The U.S. Senate voted on Wednesday to confirm Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, to be U.S. ambassador to Israel by a vote of 53-46. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was the lone Democrat to back Huckabee, who has mounted two presidential campaigns since leaving office, and has been a TV and radio host since 2008. Every Republican voted to confirm Huckabee except for Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who did not vote.
Ahead of the vote, Republicans said that Huckabee would be a more pro-Israel diplomat than his predecessors in the Biden administration.“For years, the previous administration wrung its hands and withheld American support for Israel in the wake of the horrendous, awful Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas,” Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said Wednesday on the Senate floor. “To execute on President Trump’s iron-clad support of Israel, we urgently need a qualified ambassador in the region. I have no doubt Governor Huckabee is that person.”
During Huckabee’s nomination hearing in March, Democrats expressed concern about Huckabee’s views on Israeli policy toward Judea and Samaria, as well as the viability of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “His idea that he’s not supportive of a two-state solution or a path forward,” Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) told JNS. “We have to have a path forward that has buy-in in the region.” (Read More)
