Donald Trump has chosen the former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as the next US ambassador to Israel.
Huckabee has a track record of hardline, occasionally provocative, pro-Israel rhetoric and previously said Israel has a rightful claim to the West Bank, which he refers to by its Hebrew and biblical name of Judea and Samaria.
The territory is claimed by Palestinians as part of a putative future state but is dotted multiple Israeli settlements that are not recognised under international law. Huckabee has refused to call the settlements by that name, insisting that they be called “communities” or neighbourhoods. He has also denied that the West Bank, seized by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 six-day war, is under military occupation.
Posting on his Truth Social network, Trump predicted Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, would “work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East”.
“He loves Israel and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him,” wrote Trump, who called Huckabee “a great public servant.”
Huckabee’s appointment is likely to signal a return to the explicitly pro-Israel posture of Trump’s first administration, when he relocated the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in a move decried by Palestinians as damaging to peace prospects.
While Israel claims Jerusalem as its indivisible capital, Palestinians lay claim to the eastern part of the city as their future capital.
Speaking to CNN in 2017, Huckabee – who has paid several visits to Israeli settlements – made his position clear.
“The only people who have ever had Yerushalayim [Jerusalem’s Hebrew name] as a capital have been the Jews,” he said. “Nobody else has ever made this city a capital, ever. So it shouldn’t even be controversial.”
He was equally uncompromising on the issue of West Bank, declining to use the term.
“I think Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria,” he said. “There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighbourhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.”
Huckabee’s zealous support of Israel has occasionally offended Israelis and Jewish groups.
He drew criticism in 2015 during an abortive presidential bid after accusing Barack Obama of marching Jews “to the door of the oven” by signing a nuclear deal with Iran.
The comment drew a rebuke from Ron Dermer, Israeli ambassador to Washington at the time, and the Anti-Defamation League, an advocacy group dedicated to combating antisemitism.
Nevertheless, Huckabee was unrepentant. “The response from Jewish people has been overwhelmingly positive,” he said.
Huckabee’s daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the current Arkansas governor, served as White House press secretary in Trump’s first presidency.