President-elect Donald Trump nominated former Arkansas Governor and Baptist minister Mike Huckabee to become the next U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
On his Trinity Bible Network show (below), Huckabee told his live audience that he doesn’t need the job — he mentions that he sits on several boards of corporations and owns a travel company (he and his wife Janet provide tours of Israel via Blue Diamond Travel) among other jobs — and laughed about taking a salary cut if the Senate confirms him for the diplomatic position, which he believes “should happen.”
Huckabee boasted that he’s traveled to Israel approximately 100 times since he was a teenager and that he “unapologetically believes the Bible.” The former Governor added, “I take seriously Genesis 12 that reminds us that God will bless those who bless Israel, and curse those who curse Israel.”
Huckabee also said: “I have long believed that the conflicts in Israel are not really geopolitical, economic or social, but rather spiritual.”
Seasoned diplomats and Middle East experts — while acknowledging a “spiritual” dimension in Israel’s conflicts — argue that neglecting the geopolitical, economic and social aspects of the current situation takes America down a perilous path.
Political scientists like Maria Papageorgiou (UK) and Mohammad Eslami (Portugal) argue that the conflicts in Israel are becoming more — not less — geopolitical and that the results have major global economic consequences, as U.S. rival China understands.
In their article The Israel-Palestine Conflict and China’s Actorness in the Middle East: A Challenge to US Influence published in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs (October 2024), Papageorgiou and Eslami warn of China’s recent involvement in mediation efforts in the Middle East — with its goal of diffusing tensions between Iran and Israel.
China’s involvement, the scholars assert, has “boosted its prestige as a peace-promoting actor while advancing its economic and strategic interests, challenging the traditional roles of the United States and Europe in the region.”
Ultimately, the article “urges Western states to focus on multi-aligned re-engagement to counter growing Chinese influence in the Middle East.”
Note: The current U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, (former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and former White House chief of staff during the Obama administration), who is Jewish, took over the position one month after October 7, 2023. The Senate voted 53-43 to confirm Lew, with Republican Senators Lindsey Graham (SC) and Rand Paul (KY) notably joining Democrats.