During Huckabee’s confirmation hearing in March, he told senators that he personally supported Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
By Grace Gilson, JTA and JNS
The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Mike Huckabee as the Trump administration’s ambassador to Israel Wednesday.
Senators installed Huckabee in a vote of 53 to 46, with all Republicans backing the Trump appointee along with Sen. John Fetterman, a staunchly pro-Israel Democrat from Pennsylvania.
Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and self-identified Christian Zionist, will now assume the high-profile post as the United States opens nuclear talks with Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy.
During Huckabee’s confirmation hearing in March, he told senators that he personally supported Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, but would defer to Trump’s policies.
“If confirmed it will be my duty to carry out the president’s policies, not mine,” Huckabee said during the hearing.
“One of the things that I will recognize — an ambassador doesn’t create the policy, he carries the policy of his country and the president.”
The Republican Jewish Coalition also welcomed Huckabee’s confirmation in a statement.
“Israel has had no greater friend in the White House than President Trump, and Amb. Huckabee will serve with distinction as part of the Trump administration’s pro-Israel dream team,” RJC national chairman Norm Coleman and CEO Matt Brooks stated. “B’hatzlacha, Mr. ambassador.”
Morton Klein, the national president of the Zionist Organization of America, celebrated the confirmation of “our close friend” and stated that Huckabee “has a powerful understanding of the complexities of the Arab Islamic war against Israel and the West, of the holiness of Judea and Samaria to the Jewish people and the danger of creating a Palestinian Arab terrorist state which pays Arabs to murder Jews.”