Trump picks former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel

President-elect Donald Trump said he intends to nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as the U.S. ambassador to Israel, a high-profile diplomatic posting in a tumultuous region.

Huckabee, if confirmed, will be the first non-Jewish person to hold this role since 2011. He will arrive in Jerusalem to face conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon that have raged for more than a year. On the campaign trail, Trump, a close ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has vowed to put an end to the conflict.

Peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas have stalled in recent days after Qatar pulled out of its meditation efforts. Huckabee is likely to be at the center of international pressure on the U.S. to help broker a cease-fire deal.

Trump made the announcement in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, elevating a longtime loyalist and former rival for the Republican nomination in 2016. Huckabee, the host of a namesake television talk show, campaigned for Trump this cycle, hitting the trail with the former president, including in battleground Pennsylvania in the final throes of the race.

“I am pleased to announce that the Highly Respected former Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, has been nominated to be The United States Ambassador to Israel,” Trump said in a statement.

“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. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!”

In a statement congratulating Huckabee, the Republican Jewish Coalition praised the former governor as “a long-time friend” of the group, praising the former governor’s “abounding love of Israel” and promising his appointment would “strengthen the US-Israel relationship to even greater heights.”

Huckabee’s daughter, the current Arkansas governor and a former Trump administration official, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was also a top surrogate for Trump. The elder Huckabee, 69, was governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007.

During his 2016 presidential run, Huckabee staked out an arch-conservative position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rejecting the notion of an “occupied” West Bank. Instead, he referred to the area using the biblical terms of “Judea and Samaria.”

At the time, he earned the Adelson Defender of Israel award at a Zionist Organization of America dinner in New York. Miriam Adelson, the wife of the late Sheldon Adelson, remains a top Trump donor who gave lavishly to his 2024 campaign.

Top Israeli officials celebrated the news later Tuesday.

Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar congratulated Huckabee in a post on X, saying, “As a longstanding friend of Israel and our eternal capital Jerusalem — I hope you will feel very much at home.”

Trump, during his first term, formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. Embassy to the city from Tel Aviv, fulfilling a controversial campaign promise. The former president also brokered bilateral agreements to normalize relations between Israel and Arab nations, including the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and Bahrain.

Now, Trump has promised to bring lasting peace to the region and to “stop wars” amid a raging humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and a conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The war in Gaza has ground on since Hamas militants launched a deadly assault on Israel on October 7, 2023. 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’ attack, with over 250 people taken hostage, including American citizens. Over 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the outbreak of the war, according to Gaza health officials.