Praising President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Mike Huckabee as the new U.S. ambassador to Israel, former envoy David Friedman called it a “great” pick.
“I couldn’t be more excited about his pick. Obviously, he’s coming into a different period in the relationship than when I came in. When I came in, the relationship was challenged,” Friedman told Epoch TV’s “American Thought Leaders.”
“Israel had a very difficult time during the Obama years, and the goal was to fix that, and he’ll have the same general focus.”
In the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel—the deadliest single-day anti-Semitic attack since the Holocaust— Friedman praised Huckabee’s support for Israel as “absolutely rock solid.”
When Trump announced the former Arkansas governor as his choice to represent the United States in Israel, he expressed appreciation for Huckabee’s steadfast support for the Jewish state.
“Mike has been a great public servant, governor, and leader in faith for many years. He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East!” Trump said in a Nov. 12 statement.
If confirmed by the Senate, Huckabee will be dealing with the Israel–Hamas war, the Israel–Hezbollah conflict, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the Iranian threat, and expanding the Abraham Accords, which the Trump administration brokered, normalizing agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.
Trump has said he would seek to end the war between Israel and Hamas but has called on Israel to “finish the job.”
“Get it over with, and let’s get back to peace and stop killing people,” Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt in April.
Friedman, along with supporting Huckabee’s nomination, said he expects that Saudi Arabia will join the Abraham Accords during the upcoming administration.
“I think Saudi would have joined if we probably had another six months or so in our first term,” he said. “But I think they will join. I think they have every interest in joining.”
It would be significant if Saudi Arabia normalized ties with Israel, he said. For one, Saudi Arabia provides a “bulwark” against the Iranian threat.
Moreover, Saudi Arabia could influence other Muslim countries to normalize ties with Israel, he said, given that the kingdom is the leader of the Muslim world.
However, Riyadh has said it will not normalize ties with Jerusalem unless there is a Palestinian state.
“The Kingdom will not cease its diligent efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital,” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said in a speech in September.
Friedman said a Palestinian state would pose an “existential risk” to Israel.
“It’s probably an existential risk to Jordan as well,” he said. “The last thing the world needs is a terror state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.”
The first Trump administration had a pro-Israel agenda with Friedman as ambassador. Besides brokering the Abraham Accords, this included moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, withdrawing the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, enacting a “maximum pressure” campaign against the regime that included tough sanctions, and eliminating Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.