{"id":107817,"date":"2024-11-12T21:03:34","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T21:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/trump-picks-former-arkansas-gov-mike-huckabee-to-be-israeli-ambassador\/"},"modified":"2024-11-12T21:03:34","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T21:03:34","slug":"trump-picks-former-arkansas-gov-mike-huckabee-to-be-israeli-ambassador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/trump-picks-former-arkansas-gov-mike-huckabee-to-be-israeli-ambassador\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump picks former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be Israeli ambassador"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he has nominated former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel.<\/p>\n

“Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years,” Trump said in a statement. “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!”<\/p>\n

The role, which will need to be confirmed by the Senate, will be a key appointment as tensions remain high in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Trump has long touted in campaign speeches that he would work to bring peace to the region. The president-elect has argued for Israel to “finish the job” on Hamas, but he’s offered little guidance on what action he might take in the region.<\/p>\n

“He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him,” Trump said of Huckabee in the statement.<\/p>\n

Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, is an outspoken supporter of the Israeli settlement movement.<\/p>\n

“I think Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria,” he said on a 2017 visit to Israel, according to CNN, using the biblical names for the West Bank.<\/p>\n

“There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee said. “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.”<\/p>\n

As a 2008 presidential candidate, Huckabee also said “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian,” according to Buzzfeed, and has suggested that a Palestinian state could be constructed with land from Arab countries surrounding Israel.<\/p>\n

Huckabee is the father of current Arkansas governor and former press secretary under Trump, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.<\/p>\n

News of Huckabee’s selection comes as Trump’s new administration begins to take shape with a handful of picks either being shared by Trump or reported by ABC News.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he has nominated former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel. “Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years,” Trump said in a statement. “He loves Israel, andRead More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,31,2],"tags":[273,271,276,274,270,123,275,133,124,272,102,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107817"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}