Huckabee dismisses Islamist, Jewish and other critics blasting his Evangelical faith and belief that Judea & Samaria were given to Israel by God

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was thrilled when he heard that Mike Huckabee, a devout Evangelical Christian, had been appointed by President-elect Donald J. Trump to be the next U.S. ambassador to Israel.

Netanyahu and Huckabee have been personal friends for decades.

The prime minister called him immediately to offer his warmest congratulations.

So did Ron Dermer, Israel’s minister of Strategic Affairs, Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s new foreign minister, Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, and many other Israeli officials, American Jewish leaders, and fellow Evangelical leaders.

But fierce critics of Huckabee also quickly emerged.

AL JAZEERA ATTACKS HUCKABEE APPOINTMENT

Not surprisingly, Al Jazeera – the anti-Israel, anti-American satellite TV network based in Qatar - the Gulf Arab country that has for decades been home to radical Islamist activists and Hamas terrorist leaders – quoted sources blasting Huckabee as “very hawkish” and “very pro-right-wing Israel.” 

Al Jazeera called Huckabee “a controversial political figure” who has been the host of TV shows on Fox News and TBN, the most-watched Christian television network in the United States.

“Huckabee has tied his evangelical faith to support for Israeli control of the West Bank and his support for Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law,” Al Jazeera sneered, arguing his appointment will worry anyone hoping for a two-state solution peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Former U.S. Ambassador Luis Moreno attacked Huckabee as a “full blown (and knowledgeable) fanatic of the End of Times, Apocalypse, Israel's destruction, etc.”

FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF OF US EMBASSY IN ISRAEL CALLS HUCKABEE ‘A TRUE AND UTTER NUT CASE’

A career foreign service officer who served as deputy chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Tel Aviv from 2007 to 2010, Moreno blasted Huckabee on 𝕏 as “a true and utter nut case.” 

Moreno added that the 69-year-old former governor of Arkansas “couldn’t be a more dangerous selection.”

“I, unfortunately, was exposed to him during his visits to Israel back in the day,” he wrote.

Moreno also used vulgarity to describe Huckabee which I will not repeat here.

Moreno told Newsweek that he strongly opposes Huckabee’s “past comments on annexation, on the status of how he looks at settlements – he has said in the past that settlements are just communities – he even said at one point, ‘There’s no such thing as a Palestinian.’”

“I think those statements in themselves are disqualifying to be the chief envoy to the state of Israel.”

LEFT-WING JEWISH LEADERS SCORCH HUCKABEE’S CHRISTIAN FAITH AND POLICY POSITIONS

J Street, a left-wing Jewish organization led by Jeremy Ben Ami, immediately issued a press release saying it “vehemently opposes” the Huckabee nomination.

“Huckabee, a right-wing, evangelical minister with a long history of championing settlement expansion, annexation, and a radical ‘Greater Israel’ agenda, holds principles and espouses views that – if now implemented – would shatter the foundations on which a healthy and strong US-Israel relationship has been built over the past 75 years,” J Street’s leaders stated.

“His extremist views and disregard for longstanding, bipartisan US foreign policy would – in ordinary times – make him profoundly unqualified to represent the United States in Israel,” J Street’s leaders added, calling the “alliance between the likes of Trump, Netanyahu, Huckabee, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich is a recipe for disaster not just for the state of Israel but for Jewish people around the world.”

‘PALESTINIANS ARE NERVOUS’ ABOUT HUCKABEE APPOINTMENT

“Palestinians are nervous about what his appointment could mean for their hopes for an eventual Palestinian state,” National Public Radio reported on Nov. 14. 

“The outgoing Biden administration says it is still working on a plan to end the war in Gaza and set a clear timetable for a Palestinian state,” said NPR’s State Department correspondent Michele Keleman. 

“But with an incoming ambassador who has questioned the whole idea of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, much of that diplomacy is now in doubt. 

HUCKABEE: TRUMP WILL SET U.S. POLICY IN MIDDLE EAST, NOT ME

Huckabee is crystal clear that while he has deeply held religious beliefs and policy positions, it will be President Donald Trump – not him – who will be setting U.S. policy towards Israel, the Palestinians, and other Middle East issues.

