American president-elect donald trump elected as ambassador of USA in Israel to the former governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee. As a pro stance Israel rather than joining the administration, he previously argued that “there is no such thing as a Palestinian.”
It was in 2008 that Huckabee made the controversial statement. Trump, for his part, has expressed that “Mike has been a great public servant, governor and faith leader for many years.”. The magnate also added that Huckabee “loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and in the same way, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to achieve Peace in the Middle East!”.
Unlike most American ambassadors to Israel in recent administrations, Huckabee is not Jewish. Furthermore, it was governor of arkansas from 1996 to 2007 and with a high profile in politics since then.
Huckabee ran for president in both 2008 and 2016when he faced Trump in the primaries. Following the 2016 election, media reported that he was about to become Trump’s ambassador to Israel, although he denied this.
Mike Huckabee’s position on Palestine
Huckabee ran for president in the United States in 2008. It was in a campaign where he made the controversial statement, when he stated that Palestinian identity was “a political tool to try to take land from Israel.” The man was in Massachusetts talking to two orthodox Jewish men.
“Basically, there is no such thing as (…) and I have to be careful saying this because people would get very angry (…) there is no such thing as a Palestinian”, he expressed. When asked at the time about the possibility of a Palestinian state outside Israel, Huckabee said he believed this was the preferable option.
“There are Arabs and Persians,” Huckabee continued in his 2008 appearance. “And there is a lot of complexity in that. But in reality there is no such thing. “That has been a political tool to try to take land from Israel.”
In the video, which was previously posted by BuzzFeedHuckabee added that he thought a Palestinian state could be created with lands from Egypt, Syria or Jordan. “My point is, if that’s the problem, if it’s real estate, if you look at a map and say how much Israel has and how much the Arab states have, there’s a lot of land,” he said.
Huckabee reiterated that point during a 2015 interview on Israeli television, in which he argued that a two-state solution was “irrational and inapplicable” and said that “there is a lot of land” outside of Israel in the “rest of the world” for a Palestinian state.
Donald Trump named Pete Hegseth as his Secretary of Defense
Donald Trump elected Fox News commentator and veteran Pete Hegseth as his secretary Defense. Hegseth, critical of some measures within the Pentagon, could eliminate from the US army a group of generals identified by conservative sectors. Trump said that with his addition, the US military “will be great again.”
Hegseth has expressed his rejection of the “woke” policies of Pentagon leaders, including its top military officer. This could be opposed to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General CQ Brown a former fighter pilot with command experience in the Pacific and Middle East. Hegseth accused him of “persecuting the radical positions of left-wing politicians.”
Source: Ambito
