Former Southern Baptist pastor Mike Huckabee will be nominated by Donald Trump to serve as U.S. ambassador to Israel, according to The New York Times.
Huckabee recently was named one of the most influential Zionists in America by The Jerusalem Post. He also had said if Trump were not elected president this year, that would be “the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets.”
Once a respected conservative Southern Baptist pastor in Arkansas — even serving as president of the state Baptist convention — Huckabee more recently has swung to the far right, embracing conspiracy theories and appearing on cable TV ads hawking a sleep aid called “Relaxium.”
Mike Huckabee in 2016. (Photo by Johnny Louis/WireImage)
He became governor of Arkansas in 1996 while serving as lieutenant governor, when Gov. Jim Guy Tucker was forced to resign because of his role in the Whitewater scandal. Huckabee then was elected twice to serve full four-year terms as governor. Tucker had been promoted from lieutenant governor to governor when Bill Clinton was elected president.
Ironically, both Huckabee and Clinton hail from the same small hometown — Hope, Ark. — and both were Southern Baptists. Huckabee graduated from Ouachita Baptist University and briefly attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Huckabee dropped out of seminary to join the staff of televangelist James Robison, who is based in Fort Worth, Texas. He later served as pastor of two Southern Baptist churches in Arkansas.
Huckabee twice ran unsuccessfully for president in the Republican primary.
His daughter is Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former Trump press secretary and current governor of Arkansas.
Mike Huckabee has no foreign policy experience and never has served as a diplomat. However, he is seen as a staunch evangelical ally of Israel.
“Mike has been a great public servant, governor, and leader in faith for many years,” Trump said. “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!”
In a 2017 interview on CNN, Huckabee 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 neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.”
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