Mike Huckabee, Trump’s choice for the next US Ambassador to Israel, told Fox News on Sunday to expect many wonderful things from the administration.
“As long as Hamas exists, that is a threat to the Israelis,” Huckabee said. “They want the destruction of the Jewish state”
“[Hamas] have said even as recently as two weeks ago that they would try to do another October the 7th. So let’s not be in any way fooled that they want peace. They don’t. They want the destruction of the Jewish state.”
“And America must help protect the people of Israel, the Jewish state, and the Jewish people. As simple as that. And you can’t do it as long as Hamas is in play,” added Huckabee..“One thing we know is that Hamas is not going to be able to exist. That’s just a done deal.”
“They can never have anything to do with the governance of Gaza,” he said. “A lot of people forget that Gaza was once a place inhabited by both Jews and Palestinians until 2005, when [then-Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon decided to give it all away. He did. They militarily marched 10,000 Jewish people out of Gaza, turned it into a complete Palestinian state, and the result we saw October the 7th. So there’s something that has to be rethought.”
The former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister praised Trump’s plan to have the US administer the reconstruction of Gaza, a suggestion the President made at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that shocked many.
“President Trump did something bold. He looked into the future and said kind of a what if. We don’t know exactly what might happen in Gaza, but here’s what could have happened in Gaza. Gaza could have been Singapore. Instead, Hamas turned it into Haiti, and in fact, maybe worse, far worse than that. So let’s hope that people will listen to President Trump.”
Netanyahyu endorsed the plan, calling it “the first good idea that I’ve heard.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz shortly afterward instructed the military to prepare a plan that would enable Gazans seeking to leave the Strip voluntarily to do so.
Many anti-Israel entities have slammed Trump’s suggestion, claiming incorrectly that it implies forcibly relocating Gazans. A Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research survey published on June 26, 2024 found that 44% of Gazans ages 18-29 would emigrate if given the chance. The report noted, “Among those [of all ages] who have considered emigrating, 30% say they would do so even if they did not have the required papers.”
Implicit in the objections to Trump’s vision is the desire for Gazans to continue to suffer and act as human shields to prevent a complete victory over Hamas.
“The only time we’ve had real significant peace in that region was the four years that Donald Trump was president, and I’m very optimistic that with his leadership, his bold and innovative thinking, he doesn’t think like the other politicians and diplomats have thought, and thank God he doesn’t because we get results,” Huckabee added. “I heard somebody say he’s thinking outside the box. That’s ridiculous. He’s not thinking outside the box. He throws the box away and says, ‘Let’s start with a blank slate and see where this could go.’ That’s leadership, and that’s what we have with President Trump, and I’m personally optimistic that we’re going to see something bold…I think we will see something of Biblical proportion happen with his leadership in the Middle East.”
Huckabee still needs to be approved by the Senate. Huckabee is a strong supporter of Israel. He opposes the Two State Solution, a political agenda that would create an unprecedented militarized Arab state inside the borders of Israel that has been ethnically cleansed of Jews with its exclusively Muslim capital in Jerusalem. In its place, he supports Israel expressing sovereignty over the land conquered in the defensive 1967 Six-Day War. He has suggested that a “Palestinian State” could be established in neighboring countries like Egypt, Syria, or Jordan, rather than within Israel’s borders, where far more Palestinians already live.
In 2017, at an event in Samaria, he stated: “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.”
He has also rejected the concept of Palestinian identity, asserting that it was “a political tool to try and force land away from Israel.”
“Basically, there really is no such thing as — I need to be careful about saying this, because people will really get upset — there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian,” Huckabee said at a 2008 campaign stop in Massachusetts while speaking to two Orthodox Jewish men. “There’s not.”
