Trump’s Middle East picks signal staunch pro-Israel policy

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees to serve as top diplomatic envoys to Israel and the Middle East have little, if any, official policy experience in the region. But there is not much question about where their support lies.

Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas who was tapped on Tuesday to be the next US ambassador to Israel, has said that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian” and argued that all of the West Bank belonged to Israel.

His selection, which requires Senate confirmation, was widely welcomed by Israeli officials who oppose a Palestinian state, a long-standing US goal.

Steven Witkoff, who was named on Tuesday as the incoming administration’s Middle East envoy, raised a vast amount of money for Trump’s campaign — including from Jewish voters after the Biden administration stopped shipping some bombs to Israel.

Trump has presented himself as Israel’s strongest ally, and analysts believe he is likely to make US foreign policy more favorable to Israel. “These appointments are all Palestinians should need to understand what is coming their way,” said Nour Odeh, a Palestinian political analyst.

Here is a look at two of the men who will lead the Trump administration’s efforts in the Middle East.

Mike Huckabee

Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister and politician who appeals to evangelical voters and cultural conservatives, twice ran unsuccessfully for president, in 2008 and 2016. He hosts a talk show on Trinity Broadcasting Network and has led religious tours to Israel, including one scheduled for February.

In an interview broadcast in Israel on Wednesday morning, Huckabee was careful to not give specifics on how he might represent the Trump administration in Jerusalem.

“I won’t make the policy,” Huckabee said in the interview with Israeli Army Radio. “I will carry out the policy of the president.”

But how he views the region was detailed in old video clips that circulated on social media shortly after his nomination was announced.

“There is no such thing as a West Bank,” Huckabee said during a visit to Israel in January 2017, adding: “There’s no such thing as a settlement — they are communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.”

Israeli opponents of Palestinian statehood argue that giving land to Palestinians in the West Bank could pose a security threat to Israel in the future. Hard-liners in Israel’s settler community oppose conceding all or parts of the West Bank because they believe it was promised to Jews by God.

Earlier, during his 2008 presidential campaign, Huckabee said in video published by BuzzFeed that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian,” and that any independent Palestinian state should be defined within the boundaries of neighboring Arab states like Egypt, Syria or Jordan — not Israel.

Huckabee’s nomination drew congratulations and words of welcome from a host of Israeli government officials. Bezalel Smotrich, the right-wing finance minister and a settler activist, wrote on social media on Wednesday that he looked forward to working with Huckabee on “the unquestionable historical belonging of the whole land of Israel to the people of Israel.”

It also drew condemnation from J Street, a liberal pro-Israel advocacy group. “The mask is off,” the group wrote on social media. It said Huckabee’s appointment “is further proof that ‘pro-Israel’ for Trump is totally disconnected from Jewish values, safety or self-determination.”

Steve Witkoff

Witkoff, a real estate developer who has been a golf partner of the president-elect, was a donor to Trump’s political action committee and helped connect him to the entrepreneurs leading his cryptocurrency venture.

In May, when the Biden administration paused the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs, Witkoff used it as a fundraising opportunity for Trump. He reported raising “six-figure and seven-figure donations” for the Trump campaign from Jewish donors as a result, he told The Bulwark, a podcast and analysis site.

“Every one of my friends started calling and asking, ‘What can I do for Donald Trump?’” Witkoff said.

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel addressed Congress in July, Witkoff was in the audience.

“It was a privilege to be there,” Witkoff told Fox Business at the time. “We were standing every five seconds, because that crowd was so for him and so for the messaging.”

Witkoff testified at the former president’s civil fraud trial this year as an expert witness in real estate development and was playing golf with Trump at Mar-a-Lago when a gunman was arrested nearby.

Announcing Witkoff on Tuesday as his Middle East envoy, Trump said that “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud.”