The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as the Trump administration's ambassador to Israel, two days after Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's White House visit.
The 53-46 vote installed a vehement supporter of Israel in the key Middle East post, which might prove crucial to Trump's efforts to end Israel's war against Iranian-backed proxies in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, and to thwart threats posed to Israel by Iran.
"The Zionist Organization of America celebrates our close friend Gov. Mike Huckabee's confirmation as the new U.S. Ambassador to Israel," ZOA President Morton Klein said in a statement. "Huckabee has a powerful understanding of the complexities of the Arab Islamic war against Israel and the West; of the holiness of Judea/Samaria to the Jewish people and the danger of creating a Palestinian Arab terrorist state which pays Arabs to murder Jews."
The ZOA said Huckabee, given the organization's 2013 Sheldon and Miriam Adelson Defender of Israel Award, said the former governor "is an ardent and knowledgeable advocate for the Jewish people and the Jewish state and we look forward to his tenure representing the interests of the United States in supporting our ally, Israel."
Senate confirmation of Huckabee, a well-known evangelical Christian, might come as a bit of a relief for Israeli officials, although he told lawmakers during a hearing last month that he would "carry out the president's priorities, not mine" as ambassador.
That pledge came in response to questions about some of his statements about the conflict between Israel and Hamas terrorists.
"I am not here to articulate or defend my own views or policies, but to present myself as one who will respect and represent the president, whose overwhelming election by the people will hopefully give me the honor of serving as ambassador to the state of Israel," Huckabee said at the time.
Huckabee acknowledged his support for Israel's right to annex the West Bank and incorporate its Palestinian population into Israel but said it would not be his "prerogative" to conduct that policy.
Most notably, Huckabee has long opposed the idea of a two-state solution between Israel and Palestinians. In an interview last year, he went even further, saying that he does not even believe in referring to the Arab descendants of people who lived in the former British-controlled territory as "Palestinians."
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