US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, commented on Monday morning on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s announcement that Israel will build in the E1 area, saying that “this is not a violation of international law.”
“We will not dictate to Israel what to do, we will not interfere in the running of the country. It would be very strange to say that others can live in this area but Israelis cannot,” Huckabee said in an interview with Army Radio.
He emphasized that he believes that the reason the war has lasted so long lies in Hamas’s conduct, not in Israel’s. “The reason the war has lasted 22 months is because Hamas wanted it to last so long. They did not hold serious negotiations on the Witkoff outline while Israel did everything in its power to see it through.”
As for the future of the talks to release the hostages, he said, “Israel is the one who has to choose between a partial deal and a full one. The negotiations have apparently started again, perhaps because Hamas heard what President Trump said, or perhaps because they heard that the Israelis are determined to go all the way into Gaza.”
Regarding his appearance at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial holding a Bugs Bunny doll, Huckabee explained: “I didn’t come to determine what will happen in the trial, just to remind you that our president went through something similar. It doesn’t make sense that if you can’t defeat your opponent in an election, you try to take him down in a legal proceeding.”