Franklin Graham congratulates Mike Huckabee on nomination as US ambassador to Israel
Evangelist Franklin Graham congratulated former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on his Tuesday nomination by President-elect Donald Trump to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel.
"Congratulations to [Huckabee] on his nomination by [Trump] to serve as US Ambassador to Israel. The Huckabees love Israel and will be a great blessing to the people of that country and represent America well," Graham wrote.
Congratulations to @GovMikeHuckabee on his nomination by @realDonaldTrump to serve as US Ambassador to Israel. The Huckabees love Israel and will be a great blessing to the people of that country and represent America well. pic.twitter.com/2TPNzQ5LQ8
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) November 12, 2024 Get Our Latest News for FREE
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Graham's congratulatory statement came shortly after Trump announced Huckabee as his choice to the role that will be geopolitically crucial amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
"I am pleased to announce that the Highly Respected former Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, has been nominated to be The United States Ambassador to Israel," Trump said in a statement.
"Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years. 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!"
Huckabee welcomed the nomination in a statement posted to X.
"It's been [an] incredible day as [Trump] asked me to serve as Ambassador to [Israel] a land I have been visiting since 1973 when I was a teenager. It will be a privilege to serve my country and my President in this role," Huckabee wrote.
Huckabee forcefully spoke out against the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel, during which approximately 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage, including American citizens. Israel's subsequent war against Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah has continued since.
Huckabee has denounced the attack as "horrific" and compared it to Nazi atrocities.
"As horrible as the Nazis were, they weren’t posting their atrocities on social media and trying to trumpet what they were doing to the world," he said while speaking to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. "Which is what makes this horrendous thing Hamas has done so much, to me, worse, because they want everyone to see what they’ve done."
Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, has opposed a Palestinian state in the region and has long been outspoken about his support for the Jewish nation, which he has attributed in part to his interpretation of the Bible.
Huckabee has expressed support for Israel's control of the West Bank, recently claiming "the title deed was given by God to Abraham and to his heirs," according to The Associated Press.
In 2017 while in Maale Adum, Israel, Huckabee expressed his belief that the West Bank does not exist, instead calling it the biblical term "Judea and Samaria." Israel took control of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in 1967.
"There are certain words I refuse to use," Huckabee said at the time. "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."
"There is no such thing as the West Bank - it's Judea and Samaria. There is no such thing as settlements - they're communities, they're neighborhoods, they're cities. There is no such thing as an occupation."
— Eli Kowaz - ????? ???? (@elikowaz) November 12, 2024
-Mike Huckabee, Incoming US Ambassador to Israel pic.twitter.com/YmFX8WSveS
While running for president in 2008, he also claimed there is "no such thing as a Palestinian," and that the term is used as "a political tool to try and force land away from Israel," as noted by CNN.
"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 told two Orthodox Jewish men during a campaign stop in Massachusetts. "There’s not."
Trump's pick of Huckabee drew praise from several prominent Israeli leaders including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who called Huckabee "a consistent and loyal friend of the State of Israel and a supporter of the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria[.]"
Smotrich added that Huckabee has "for many years fought for our state and our right to all parts of the Land of Israel, [and] I have no doubt that we have won and together with him we will strengthen Israel’s security and strength and strengthen our hold in all its spaces."
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
