Mike Huckabee: There’s No ‘Occupation’, It’s the ‘Promised Land’

By Yoni Kempinski – IsraelNationalNews.com

Soon-to-be US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee spoke to Arutz Sheva-Israel National News and described the responses he has received since he was nominated to the position.

“I’ve been overwhelmed with positive responses, both here in the US as well as in Israel. It’s been an interesting mix, because I’ve had very positive responses from American Jews, from American Evangelical Christians, and from people in Israel,” said Huckabee.

Among those who called him, he added, was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whom Huckabee noted he has known for 30 years. “He called me within an hour after the announcement was made. A phone call from Ron Dermer, whom I’ve known for many years, and from the Foreign Minister. Emails and text messages and phone calls from all over, and it’s been very positive.”

“The only negative things that I’ve seen at all have been from whom you’d expect it – from the very far left and typically in the media, who thought that some of my previous positions and/or statements, particularly regarding the two-state solution, which I don’t believe is legit – that troubled some of the people from the far left, but it is what it is. It’s a position I’ve held for many years and, frankly, it’s a position that Donald Trump has held and I expect that he will continue to.”

He pointed out, “As an Ambassador, you don’t get to do what you want. You carry out the wishes and the directions of the President, and it will be his policies, not mine, that we will implement. But I’m very pleased that his policies have been the most pro-Israel policies of any president in my lifetime.”

Huckabee stated that the position of ambassador to Israel was “the only thing that President Trump could have asked me to do that I probably would’ve said yes to. I wasn’t looking for a federal job. I wasn’t even looking for this one. I didn’t campaign or lobby for it. I was as surprised as anybody when I got the call last Tuesday, and the President asked me to do it and it was the one thing I could say to, like Isaiah, ‘Here am I.’”

The role of ambassador to Israel is a way for Huckabee to serve his country and his President, he said, “But it’s also a way for me to be able to serve a relationship that to me is incredibly important, and that is the relationship between the United States and Israel. That’s why there is a great level of not only excitement but a deeply emotional reaction that I have had to this, because I see it as a calling. An opportunity to do something that I hope will be instrumental in helping to bring a greater level of security and certainty in policy for the people of Israel.”

Asked if he believes there needs to be a change in the US-Israel relationship, Huckabee replied, “We need to have a consistent relationship, and it needs to be a strong one. Both nations benefit when there is a strong alliance between the United States and Israel. We need for intelligence sharing, we need for technology sharing. We are even beneficiaries in sharing for agricultural capacities. There are so many innovations that have happened in Israel, in medicine. Those are things that help all of us, and I think the United States can be a strong strategic partner in helping to further the mission of the Abraham Accords, which are very much the work of Donald Trump in his first term…I want to be a part of making sure that the Abraham Accords that he launched continue to grow. Bring more people into those agreements and create a more stable, more peaceful climate in the Middle East, but also a much better and more hopeful future for everyone.”

To the question of whether he intends to be more careful on the issue of Judea and Samaria, which is viewed as controversial in the world, Huckabee replied, “I can’t be what I’m not. I can’t say something I don’t believe. As you well know, I’ve never been willing to use the term ‘West Bank’. There is no such thing. I speak of Judea and Samaria. I tell people there is no ‘occupation’. It is a land that is ‘occupied’ by the people who have had a rightful deed to the place for 3,500 years, since the time of Abraham.”

“A lot of the terms that maybe the media would use, even the people who are against Israel would use, are not terms that I employ, because I want to use terms that are time immemorial, and those are the terms like ‘Promised Land’ and ‘Judea and Samaria’. These are Biblical terms, and those are important to me, and so I will continue to follow that nomenclature unless I’m instructed otherwise, but I don’t think that’ll happen.”

On the issue of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, particularly after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s claim that “2025 will be the year of sovereignty”, Huckabee said, “That’s a decision for Israel to make, not for the United States to impose it on them. I don’t think Donald Trump is the kind of President that wants to tell other countries what to do and how to do it. He wants to accommodate, help, encourage peaceful endeavors, strengthen alliances…if you remember back to his four years as President, there has never been a more pro-Israel President, ever, in history, than Donald Trump. And it was everything from recognition of Jerusalem as the capital, to moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as the rightful property of the State of Israel, and also no longer trying to push a two-state solution, because it’s impractical and unworkable.”

“Instead he pushed towards the Abraham Accords, which opened up relationships throughout the Middle East with countries that had been real staunch enemies in the past. But everybody wins when there are agreements that foster trade, tourism, business relationships and diplomatic relationships.”

Huckabee was asked his opinion on the question of whether the US should “interfere” in Israeli policy and replied, “Donald Trump never interfered in his first four years as President, telling Israel what it could do. It’s been painful to watch this administration say one thing, which is it is standing by Israel in an ironclad way, and then on the very following day saying, ‘But we want to tell Israel how to prosecute a war that they’re fighting’ to stay alive. I can’t imagine how confusing and frustrating that must’ve been to not just the leadership of Israel, but to the people of Israel.”

“With Donald Trump there is a certainty in the sound of his voice and in the meaning of his message, and I think it’s going to be a very different approach, and one that will show that alliances and having a friend truly mean something, and it’s not inconsistent,” he added.

On the fact that the members of Trump’s new administration are not just supporters but true friends of Israel, Huckabee said, “Without a doubt, there’s such a desire for people here in the United States to see Israel never going through something like October 7 again. That was such a horrific and painful thing to even watch from a distance, and when I came to Israel not too many weeks after that happened – to talk to people who had lived through it, to experience in those Kibbutzim what they had gone through – I just asked myself how in the world could we do anything but stand with our Jewish friends in the State of Israel, to make sure they know they will never stand alone. We will not stand by silently as innocent babies and children, elderly people and women are physically abused and murdered, in cold blood, by vicious people who are evil. We just can’t stand back and somehow think that we’re not involved, because as human beings we’re involved.”

He continued, “It’s one of the reasons that so many of us, throughout the United States, have believed that Israel has every right to eradicate Hamas, and to stop it. To get our hostages back. It grieves me that it’s been a year and a month, and there are still Americans being held hostage.”

“President Trump has strength. He’s got a strong history of making it clear to foreign countries that want to do evil things, that they’ll pay a price for it. I have to believe that the people in Tehran – and let’s be real clear, that’s where the funding for all of this came, that’s where the motivation came, that’s where the encouragement came – I have to believe that in Tehran they know that they’re going to be held accountable for their financing of their proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.”

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“I think it’s important that the people of Israel know that America not only wants to stand with you against your enemies, but we want to stand with you as your friend, and that means that we celebrate your successes, we rejoice when you have peace, we are enthralled with the idea that the shared alliances that we have is something that benefits every free person on the planet. We celebrate liberty. We celebrate the idea that people should be able to walk their streets, live in their neighborhoods, dream their dreams, and to be able to do that without constant fear of evil people doing nefarious things.”

“I come with a sense of hope, optimism, but also a measure of real confidence in this President, who was overwhelmingly elected by the American people, and they know he means business,” concluded Huckabee.

Special Interview | Mike Huckabee to Arutz Sheva: There’s no ‘occupation’, it is the ‘promised land’