President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Mike Huckabee to be the US ambassador to Israel, naming someone who calls himself an “unapologetic Zionist” and who denies the existence of “Palestinians” to the sensitive role.
The former Arkansas governor, who twice ran himself for the Republican nomination in 2008 and 2016, is a Baptist minister and talk-show host who has been outspoken in his support for Israel both before and during the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Trump said in a statement: "Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years.
"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!"
The incoming president also named his Florida friend Steven Witkoff to be a special envoy to the Middle East, saying: "Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud."
Witkoff is Trump’s golf partner and was by his side when the Republican was the target of a second assassination attempt while playing a round in West Palm Beach, Florida, in September.
The appointments underline Trump’s unflinching support for Israel, although he has said that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu should wind down the war against Hamas before he takes office in January.
In his first term, Trump moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, upending decades of Western consensus that treated the holy city as divided territory whose fate should be resolved as part of a larger two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War. Palestinians see those territories as forming their future state, and before Trump’s first term, that position was largely backed by the United States.
Huckabee, 69, rejects a two-state solution to bring peace to the Middle East, insisting Israel has a God-given right to all its land including the occupied territories.
He says he has visited Israel nearly 100 times since first going in 1973 when he was 17, and has led paid tour groups to the country for years.
“The Islamics hold 644 times the amount of real estate as does Israel,” he said in an interview with American Jewish podcaster Jonathan Tobin in April.
“So this nonsense talk about a two-state solution, my prescription for that would be sure, let's have one. Tell me which part of the Islamist-controlled properties and territories would you like to carve out for that state?
“But it cannot be in the land that, since the time of Abraham, is land that God Himself carved out for the Jewish people,” he said.
“I'm an unapologetic, unreformed Zionist, because I do believe that the people of Israel deserve a homeland where they can feel secure, and it makes sense that that homeland be the homeland that they've had for the past 3,500 years.”
Huckabee claimed also that the term “Palestinian” to describe the ethnic group rather than the historical land of Palestine was coined by their leader Yasser Arafat in 1962.
"There really isn't such a thing," he told Tobin, offering a viewpoint that is rejected by most historians of the region.
The role of US ambassador requires approval by the Senate, which is set to come under Republican control after this month’s elections.
Trump’s pick for Israel is the father of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was White House press secretary in the president-elect’s first term and now serves herself as governor of Arkansas.
