Huckabee: ‘Not sure’ if US aid to Israel will end immediately or at end of 2028

US Ambassador Mike Huckabee said in an interview on Thursday that he was not sure if US military aid to Israel will end immediately or at the end of the current memorandum of understanding, following US President Donald Trump’s pronouncement this week.

“I’m not sure. I don’t know that we know the answer to that just yet,” Huckabee said when asked by Channel 12 news. “We’re asking for some clarity on that. I’m sure the Israelis are as well.”

Huckabee defended US aid to Israel, noting that “what Americans didn’t understand, still don’t, is that $3.8 billion, which is a tiny, really small figure in the great scheme of the American budget, but all of that money is used, spent back in the United States for Israel to be buying the things that helped them make the Iron Dome, the David Sling, the Arrow Three missile system, purchasing F-35s, F-15s, F-16s, Apache helicopters, many of the things that Israel uses to defend its freedom and to defend its democracy.”

Asked if he therefore thought Trump’s announcement was a mistake, Huckabee said no, “we’re wanting to move to a different relationship where it does not look like a package of aid, but rather a relationship of trade.”

He noted that the current MOU “still has a couple of years left on it.”

President Isaac Herzog meanwhile said Thursday he was unaware of any agreement to end American military aid by the end of the year, after Trump declared Tuesday that he and Netanyahu reached such “a deal months ago.”

“The issue of American aid worries me greatly. Greatly,” Herzog said during a meeting with Yashar party representatives at his residence in Jerusalem.

“It hit me like a bolt out of the blue,” he continued, while like Huckabee pointing out that the current MOU runs through 2028.

Herzog said protecting ties with the US was a key reason to make sure Israel builds a government and avoids another round of elections.

Other senior Israeli and US officials also have indicated they were taken by surprise, though Netanyahu — who has yet to comment on Trump’s announcement — has previously said he wants to phase out aid over the course of a decade.

‘Don’t think that’s where voters are’

During the Channel 12 interview, Huckabee suggested that Vice President JD Vance was wrong to say Wednesday that voters who supported Trump abandoned the party in the midterms partly over his support for Israel. Vance also cited the Iran war as another key reason for the GOP’s drubbing by Democrats at the ballot box.

“I don’t agree with that because I don’t think that’s where voters are,” Huckabee said of US support for Israel. “In fact, if you look at the polls, the only group of people in America that really think that that’s an important issue are the Democrats on the far left. Only 19% of Republicans even have that same view.”

Huckabee was also asked by the network if Trump could potentially weigh in or play a role in helping the formation of a coalition government in Israel, following the inconclusive election results last week.

“He might — he’s certainly capable of doing something like that if it felt like it was the right thing and the right time to do it,” Huckabee said, noting that the US government and the embassy officially do not take any position on the Israeli election, though Trump did endorse Netanyahu before the election.

“It’s not our responsibility. We don’t want to touch that,” Huckabee told the television network.

But Huckabee noted that Trump “surprises me often with things that he says or does,” and the possibility exists that he could invite Netanyahu and Eisenkot to the White House for talks.

With the elections in Israel and the US both now over, Huckabee was pressed about the likelihood of renewed strikes on Iran.

“I don’t think we know,” he said. “There’s probably two people in the whole world who know whether or not we’re going to go back into a military operation with Iran: President Trump and the Prime Minister. And I don’t think the decision has been made.”