Trump picks supporter of West Bank annexation as US envoy to Israel

US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, a vocal advocate for annexation of the occupied West Bank, to serve as the US ambassador to Israel, after the occupying regime picked a firebrand settler activist as its new envoy to Washington.

“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,” Trump announced on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday.

Huckabee is known for being a staunch supporter of Israel.

In an interview on Israeli Army Radio on Wednesday, Huckabee said it was “of course” possible that the Trump administration would back the annexation of the West Bank, but noted that he is not the one who sets policy.

“I won’t make the policy, I will carry out the policy of the president. But he has already demonstrated in his first term that there’s never been an American president that has been more helpful in securing an understanding of the sovereignty of Israel,” he said, using the term used by Tel Aviv to refer to the annexation.

“From the moving of the embassy, recognition of the Golan Heights and Jerusalem [al-Quds] as the capital. No one has done more than President Trump. And I fully expect that that will continue.”

Earlier, in 2017, Huckabee said on the news network CNN “There are certain words I refuse to use. 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.”

His remarks came while Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law.

Smotrich praises Huckabee’s remarks on West Bank

Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who ordered preparations for the annexation of the occupied West Bank and expressed hope the Trump administration would recognize Israel’s push for “sovereignty” over the occupied territory, hailed Huckabee’s remarks.

“I congratulate Ambassador-designate Mike Huckabee for his words. I am convinced that we will be able to work closely together with President-elect Trump and with all members of the incoming administration … on the basis of recognition in the unshakable historical belonging of the entire land of Israel to the people of Israel,” he said in a post on X.

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Also on Tuesday, Trump nominated his close friend, real estate tycoon Steven Witkoff, who has no formal diplomatic or foreign policy experience, to be a special envoy to the Middle East.

“Steve will be an unrelenting voice for PEACE, and make us all proud,” Trump wrote.

Trump’s back-to-back announcements for the two key positions offer a preview of his approach to the region, where he has vowed to maintain staunch support for the Israeli regime.

A day earlier, Trump named Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, another staunch supporter of Israel, as his United Nations ambassador.

Stefanik has been critical of the UN for what she argues is a lack of sufficient backing for Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip that has so far killed more than 43,000 people, mostly women and children.

Media reports have said that Trump is also expected to name US Senator Marco Rubio as his secretary of state.

Last year, the senator stressed that he did not support a ceasefire in Gaza. He has also voiced his support for Trump’s plan to deport foreign students involved with pro-Palestinian protests.

For its part, the government of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also been preparing for another Trump term.

Last Friday, Netanyahu appointed Yechiel Leiter, a staunch defender of illegal settlements and himself a settler in the occupied West Bank and a vocal supporter of the war in Gaza, as ambassador to the US.

The appointment came just one day after Trump was elected to his second non-consecutive term.

Trump, who closely allied with Netanyahu during his first term, recognized al-Quds as Israel’s capital in December 2017 and signed a proclamation in March 2019 recognizing Israel’s “sovereignty” over the Israeli-occupied Syrian territory of the Golan Heights.

He also brokered normalization agreements between Israel, and some Arab regimes, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, which are slammed as treacherous stab in the back of the Palestinian people.

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