‘He’s got your back’: Huckabee says Trump’s decision to skip Israel on Mideast visit isn’t a snub

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says Israelis should not feel snubbed by US President Donald Trump’s decision to skip Israel in his upcoming visit to the Middle East, which will include stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

“His first trip is about economic opportunity. That’s where his focus is,” Huckabee says in an interview with Hebrew news network Channel 12.

“What he’s doing is not because he’s snubbing Israel. There are 200 nations in the world, almost, so there are a lot of them he hasn’t gone to yet, a lot of them he isn’t going to right away — he’s spent more time with the prime minister of Israel than he has with any other world leader. I think that says a lot.”

“I would just say to people, ‘relax, calm down, Donald Trump loves you, there’s no doubt about that, he’s got your back,'” says the ambassador. “He is the same Donald Trump that, for four years as president, did more for Israel than any other American president.”

Turning to the ongoing nuclear talks between the US and Iran, Huckabee is asked whether Washington would allow Israel to carry out independent military action against Iran if a deal is signed, should it still deem it to be a threat.

He answers that the US believes “Israel has the right to do what it has to do,” and that Trump knows “nobody can tell Israel what to do. He says, however, that the White House would definitely have “recommendations” in this regard.

Huckabee also defends Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s relationship with Trump, after recent reports suggested that their relationship may have soured.

He says that the interviewer’s suggestion that Trump has thrown Netanyahu “under the bus” is a “very unfair characteristic.”

“Prime Minister Netanyahu has spent more time with President Trump than I have in the past couple of months, and it’s a warm and personal, cordial relationship,” says Huckabee.