(Sept. 16, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee in an interview published on Wednesday rejected the notion that the United States was fighting Iran to defend Israel, arguing it was for America\u2019s own defense.<\/p>\n
In the interview with Israeli outlet Ynet, Huckabee also dismissed the accusations that Israel was an \u201capartheid state\u201d or guilty of genocide, but condemned what he called intimidation by radical Israelis who live in Judea and Samaria.<\/p>\n
On Iran, Huckabee said: \u201cAmerica has never defended Israel. Not one time since 1948 has America ever put boots on the ground for Israel. \u201cWhen we are partnering against Iran, we\u2019re not defending Israel; we\u2019re defending the United States. Israel is maybe the appetizer, but we\u2019re the entree.\u201d<\/p>\n
Huckabee pushed back against the narrative according to which U.S. President Donald Trump was strong-armed or misled into the conflict by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
\u201cI disagree with the idea that he was nudged in or led or pushed or deceived. That simply didn\u2019t happen,\u201d said Huckabee. \u201cNobody pushed President Trump into anything. Nobody misled him into anything,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cHe did it from his own volition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked specifically about the decision to go to war against Iran on Feb. 28, Huckabee said: \u201cHe didn\u2019t do that because Israel was over here begging, saying, \u2018Please help us, we can\u2019t handle it.\u2019 Israel never begged anything. Israel never pushed President Trump into engaging.\u201d Trump did it \u201cbecause he sees Iran as a threat to America and to Americans,\u201d Huckabee added.<\/p>\n
On the U.S. partnership with Israel, Huckabee said: \u201cWe\u2019re partners. We work incredibly close together, more than most people will ever, ever understand.\u201d He added: \u201cI\u2019d like to believe that people in America largely, mostly recognize Israel is an incredibly valuable, important strategic partner, not just an ally, but a partner.\u201d<\/p>\n
The relationship between Netanyahu and Trump is \u201cstill strong and solid,\u201d with both leaders speaking regularly, he said, and maintaining a personal relationship built over years.<\/p>\n
Regarding the threat posed by Iran, he said that \u201cfrom Iran they can hit London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Rome, Athens. Pretty much all of Europe. I was shocked that there was not a greater level of reaction from throughout Europe when that was evident once they hit Cyprus.\u201d In early March, a drone hit the RAF Akrotiri base, British officials said. Several drones were intercepted near Cyprus, in incidents that were widely attributed to Iran.<\/p>\n
Asked about Israel\u2019s general election in October, Huckabee said that the U.S.-Israel relationship \u201cis not built upon the next election, it\u2019s built upon our mutual interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. policy, he continued, \u201cis that a decision for the voters of Israel to make. It\u2019s not the U.S. position to say this is how the government ought to look after October any more than it would be for Israel to say this is who we want you to vote for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Huckabee also spoke about an incident earlier this month in which he filmed an Israeli entering a local property in a Palestinian village.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was one of those things that I felt like people needed to understand,\u201d he said. The Israeli, he said, \u201cwas not protecting or guarding his property. He was actually encroaching on someone else\u2019s.\u201d <\/p>\n
Huckabee added: \u201cIt\u2019s perfectly legitimate to protect your own property. That\u2019s something every person has a right to do. But what they don\u2019t have a right to do is to go to someone else\u2019s property and to drive around on it and to potentially intimidate or frighten people as to why you\u2019re there.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added however that he had never attributed such actions to all settlers. \u201cIn fact, I say they\u2019re not settlers, they\u2019re unsettlers,\u201d he said of law-breaking Israelis in Judea and Samaria. Many of those involved, he added, do not live in the West Bank at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably 99.9%\u201d of Israelis in Judea and Samaria are \u201cresponsible people\u201d who\u2019ve \u201cbuilt beautiful communities,\u201d he said, citing Ma\u2019ale Adumim and Efrat. \u201cThey\u2019re just wonderful places where people live and they just want to raise their families.\u201d<\/p>\n
International media are overly eager to label anything that happens in Judea and Samaria as \u201cextreme settler violence,\u201d but \u201cIt\u2019s not accurate,\u201d he said, and it \u201cbesmirches\u201d most residents, he said.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the United States would investigate cases of violence in Judea and Samaria said to involve U.S. citizens, Huckabee said: \u201cWe are guests in a foreign country. The U.S. government does not have the authority to investigate criminal activity or adjudicate criminal activity.\u201d<\/p>\n
On allegations that Israel was carrying out ethnic cleansing or genocide in Gaza, Huckabee said: \u201cI know of no one in a position of genuine authority who is for the forced displacement of anyone in Gaza. But I also find it incredible that some people seem to be in favor of forcing people to stay in Gaza who would like to leave. Why would there be such a desire to imprison people and to hold them hostage in a place that they no longer wish to live?\u201d<\/p>\n
Huckabee said that all the interlocutors he\u2019s spoken to, \u201cfrom the prime minister to the president, [have] been crystal clear: no one\u2019s going to be forced to leave. But neither should anyone be forced to remain who would like to leave and start a new life somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the genocide allegation, he said: \u201cHow do you commit genocide when you\u2019re sending 700 trucks of supplies and food in? Israel deserves credit for ensuring that happens. They don\u2019t get the credit. They\u2019re accused of genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamas, Huckabee said, has surrendered zero weapons so far despite agreeing to a ceasefire that called for its disarmament. \u201cNot one gun, not one bullet, not one bomb, not one rocket\u201d has been given over, he said. \u201cThey have no intention of voluntarily doing it. At least they haven\u2019t given any demonstration of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Huckabee also dismissed the apartheid allegation against Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwenty percent of the population is Arab. Arabs serve in the Knesset. Arabs sometimes are the CEO of the largest bank in Israel. Arabs are on the Supreme Court. Arabs serve in the military. They vote, so it\u2019s nonsense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On reports that Israel had an anti-Christian problem, Huckabee said: \u201cI live here. I\u2019ve been coming here for 53 years. I\u2019m a Christian. I\u2019ve never been heckled. I\u2019ve never been spat upon. You cannot blame a country of 10 million people for the actions of a very small minority of thugs who do terrible things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Huckabee also praised the United Arab Emirates for its religious tolerance, and welcomed increased trade between it and Israel. \u201cA person can walk around Abu Dhabi, Dubai wearing a yarmulke and nobody\u2019s going to attack them or even scream at them. I think they\u2019re the gold standard.\u201d With regard to whether Saudi Arabia was on course to normalize relations with Israel, he said only the kingdom could answer that. <\/p>\n
Asked whether he supports the two-state solution that the Trump Administration reaffirmed as a desirable outcome in its 20-point plan last year, Huckabee said: \u201cIt\u2019s a great question, but it\u2019s not one that I have the solid answer to because I don\u2019t get to make the policy that determines it. When the president makes a firm decision about that, I\u2019ll let you know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Sept. 16, 2026 \/ JNS) U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee in an interview published on Wednesday rejected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-617753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617753","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=617753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}