US Senate confirms Huckabee as next Israel envoy, voting largely along party lines
Democrat John Fetterman joins Republicans in sending Christian Zionist and settlement backer to Jerusalem; Trump: ‘He’ll bring home the bacon, even though bacon isn’t big in Israel’
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
The US Senate voted almost entirely along party lines on Wednesday to confirm the nomination of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee to be Washington’s ambassador to Israel.
Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania — an ardent supporter of Israel and virtually the only Democratic ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — was the lone lawmaker to break with his party by joining Republicans in backing Huckabee’s nomination.
The final vote tally was 53 to 46 in favor of Huckabee, a passionate evangelical supporter of Israel and its West Bank settlement movement.
Despite his conservative views on Israel, which include support for Israel annexing the West Bank and opposition to a two-state solution, Huckabee stressed during his confirmation hearing that he would work to advance the policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration, not his own personal agenda.
He said last month that he hoped to arrive in Israel by Passover, which starts on Saturday evening.
Welcoming the confirmation, Trump told reporters later Wednesday that Huckabee would “bring home the bacon.”
“Even though bacon isn’t too big in Israel,” he quipped.
President Trump on the confirmation of Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel:
"He’s going to be fantastic. He’s going to bring home the bacon, even though bacon isn’t too big in Israel. I had to clear that up. Congratulations to Mike Huckabee." ???? pic.twitter.com/1vS3b0QIDA
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) April 9, 2025
Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and other top Israeli officials also tweeted congratulations to Huckabee.
“Congratulations to my dear friend [Mike Huckabee] upon being confirmed as the next ambassador of the United States to Israel. This is a great day for the Israeli-American alliance,” Netanyahu wrote on X.
“I look forward to working with you to make the unbreakable bond between our two nations even stronger,” the premier added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
Congratulations to my dear friend @GovMikeHuckabee upon being confirmed as the next ambassador of the United States to Israel. This is a great day for the Israeli – American alliance.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) April 9, 2025
A self-identified Christian Zionist who has visited Israel dozens of times, Huckabee will now assume the high-profile post during a time when US-Israel relations have been shaken by Trump’s tariffs and as the United States opens nuclear talks with Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy.
Huckabee was always a lock for the position, given the slight Republican majority in the Senate, but his stance on the Palestinian issue all but ensured Wednesday’s divided vote.
As a presidential candidate in 2008, Huckabee said: “There is no such thing as a Palestinian… [The term is] a political tool to try and force land away from Israel.”
While running for president again in 2015, he openly posited purchasing a “holiday home” in the settlements, though he has yet to pull the trigger.
In the coming weeks, he’ll move into the ambassador’s residence in downtown Jerusalem.
Huckabee has long rejected the term “West Bank,” preferring to refer to the disputed territory by its biblical name, “Judea and Samaria.”
“I’m aware that not everyone on this committee will agree with the president’s policies or his personal choices in his administration,” the former Arkansas governor said during his confirmation hearing last month.
“I’m not here to articulate or even defend my own views or policies, but rather to present myself as one who will respect and represent the overwhelmingly elected president,” he added.
Huckabee, 69, grew up in the city of Hope, Arkansas, and first traveled to Israel as a teenager. He has gone on to regularly lead Christian groups in the five decades since.
“It’s going to be a privilege to be one of those people — not Jewish, but Christian — who will say to our Jewish friends, ‘You will never go through what you’ve gone through alone,'” Huckabee said during his confirmation hearing, referring to Hamas’s October 7 onslaught and its aftermath. “We will not stand behind you. We will stand with you.”
Nava Freiberg and JTA contributed to this report.
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