Donald Trump has selected former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee to become U.S. ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is a leading U.S. Christian Zionist who in recent years has led all-inclusive evangelical Christian tours of Israel. Huckabee has openly advocated for Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. During a failed run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, Huckabee declared, “There’s really no such thing as a Palestinian,” adding, “That’s been a political tool to try and force land away from Israel.” In 2017, he told Politico, “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.”
Meanwhile, Trump has named his longtime friend and golfing partner Steve Witkoff as a special envoy to the Middle East. Witkoff is a real estate investor from Florida with no foreign policy experience.