On Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump introduced that he’ll nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a longtime Republican commentator, because the U.S. ambassador to Israel.
“Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years,” Trump mentioned in a press release. “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!”
However Huckabee’s nomination comes with a controversial previous that raises eyebrows, particularly given the area’s present battle.
In any case, this is identical Mike Huckabee who made reprehensible feedback about Jews in 2015. After then-President Barack Obama signed a nuclear take care of Iran, Huckabee claimed that Obama was marching Israelis “to the door of the oven.”
Dealing with vital blowback, together with from the Anti-Defamation League, Huckabee backtracked by alleging that the Jewish neighborhood liked his Holocaust reference. However naturally, conservative media—from Fox Information hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham to far-right outlet Breitbart—rushed to his protection on the time.
Nonetheless, Huckabee’s historical past of insensitive remarks extends past that notorious assertion.
In 2006, after radio host Don Imus mentioned he seemed “emaciated,” Huckabee once more riffed on the Holocaust.
“I have just come out of six weeks at a concentration camp held by the Democrat Party of Arkansas in an undisclosed location, making a hostage tape,” mentioned Huckabee, then the governor of Arkansas. “That’s why I look that way.”
Apart from his practically 11 years within the governor’s mansion, Huckabee is a former Southern Baptist minister who has since grow to be a conservative media determine. He has lengthy led evangelical excursions of Israel primarily based in a perception of the nation’s significance to Christianity’s end-times prophecies.
He additionally unsuccessfully ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016. His daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is the present governor of Arkansas and was beforehand Trump’s former White Home press secretary and notorious for her mendacity.
The elder Huckabee’s nomination comes because the Israel-Hamas struggle has led to sky-high tensions within the area. In its Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel, Hamas reportedly killed roughly 1,200 individuals and took over 200 hostages. Since then, Israel has reportedly killed practically 42,000 Palestinians. All through this 12 months’s presidential marketing campaign, Trump has vowed that as president he’ll proceed america’ help of Israel.
Along with his crassness towards Jews and the Holocaust, Huckabee mentioned throughout his 2008 presidential marketing campaign that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.”
“You have Arabs and Persians,” Huckabee mentioned. “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.”
As Huckabee prepares for his new function, many shall be watching to see whether or not his rhetoric on Israel and the Center East will align with the present U.S. administration’s insurance policies, and the way it will affect the area and past.
