Mike Huckabee and Steven Witkoff have both made pro-Israel statements. Here’s a closer look at the two men who will help shape Mr. Trump’s approach in the Middle East.
President-elect Donald J. Trump’s nominees to serve as top diplomatic envoys to Israel and the Middle East have little, if any, official policy experience in the region. But there is not much question about where their sympathies lie.
Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas who was tapped on Tuesday to be the next U.S. ambassador to Israel, has said that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian” and argued that all of the West Bank belonged to Israel.
His selection, which requires Senate confirmation, was widely welcomed by Israeli officials who oppose a Palestinian state, a longstanding U.S. goal.
Steven Witkoff, who was named on Tuesday as the incoming administration’s Middle East envoy, raised a vast amount of money for Mr. Trump’s campaign — including from Jewish voters after the Biden administration stopped shipping some bombs to Israel.
Mr. Trump has presented himself as Israel’s strongest ally, and analysts believe he is likely to make U.S. foreign policy more favorable to Israel. “These appointments are all Palestinians should need to understand what is coming their way,” said Nour Odeh, a Palestinian political analyst.
Here is a look at two of the men who will lead the Trump administration’s efforts in the Middle East.
Mike Huckabee
Mr. Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister and politician who appeals to evangelical voters and cultural conservatives, twice ran unsuccessfully for president, in 2008 and 2016. He hosts a talk show on Trinity Broadcasting Network and has led religious tours to Israel, including one scheduled for February.
In an interview broadcast in Israel on Wednesday morning, Mr. Huckabee was careful to not give specifics on how he might represent the Trump administration in Jerusalem.
“I won’t make the policy,” Mr. Huckabee said in the interview with Israeli Army Radio. “I will carry out the policy of the president.”
But how he views the region was detailed in old video clips that circulated on social media shortly after his nomination was announced.
“There is no such thing as a West Bank,” Mr. Huckabee said during a visit to Israel in January 2017, adding: “There’s no such thing as a settlement — they are communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.”
Israeli opponents of Palestinian statehood argue that giving land to Palestinians in the West Bank could pose a security threat to Israel in the future. Hard-liners in Israel’s settler community oppose conceding all or parts of the West Bank because they believe it was promised to Jews by God.
Earlier, during his 2008 presidential campaign, Mr. Huckabee said in video published by BuzzFeed that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian,” and that any independent Palestinian state should be defined within the boundaries of neighboring Arab states like Egypt, Syria or Jordan — not Israel.