“I won’t make the policy,” Huckabee told Israel’s Army Radio in his first interview after his appointment was made public.

“I will carry out the policy of the president.”

Trump “has already demonstrated in his first term that there’s never been an American president that has been more helpful in securing an understanding of the sovereignty of Israel – from the moving of the embassy, recognition of the Golan Heights, and Jerusalem as the capital,” Huckabee said.

“No one has done more than President Trump” to strengthen Israeli safety and security and to establish peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors, he added, “and I fully expect that will continue.”

PALESTINIANS ‘ARE DESERVING OF THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF RESPECT’ AND PROTECTION OF THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS, HUCKABEE TELLS ALL ISRAEL NEWS AND ‘THE ROSENBERG REPORT’

Huckabee and I have known each other and been friends for many years.

So, I was honored to be able to conduct one of his first interviews after his being named Trump’s ambassador to Israel.

The full interview will air next Thursday night at 9 p.m. EST on THE ROSENBERG REPORT, my primetime weekly program on TBN, the most-watched Christian TV network in the United States.

But given that the attacks are coming fast and furious, I wanted to immediately begin publishing excerpts from our conversation here on ALL ISRAEL NEWS.

Yesterday, I reported something that none of Huckabee’s critics are acknowledging.

As a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, Huckabee not only loves Israel and the Jewish people but Israel’s neighbors, as well.

The Palestinian people, he told me, “are deserving of the highest level of respect.”

“Human rights know no boundaries, no ethnicities, no religious barriers,” he said.

“Every human being on the planet deserves to be treated with respect and dignity,” and this absolutely includes the Palestinian people, Huckabee made clear.

At the same time, every Palestinian “must recognize the right of Israel to exist, the right of Israel to protect itself and to be safe.”

HUCKABEE DEFENDS HIMSELF AGAINST ONSLAUGHT OF ATTACKS

Today, I want to share more of our conversation.

First and foremost, Huckabee is unapologetic for being a devout and outspoken Evangelical Christian.

Yes, he believes that Jesus of Nazareth was not just a man, and not just a prophet, but the very Messiah – known as the “Christ” in Greek – that was prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures known by Christians as the Old Testament.

Yes, he loves to read and study the Bible and his views of Israel and her neighbors are deeply informed by Old and New Testament scriptures.

And yes, he understands that most Jews don’t agree with him.

That’s okay, he told me.

President-elect Trump didn’t appoint him to be a Christian pastor or preacher.

Trump appointed him to be a diplomat, advancing U.S. policy toward the State of Israel.

That said, Huckabee does believe that it is his Evangelical faith – as well as his profound love for Israel and the Jewish people, and his experience of traveling to Israel about 100 times over the past 52 years – that led Trump to appoint him as his envoy to the Jewish state.

“President Trump clearly knows that the Evangelical believers of America voted for him,” saying that upwards of 89% of Evangelicals supported Trump in this last election.

“They were a real key part of the re-election” of Trump, he said. 

The President-elect “also recognizes, as do many American Jews, that Evangelical Christians in the United States support Israel probably more solidly than most American Jews do.”

“I hear that not only in the U.S., but I hear it in Israel when I’m there, and it’s said by Israeli officials constantly,” Huckabee told me.

HUCKABEE: ISRAEL IS NOT AN ‘APARTHEID STATE’

Israelis want Americans and all people around the world to “recognize that they have a historic, indigenous right to the land that they are currently and forever will be calling their home.”

“So, it’s not lost on me that this is a big opportunity to say [this] to the world – for all of you that say, ‘Israel is an apartheid state,’ let it be said, it isn’t.”

“For anyone who wants to say, ‘But Israel is very prejudiced toward people who aren’t Jewish,’ that’s not true.”

“Look at the reaction to my being named,” he said.

Yes, there are critics, and that’s to be expected, Huckabee acknowledged.

Yet he pointed to the fact that so many Israelis and American Jews have reacted so positively to his appointment.

This warm acceptance of him by so many Israelis “defies” the view that Israelis reject or are hostile to, or are prejudiced against, anyone who isn’t Jewish.

