Senate confirms Mike Huckabee as next US ambassador to Israel

Senate voted 53-46 in favour of former Arkansas governor

Mike Huckabee, the new US ambassador to Israel, during his Senate confirmation hearing on March 25. Getty Images via AFP

The US Senate voted on Wednesday to confirm Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. Senators voted 53 to 46 in favour of confirming Mr Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, who faced tough questions – and frequent interruptions by protesters – during his congressional hearing at the end of last month.

Mr Huckabee, an evangelical preacher, has been outspoken in his support of Israel and has repeatedly referred to the occupied West Bank as "Judea and Samaria", the biblical term that Israeli settlers use to describe the area.

During his confirmation hearing, he skirted questions on his personal position on Palestinian rights, and acknowledged that in the past he had supported Israel's right to annex the West Bank, where more than three million Palestinians live.

“I believe that there always has to be the law being followed and there has to be clarity,” Mr Huckabee said, when questioned over whether Israeli settlers displacing Palestinians from their homes was wrong. “If we're talking about stealing the land, taking it away from them, their land, yeah, that's a problem. If you're talking about purchasing the land, that's a legitimate transaction.”

Mr Huckabee has also long opposed a two-state solution.

US President Donald Trump said after his confirmation that Mr Huckabee would be "fantastic" as ambassador to Israel and that he would "bring home the bacon".

Mr Trump quickly followed that comment up by acknowledging that bacon "isn't too big in Israel", a reference to the fact that it is not kosher. It is also haram in Islam.