Reports are swirling that Israel may try to annex the West Bank, but Fred Fleitz, a former National Security Council chief of staff, said Sunday on Newsmax he thinks Israel is focusing more on the relationship it will have with the United States under President-elect Donald Trump and his appointees.
"I think right now Israel is focusing on this new relationship it will have with the United States with Mike Huckabee and especially with Steve Witkoff," Fleitz told Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend."
Trump has picked Huckabee as the U.S. ambassador to Israel and Witkoff as his special envoy to the Middle East.
"Witkoff is a close friend of President Trump's," Fleitz said. "He is an entrepreneur, a dealmaker, and he has Trump's confidence."
He said he believes Witkoff and Huckabee "are going to rebuild America's relationship with Israel, bring an end to this war in the Middle East, and focus on Iran as the head of the snake that is driving instability and terrorism in the region."
Dov Hikind, a former New York State assemblyman and founder of Americans Against Anti-Semitism who appeared on Sunday's program, commented that he believes there could be no better person than Huckabee to serve as ambassador to Israel.
"He's a superstar," he said. "I have been with him, traveled to Israel with him, walked the streets of Israel with him …there aren't too many Mike Huckabees in the world."
Fleitz, meanwhile, commented on other Trump appointments, including former Democrat Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as national intelligence director and Fox News host Pete Hegseth as defense secretary.
"It's remarkable that all these appointments are pretty unpopular in Washington, but across the country, they're very popular because they represent radical change, picking unorthodox people who want to change Washington and to fight the deep state," Fleitz said. "[Trump has] chosen people who are not going to take the usual approach to Washington and are going to make change."
Trump's appointees also won't be looking ahead to their next government job, but will focus on promoting change, said Fleitz.
Hikind said that it will be Trump, not his appointees, who will set policy, so "we shouldn't be looking at every little thing about each person."
He acknowledged that he does have a problem with former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump's choice for attorney general, but he thinks other Trump choices are good.
"I walked the streets of Jerusalem with Pete, you know, in the Muslim quarter," Hikind said of Hegseth. "He's a superwonderful mensch. And, you know, the old thing is people always say, Oh, what experience does he have? Let me tell you, if you're a leader and he is a leader, you know how to do the job. You have good people around you and things get done."
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