Exclusive | Israel envoy pick Mike Huckabee says Gaza hostage deal with new admin would not surprise me: Trump doesnt play around
WASHINGTON — A second Donald Trump administration will have no “mixed messaging” toward Israel, the president-elect’s pick to be US ambassador to the Jewish state told The Post.“The biggest challenge is that the message that our nation has given to Israel has often been very mixed,” former Arkansas Gov.Mike Huckabee said in his first one-on-one interview since Trump announced him as his choice for Israel envoy Nov.
12.“I’ve been very grateful that President Biden has often said that ‘we stand with Israel,’ you know, ‘they are our ally,’ and ‘we’re ironclad in our commitment,'” the 69-year-old added.
“But then, within a day or so, we would hear we’re going to withhold selling arms to Israel unless they prosecute the war in Gaza the way we think it should be prosecuted.“Well, those are two very different things, and they can’t be the same.So what I’m really confident of in President Trump is, there will be a consistent policy, a consistent message and a consistent action to go with that.”Huckabee added that he believes Trump’s leadership will secure the return of the remaining 101 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza more than 13 months since the Oct.
7, 2023, attacks that killed an estimated 1,200 people — including dozens of Americans.“We should have used all of the US force to publicly demand release of all hostages, but especially the four Americans still held.And applied maximum pressure to Iran and Qatar to demand their release,” Huckabee told The Post, saying the stalemate had been “especially frustrating to watch.” “[It] would not surprise me if there is a breakthrough in light of Trump’s election,” the ambassador-designate added, “because they know Trump doesn’t play around.”Huckabee has long been a supporter of Israel and made dozens of trips to the Jewish state over the years.
He has also been a longstanding opponent of the so-called “two-state solution” that has underpinned peace efforts b...