If confirmed as U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee will represent the views of President Donald Trump, not his own views, the former Southern Baptist pastor told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee March 25.
Protestors interrupted Huckabee’s confirmation hearing at least four times and were removed from the room. They opposed his record of favoring Israel over Palestinians.
Three days before the hearing, Hamdan Ballal, co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, went missing after being attacked by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. News of that attack was reported by his co-director, Yuval Abraham, and other witnesses to his abduction.
“A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co-director of our film No Other Land,” Abraham posted on X Monday. “They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called and took him. No sign of him since.”
Ballal reportedly was kept overnight in a military base where he was beaten and then released, Abraham updated on Tuesday.
Huckabee, a celebrated evangelical Zionist, previously has supported the illegal Jewish settlements and has denied there is such a place as Palestine. He has referred to the areas surrounding Israel as “Judea and Samaria.”
None of his past statements matter, Huckabee told the Senate committee, because as ambassador it will be his job to represent the president.
“I am not here to articulate or defend my own views or policies.”
“I am not here to articulate or defend my own views or policies, but to present myself as one who will respect and represent the president whose overwhelming election by the people will hopefully give me the honor of serving as ambassador to the state of Israel,” he said in an opening statement. “I’m indeed grateful to President Trump for being asked to serve and will do so willingly and joyfully if confirmed.”
Huckabee praised Trump for his previous actions in support of Israel.
“President Trump’s first term was the most consequential for Israel and the Middle East ever with his historic Abraham Accords, and finally moving our embassy to Jerusalem, the ancient, indigenous and biblical eternal capital of the Jewish people,” he said. “He recognized the Golan Heights as sovereign territory of Israel, and his leadership throughout the Middle East brought major diplomatic breakthroughs in large measure by not continuing to push failed policies but looking at entirely new ways to bring lasting peace to the region.”
An interesting Baptist thread was woven into Huckabee’s comments. He noted that both he and former President Bill Clinton hail from the same small town, Hope, Ark., and that Huckabee was governor when Clinton was president — the first time ever a sitting governor and president were from the same hometown.
Both Huckabee and Clinton were Southern Baptists, although their politics grew increasingly opposite.
President Harry S Truman (left) meets with Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (right) and the ambassador of Israel to the United States, Abba Eban (standing) in a gift ceremony in the Oval Office on May 8, 1951. (Abbie Rowe/Harry S. Truman Library & Museum)
He credited another Baptist, former U.S. President Harry Truman, with charting the course of America’s modern-day support for Israel.
“Since 1948 when Israel was finally recognized as an independent Jewish state, it has been under attack for its existence,” he said. “It is noteworthy that the first nation to recognize Israel was the United States, when our President Harry S. Truman did so within minutes of its being constituted as an independent state. President Truman had been taught in his Independence, Mo., church the lessons of Genesis 12 that those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed. President Truman would later say that he believed the teaching of his mother and grandmother and desired for America to be blessed. And we have been.”
“President Truman had been taught in his Independence, Mo., church the lessons of Genesis 12 that those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed.”
Politically, Truman was facing an uphill climb in the 1948 election and needed the support of Jewish voters. He committed to Israel against the advice of his own State Department.
But Truman’s action cemented a 77-year coalition between the U.S. and Israel that has endured through both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Protecting and praising Israel is an important part of conservative evangelical Christianity not only because of the interpretation of Genesis 12 as noted by Huckabee but because of their beliefs in end-times prophecies.
During questioning by the committee, Huckabee was asked about his previous comments supporting Israel’s annexation of the West Bank.
“I have previously supported it. Yes, sir,” he replied. “But it would not be my prerogative to make that the policy of the president.”
He was asked if he supported Israel annexing Gaza — an idea favored by some American Republicans although Trump has proposed the U.S. should take over Gaza and create a seafront resort.
“Once again, it would be the prerogative of the president,” Huckabee responded.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., asked Huckabee if he agreed with Israel withholding food aid to Gaza in the current crisis there: “You don’t believe in collective punishment, do you?”
Huckabee replied: “I don’t believe in collective punishment. If the Palestinians in Gaza have participated in the holding of hostages and in the torture …” but was interrupted before he could finish the sentence.
Huckabee also said he does not believe a Palestinian state and a Jewish state can exist in close proximity to each other.
“A Palestinian state should be created elsewhere in the larger Arab world.”
“A Palestinian state should be created elsewhere in the larger Arab world, although those who wish to stay should not be forced out,” he said.
Before and after the confirmation hearing, others with knowledge of U.S.-Middle East relations continued to warn against Huckabee’s confirmation.
Lily Greenberg Call, a former Biden administration official who resigned in protest of Biden’s support for war, wrote in USA Today: “If confirmed, Huckabee’s nomination will send a dangerous message to Israel’s authoritarian government and others in the region, that U.S. policy is dictated by religious extremists.”
Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal Jewish group JStreet, issued a response to the hearing: “This was a hearing heavy on spin and distraction and light on real answers to difficult and important foreign policy questions. Despite his claims that he supports regional normalization efforts, his complete dismissal of the Palestinian right to self-determination would make those efforts impossible. Mr. Huckabee’s extremist ideology, complete lack of understanding of regional geopolitics and apathy toward the lives of Palestinians would be disastrous for the prospect of peace in the region.”
An Israeli-based Zionist organization called Israel365 said 500 Jewish and Christian faith leaders issued a letter in support of Huckabee’s nomination, although the full text and names of signatories cannot be found online.
“Mike Huckabee has dedicated his life to building bridges between Jews and Christians,” said Rabbi Tuly Weisz, founder of Israel365 Action. “He understands all the shared challenges faced by Israel and America making him the ideal candidate for this role. We pray that his confirmation runs seamlessly and that he takes his place in Jerusalem immediately.”
A news report quoted the letter as saying: “With this choice of a prominent Christian leader, President Trump has made it clear that the bond between the United States and Israel is rooted, first and foremost, in the shared commitment to the truth of the word of God in the Bible.”
Related articles:
Multiple faith groups oppose Huckabee confirmation
Trump taps Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel
It’ll be bullets instead of ballots if Trump’s not reelected, Huckabee warns
Bachmann and Huckabee named most influential Christian Zionists