Trump Shows Pro-Israel Hardline Hand
Mike Huckabee, Staunch Supporter of Settlers, To Be Ambassador
If you’ve watched any late-night television, you likely came across an advertisement for a charity called the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a charity that describes itself as “the leading non-profit building bridges between Christians and Jews, blessing Israel and the Jewish people around the world with humanitarian care and lifesaving aid.”
The charity is nonpartisan, but not apolitical. Its focus is not just on providing aid or creating cross-religion amity (why only Christians and Jews?). It also facilitates Aliyah, or the Jewish right of return, the relocation of Jews from places like Ukraine, France, and Ethiopia to Israel. Its Stand for Israel blog features the kind of stories one finds in the most rightwing of Israel’s media.
And one other thing: the ads often feature Mike Huckabee — former Republican governor of Arkansas and an outspoken supporter of the Israeli settlement movement who has been chosen by President-elect Donald Trump as the next U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
Huckabee’s presence tells you what you need to know about the political leanings of the IFCJ. More importantly, their alliance offers us a window into how the incoming Trump administration is likely to address the War on Gaza and the large confluence of conflicts in the Middle East.
Huckabee’s appointment — along with several other pro-Israel and anti-Iran hardliners — is a strong indication of how the incoming administration plans to deal with the Middle East.
Huckabee is a Christian nationalist and hard-line supporter of Israel. He has declared on more than one occasion that the occupied West Bank is part of Israel — which in line with the views of Israel’s cabinet, and that there is no such thing as Palestinians.
“You have Arabs and Persians,” Huckabee continued at the 2008 appearance. “And there’s such complexity in that. But there’s really no such thing. That’s been a political tool to try and force land away from Israel.”
This was not a one off. He’s called “Israel’s claim to the West Bank stronger than American ties to Manhattan,” according to The Times of Israel. And
During a 2017 visit to the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, Huckabee told reporters: “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.”
And there is no reason to expect he will treat the Palestinians as anything other than an annoyance, or act as anything but a rubber stamp on Israeli aggression and expansion at a time when the Israeli government is making noise about annexing the West Bank (https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-11-12/ty-article/smotrich-says-israel-a-step-away-from-annexing-west-bank-after-trumps-election-victory/00000193-1dcf-db8b-addf-5ddf3c210000?utm_source=App_Share&utm_medium=iOS_Native).
As Haaretz reports, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that a second Trump administration offers “an important opportunity.” The coming year, he said, “is the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.” He called the Palestinians the “new Nazis,” saying they “need to pay a price through land that will be permanently taken from them, both in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria."
Trump’s election, as we should have expected, is only going to make things worse for Palestinians, and for all of the already vulnerable in the United States and around the globe.