New US envoy puts note with prayer from Trump in Western Wall: ‘For peace in Israel’
Mike Huckabee says US president told him first thing he should do as ambassador is to place message in 2,000-year-old holy site, offers own prayer for the return of the hostages
Mike Huckabee, Washington’s newly appointed ambassador to Israel, visited the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday, a day after he arrived in the country.
“I can think of nothing I’d rather do than represent a prayer from the President of the United States on behalf of the American people to pray for the peace of Jerusalem,” said the ambassador.
Footage from the visit showed the pro-settler Republican with a kippa on his head, tucking a note with a prayer on it into one of the crevices of the Jewish holy site — a remnant of the Second Temple, which stood atop the Temple Mount for some 500 years until the Roman Empire razed it in the year 70 CE.
“It was such an honor, an incredible privilege, to place on behalf of the president of the United States, President Donald J Trump, a prayer that he wrote in his own hand and initialled,” said Huckabee as he performed the Jewish tradition, accompanied by the Western Wall’s chaplain Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch.
Huckabee said Trump handed him the note at the White House with an instruction that the first thing he should do as ambassador to Israel was to deliver the message.
Trump gave the note “with the hope that I would bring it and place it in the wall, with the best wishes and the prayers of the American people for the peace of Jerusalem,” Huckabee said, showing the small, handwritten note.
It read: “For Peace in Israel.” The note had Trump’s initials on it: “D.T.”
Huckabee said he also offered his own prayer at the holy site, calling for the return of the remaining 59 hostages in Gaza.
“We will bring them home, and that is the prayer of the president as well,” said the new ambassador, whose appointment has delighted Israel’s settler movement.
Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and two-time Republican US presidential candidate, was confirmed for the post last week by the US Senate, which voted roughly along party lines.
Huckabee’s confirmation came amid Democrats’ strained relationship with the Israeli government throughout the IDF’s devastating Gaza offensive, which was triggered when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
Welcome to Israel, @USAmbIsrael Mike Huckabee!
We wish you much success as you begin your important mission.
We are confident that together, we will elevate the unbreakable bond between Israel and the United States to even greater heights. ???????????????? pic.twitter.com/MT4ZF0FQd7
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) April 18, 2025
During his confirmation hearings, the conservative Baptist minister appeared to downplay his past pro-settler statements, which have included staunch support for Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Israeli annexation of the territory, as well as opposition to Palestinian statehood and denial that a Palestinian nation exists.
Israel has controlled territory since capturing it in the June 1967 Six Day War, which also saw the IDF take control of East Jerusalem, including the Old City, as well as the Golan Heights on the Syrian border. Unlike East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, Israel has never annexed the West Bank.
Israeli towns and neighborhoods in the Golan Heights, West Bank and East Jerusalem are considered illegal settlements by much of the international community.
However, during his first term, Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights; rescinded Washington’s long-standing classification of West Bank settlements as illegal; moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; and offered a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would see Israel annex much of East Jerusalem and the West Bank — which, along with the Gaza Strip, are demanded by Palestinians in a future state.
In his first term, Trump also brokered historic peace agreements between Israel and several Arab nations. The so-called Abraham Accords were viewed as a quid pro quo for Israel’s agreement not to annex the West Bank.
In his current term, Trump has answered ambiguously when asked what he thought about a prospective Israeli annexation of the West Bank. Soon after taking office in January, he also scrapped his predecessor Joe Biden’s unprecedented sanctions against violent Israeli settlers.
The Times of Israel Community.