US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee sits down with Arutz Sheva to discuss the US-Israel relationship, Trump’s feelings about the war in Gaza, Iran, and more.
United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has been busy since taking office last month. In a special interview with Arutz Sheva-Israel National News, Huckabee describes his first weeks on the job and says he “has not come up for air since I’ve come off the airplane.”
The Ambassador looks back at the moment President Donald Trump informed him of the appointment: “I didn’t ask him for the job, I never lobbied for it, I never had a conversation with him about it until the day he called me a few days after the election. President Trump doesn’t ask you, he tells you. He called and said: ‘Mike, you’re going to be Ambassador to Israel, you’re going to be great.'”
Turning to the rumors about the President’s dissatisfaction with the way the Israeli government is handling the war in Gaza, Huckabee explains that while everyone, including the President and Israel, is “fed up” with the war, “The reason it’s keeps going is that Hamas won’t come to the conclusion that the President laid out for them – you’re not having a future here, you’re not going to govern and rule here, you’re not going to be militarized here. That’s what President Trump made very clear.”
Huckabee clarifies that when people say that Trump wants the war to end at any cost, “That defies what he has said repeatedly. The fact that he would like the war to end, so would I, and so would you. There’s no one but Hamas that wants to keep this going. But it can’t end with a Hamas victory.”
Huckabee says he can imagine what the hostages’ families are going through, “If someone would abduct my child, I would just want them to come home as quickly as possible. I probably wouldn’t care what it took to get them home.
“However, Hamas won’t let them go. When I hear people say that the Israelis don’t want this war to end, that isn’t true. Or specifically, that the Prime Minister wants to keep the war going for political purposes – that’s not true.”
The Ambassador describes the amount of time he has spent with Netanyahu since arriving by quipping: “I told him the other day that if I spent any more time with him, he’s going to have to put me on his family health insurance plan as a dependant.”
He notes that the partnership between the US and Israel is “incredibly intense.” Huckabee stresses that the US-Israel relationship “is not a one-way street where Israel benefits greatly from America and America gets nothing in return; America gets a lot in return, and it’s a true partnership.”
Regarding the recent declaration by the UK, Canada, and France against Israel, Huckabee says he is “disgusted,” adding: “It’s such an outrage that what should be educated, thoughtful European nations, would come out and blame Israel for what’s happening in Gaza rather than blaming Hamas and putting pressure on them. They’re the ones who won’t come to any significant agreement to get the hostages out.”
He ponders: “Do the people in France and the UK not remember their history in World War II? How did the war end? Did it end with Churchill saying ‘You know what, this has gone on too long, let’s just call it a draw?’ They bombed the heck out of Germany. Had it not been for that, maybe the war wouldn’t have ended.
“I just don’t think the Brits have any business telling Israel how to prosecute a war that they’re fighting not only to avenge the slaughter of their own people, but a war that stops Hamas from staying there because Hamas has vowed even a recently as two weeks ago that if they have the opportunity they will do it again.”
This month, President Trump visited the region, but did not stop in Israel. Posed with the question why the President did not visit Israel, Huckabee explains that “his trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE was an economic development trip. It’s not a snub to Israel. He goes to a lot of places, as President, this was his focus. His focus in the States is business development.”
He adds that the trip was also meant to prepare these countries to join the Abraham Accords.
Huckabee also explains the meaning of America first, stating that it “doesn’t mean America only. If it did, then he wouldn’t have visited these countries. America first means that our primary objectives are to make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous. To do that, it doesn’t mean that America is America only, that we live without understanding that we live in a world and that we benefit from trade, tourism, normalization, and recognition of other countries.”
He notes how Trump’s outlook on the Middle Eastern nation differs from those of his predecessors. “One of the biggest things the President did on this trip was that he went to governments that are totalitarian, and told them: ‘We’re not here to try to change your governing style or try to impose our governing style on you.'”This month, President Trump visited the region, but did not stop in Israel. Posed with the question why the President did not visit Israel, Huckabee explains that “his trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE was an economic development trip. It’s not a snub to Israel. He goes to a lot of places, as President, this was his focus. His focus in the States is business development.”
He adds that the trip was also meant to prepare these countries to join the Abraham Accords.
Huckabee also explains the meaning of America first, stating that it “doesn’t mean America only. If it did, then he wouldn’t have visited these countries. America first means that our primary objectives are to make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous. To do that, it doesn’t mean that America is America only, that we live without understanding that we live in a world and that we benefit from trade, tourism, normalization, and recognition of other countries.”
He notes how Trump’s outlook on the Middle Eastern nation differs from those of his predecessors. “One of the biggest things the President did on this trip was that he went to governments that are totalitarian, and told them: ‘We’re not here to try to change your governing style or try to impose our governing style on you.'”
This month, President Trump visited the region, but did not stop in Israel. Posed with the question why the President did not visit Israel, Huckabee explains that “his trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE was an economic development trip. It’s not a snub to Israel. He goes to a lot of places, as President, this was his focus. His focus in the States is business development.”
He adds that the trip was also meant to prepare these countries to join the Abraham Accords.
Huckabee also explains the meaning of America first, stating that it “doesn’t mean America only. If it did, then he wouldn’t have visited these countries. America first means that our primary objectives are to make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous. To do that, it doesn’t mean that America is America only, that we live without understanding that we live in a world and that we benefit from trade, tourism, normalization, and recognition of other countries.”
He notes how Trump’s outlook on the Middle Eastern nation differs from those of his predecessors. “One of the biggest things the President did on this trip was that he went to governments that are totalitarian, and told them: ‘We’re not here to try to change your governing style or try to impose our governing style on you.'”
Regarding the hostages and concerns that the US would not work for the release of the rest of the hostages now that the last living American hostage, Edan Alexander, has been freed, Huckabee insists that Trump “has not given any indication that he is wiping his hands of what’s going on in Gaza with the hostages. He’s also the one who said, let’s get them some humanitarian aid as long as it doesn’t reach the hands of the Hamas monsters.
“He’s been consistent. If people would listen to what the President says, not what some ‘unnamed source’ in the Washington Compost, I think people would relax a lot more.”
Ambassador Huckabee concludes by addressing the question of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, reiterating that “Israel is a sovereign country. That’s a decision that Israel has to make. The US doesn’t make the decision. There was a time when people believed that Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria were against international law, and one of the things Trump did in his first term was to declare that it is not a violation of international law. So if that gives people any sense of where he stands, the way his doctrine is about such issues, I don’t think you can get much clearer than that.”