HUCKABEE: EVANGELICALS LOVE ISRAEL WITH ‘UNCONDITIONAL LOVE’

Huckabee said he recognizes that some Israelis and American Jews are suspicious or concerned about the motives of Evangelical Christians.

But over time he hopes that they will see that Evangelicals love Israelis and all Jewish people with unconditional love.

That is, love with no strings attached, no hidden motives, no deceptive or nefarious agenda.

“It’s such a wonderful statement both on President Trump’s part, but also the Israeli People’s part, to say, ‘We know, you’re coming not to convert us and to try to persuade us’ to follow Jesus.”

“It’s not a religious appointment” that the President-elect has just made, Huckabee noted. 

“It’s a diplomatic appointment.”

Huckabee said he expects both curiosity and criticism.

But he appreciates that many Israelis have already contacted him to say that while they know there will be doubters, “you have a love for the country, a love for the people [and] you understand the unique role that Israel plays in the affairs of the world.”

HUCKABEE: HERE’S WHY I CALL THE WEST BANK ‘JUDEA AND SAMARIA’

The former Arkansas governor seems neither surprised by nor rattled by the chorus of critics who fear his appointment is a signal that Trump is going to give Netanyahu permission to annex large swaths of what most of the world calls the “West Bank” into sovereign Israeli territory.

So, I asked Huckabee about that directly.

“You’ve gotten a lot of criticism already for your views that Judea and Samaria – what the rest of the world typically calls the ‘West Bank’ – is the Biblical heartland of Israel,” I noted. 

“I don’t know if you’ve said it quite this way, but of course, Tel Aviv isn’t an Israeli city mentioned in the Bible,” I added, “but [the region of] Judea and Samaria is very much is. This is where Jesus and the apostles spent much of their time. So did the Jews of the Old Testament.”

“So, what’s your position on that?” I asked. “And more importantly, what’s the president’s position?

Huckabee made it clear to me that he doesn’t currently speak for President-elect Trump and cannot unless and until he is confirmed by the Senate.

He also made it clear to me – just as he did on Israel’s Army Radio – that Trump will be setting Middle East policy, not him.

“I can’t speak wholly to the President’s position” right now, Huckabee said.

“And, of course, once I’m confirmed as ambassador, that’s all I’ll be able to speak to because an ambassador doesn’t get to put forth his own positions or plans.”

“But I have been very clear through many, many years of my travels to and from Israel that I don’t use the term ‘West Bank’ because that’s a term that doesn’t mean anything.”

“I use the terms that are biblical – ‘Judea and Samaria’ – [and] I don’t talk about ‘occupied territory’ because the only people who are ‘occupying’ it are the people who have title deed to it.”

HUCKABEE: I BELIEVE GOD GAVE THIS LAND TO THE NATION OF ISRAEL

While Huckabee very much wants to see peace between Israelis and Palestinians – and for the Abraham Accords to be expanded, including with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – he explained that he personally believes God gave the Holy Land to the children of Israel.

According to the Book of Genesis in the Bible, he said, the Jewish people have been the rightful owners of Israel “for the past 3,500 years, when Abraham was handed this deed by God himself,” he said.

“So, there are some things that for me as a person of the Book – who believes the Bible to be authoritative – that I don’t have an option” to discuss in different ways, he said.

“I have to stick to the Biblical language because that’s the language that has survived history, and it really is the language that ought to be the framework for our understanding of this unique little piece of real estate.”

The State of Israel, Huckabee observed is just “a sliver” of territory in the greater Middle East, “surrounded by some who would love to see it disappear.”

For Huckabee, this existential battle between Israel and her enemies is “all the more reason that we [in the Trump-Vance administration] have to push back against” the forces of radical Islamism and the forces of violent jihad that threat[en] not just Israel but also the United States and our Sunni Arab allies in the region.

The Trump-Vance administration, he said, will also “push back against the anti-Semitism that has been so prevalent even in the United States, which is utterly disgusting.”

After the brutal, barbaric attacks that began on October 7th, Israelis have felt much alone in the world.

“That’s why we need to show the people of Israel that they really do have friends in high places.”