{"id":303653,"date":"2026-02-22T00:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T00:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/303653\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T00:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T00:55:10","slug":"us-ambassador-to-israel-claims-the-country-has-a-right-to-much-of-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/303653\/","title":{"rendered":"US ambassador to Israel claims the country has a right to much of the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) \u2014 Arab and Muslim nations on Saturday sharply condemned comments by the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee<\/a>, who said Israel has a right to much of the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Huckabee made the comments in an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that aired Friday. Carlson said that according to the Bible, the descendants of Abraham would receive land that today would include essentially the entire Middle East, and asked Huckabee if Israel had a right to that land.<\/p>\n

Huckabee responded: \u201cIt would be fine if they took it all.\u201d Huckabee added, however, that Israel was not looking to expand its territory and has a right to security in the land it legitimately holds.<\/p>\n

His comments sparked immediate backlash from neighboring Egypt and Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the League of Arab States.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia\u2019s foreign ministry described Huckabee\u2019s comments as \u201cextremist rhetoric\u201d and \u201cunacceptable,\u201d and called for the State Department to clarify its position on them.<\/p>\n

Egypt\u2019s foreign ministry called his comments a \u201cblatant violation\u201d of international law, adding that \u201cIsrael has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory or other Arab lands.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cStatements of this nature \u2014 extremist and lacking any sound basis \u2014 serve only to inflame sentiments and stir religious and national emotions,\u201d the League of Arab States said.<\/p>\n

There was no immediate comment from Israel or the United States.<\/p>\n

Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has not had fully recognized borders. Its frontiers with Arab neighbors have shifted<\/a> as a result of wars, annexations, ceasefires and peace agreements.<\/p>\n

During the six-day 1967 Mideast war<\/a>, Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan, Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria. Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula as part of a peace deal with Egypt<\/a> following the 1973 Mideast war. It also unilaterally withdrew from Gaza<\/a> in 2005.<\/p>\n

Israel has attempted to deepen control<\/a> of the occupied West Bank in recent months. It has greatly expanded construction in Jewish settlements<\/a>, legalized outposts and made significant bureaucratic changes to its policies in the territory. U.S. President Donald Trump has said he will not allow Israel<\/a> to annex the West Bank and has offered strong assurances that he\u2019d block any move to do so.<\/p>\n

Palestinians have for decades called for an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza with east Jerusalem its capital, a claim backed by much of the international community.<\/p>\n

Huckabee, an evangelical Christian and strong supporter of Israel and the West Bank settlement movement, has long opposed the idea of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinian people. In an interview last year, he said he does not believe<\/a> in referring to the Arab descendants of people who had lived in British-controlled Palestine as \u201cPalestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the latest interview, Carlson pressed Huckabee about his interpretation of Bible verses from the book of Genesis, where he said God promised Abraham and his descendants land from the Nile to the Euphrates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be the Levant, so that would be Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon. It would also be big parts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq,\u201d Carlson said.<\/p>\n

Huckabee replied: \u201cNot sure we\u2019d go that far. I mean, it would be a big piece of land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel has encroached on more land since the start of its war with Hamas<\/a> in Gaza, which was sparked by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

Under the current ceasefire, Israel withdrew its troops to a buffer zone but still controls more than half the territory. Israeli forces are supposed to withdraw further, though the ceasefire deal doesn\u2019t give a timeline.<\/p>\n

After Syrian President Bashar Assad was ousted<\/a> at the end of 2024, Israel\u2019s military seized control of a demilitarized buffer zone in Syria created as part of a 1974 ceasefire between the countries. Israel said the move was temporary and meant to secure its border.<\/p>\n

And Israel still occupies five hilltop posts on Lebanese territory following its brief war with Hezbollah in 2024.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Magdy reported from Cairo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) \u2014 Arab and Muslim nations on Saturday sharply condemned comments by the U.S. ambassador…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[120,29800,14142,54,122,85,119,46,1984,47,2034,1034,43,238,7319,11916,1032,12131,121,12526,126],"class_list":{"0":"post-303653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","9":"tag-bashar-assad","10":"tag-conservatism","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-international-agreements","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-israel-government","17":"tag-middle-east","18":"tag-mideast-wars","19":"tag-mike-huckabee","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-religion","23":"tag-tucker-carlson","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-united-states-government","26":"tag-war-and-unrest","27":"tag-washington-news","28":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}