Trump’s pick of Huckabee and Witkoff a clue to Middle East policy

For now, Mike Huckabee seems to be keeping his cards close to his chest.

Shortly after being announced as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to Israel, the former Republican governor of Arkansas said: “I won’t make the policy. I will carry out the policy of the president.”

But he did give an indication of what he expected that policy to be, citing the previous Trump administration’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and to recognise the occupied Golan Heights as Israeli territory – decisions as warmly welcomed by the Israeli right wing as they were categorically rejected by Palestinians.

“No-one has done more,” he told an Israeli radio station. “President Trump and I fully expect that will continue.”

What approach Trump will take to the Israel-Gaza war is still unclear. But the right wing of Israeli politics has welcomed the president-elect’s appointment of Huckabee, seeing it as predicting another term of American policy highly favourable to their longstanding aims of holding on to territory in the West Bank and expanding settlements.

The appointment was greeted with pleasure by two far-right ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s authorities. On the social media platform X, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich messaged his congratulations to “a consistent and loyal friend”, while Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, wrote “Mike Huckabee” with heart emojis.

Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have reason to be cheered by Huckabee’s appointment. He has been a consistent supporter of many Israelis’ ambitions to expand into territories that would form part of any future Palestinian state.

Holding a press conference in 2017, shortly after a cornerstone-laying ceremony at one of the biggest Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Huckabee said: “There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighbourhoods, they’re cities.

“There’s no such thing as an occupation.”

The following yr, he stated: “I think Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria,” utilizing the identify utilized by many in Israel for the world which grew to become the occupied West Bank when it was captured by Israel within the 1967 Middle East struggle.

The earlier Trump administration declared in 2019 that it didn’t contemplate Israeli settlements unlawful below worldwide regulation, contradicting a long time of US coverage. Other selections, together with a 2020 peace plan greenlighting the annexation of Israeli settlements, have been seen as extra beneficial to the settlers than any earlier administration.

The Israeli far proper has indicated that it sees Huckabee’s appointment as an indication that it will likely be in a position to additional advance its agenda, together with annexation of the West Bank, throughout the subsequent Trump time period.

On Monday, Smotrich stated that 2025 can be “the year of sovereignty” within the West Bank, including that he had instructed Israeli authorities to start preparatory work for annexation of the occupied territory.

That taking place is a real concern for Mustafa Barghouti, a West Bank-based veteran Palestinian politician who’s chief of the Palestinian National Initiative political motion.

“You can imagine the reaction of other powerful countries in the world would be, when the idea of annexing occupied territories, obtained by war, becomes legal and acceptable,” he says. “So it’s not just about Palestinians and our suffering, it’s about the international order.”

Whether Smotrich will get his want stays to be seen. Tal Schneider, a political correspondent on the Times of Israel, says it isn’t a foregone conclusion {that a} pro-settler US ambassador will lead to pro-settler insurance policies in Washington.

“Four years ago, some of the people that surrounded Trump were very much pro-settlements and pro-annexing, but it didn’t work like that last time. I predict it’s not going to work like that this time around.”

Huckabee was not the one appointee introduced on Tuesday. The president-elect additionally stated Steve Witkoff would function his particular envoy to the Middle East.

As properly as being an actual property developer, Witkoff can also be a longtime golf buddy of Trump’s. The pair have been taking part in collectively on the time of a second failed assassination try in September.

It shouldn’t be clear what international coverage expertise Witkoff brings to the function, however he has beforehand praised Trump’s dealings with Israel.

In July, he argued that Trump’s “leadership was good for Israel and the entire region”.

“With President Trump, the Middle East experienced historic levels of peace and stability. Strength prevents wars. Iran’s money was cut off which prevented their funding of global terror,” he stated.

Netanyahu’s resolution to appoint a hardline settler chief for Israeli ambassador to Washington three days after Trump’s election additionally signifies that the prime minister believes the following administration can be receptive to right-wing arguments.

US-born Yechiel Leiter, who was Netanyahu’s chief of workers when he was finance minister, helps the annexation of the West Bank. According to the Haaretz newspaper, he was as soon as energetic within the US-based Jewish Defence League, the organisation based by far-right rabbi Meir Kahane. His son was killed preventing in Gaza.

He was additionally reported to help the Abraham Accords, Trump’s efforts to normalise relations between Israel and Arab states, which had some success. However, advancing that course of has been derailed by the continuing struggle in Gaza and Arab anger over the struggling of the Palestinians.

Palestinians, already disillusioned with the US over Joe Biden’s help for Israel throughout the struggle in Gaza, say Trump’s decide for ambassador suggests the following president will make the prospect of an eventual two-state resolution to the Israel-Palestinian battle much more distant.

“Mr Huckabee has said things that are absolutely contradictory to international law,” says Mustafa Barghouti, a West Bank-based Palestinian politician.

“It will be really bad news for the cause of peace in this region.”