Trump's pick of Huckabee and Witkoff a clue to Middle East policy
Donald Trump said Mike Huckabee would "work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East”
Shortly after being announced as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to Israel, the former Republican governor of Arkansas said: “I won't make the policy. I will carry out the policy of the president.”
But he did give an indication of what he expected that policy to be, citing the previous Trump administration’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and to recognise the occupied Golan Heights as Israeli territory – decisions as warmly welcomed by the Israeli right wing as they were categorically rejected by Palestinians.
“No-one has done more,” he told an Israeli radio station. “President Trump and I fully expect that will continue.”
What approach Trump will take to the Israel-Gaza war is still unclear. But the right wing of Israeli politics has welcomed the president-elect’s appointment of Huckabee, seeing it as predicting another term of American policy highly favourable to their longstanding aims of holding on to territory in the West Bank and expanding settlements.
The appointment was greeted with joy by two far-right ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. On the social media platform X, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich messaged his congratulations to “a consistent and loyal friend", while Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, wrote "Mike Huckabee" with heart emojis.
THIS AND MORE UPDATES AT:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0endd8qj01o
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