel’s escalating conflicts in the Middle East between its known humanitarian atrocities in the Gaza Strip and ongoing air attacks to the north in Lebanon amid a back-and-forth with Iran and its armed militia groups, Hamas and Hezbollah.
“There’s no valid reason to have a cease-fire with Hamas. They’re not capable of having an honorable negotiation,” Huckabee previously said.
But on Tuesday, the same day Trump named Huckabee, Israel’s new Defense Minister Israel Katz posted on social media saying how on Monday he told officials in a meeting of Israel’s Defense Forces General Staff: “In Lebanon, there will be no cease-fire and there will be no respite” until Israel’s war objectives have been met.
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