A Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria probably won’t happen “in our lifetime” and is no longer Washington’s goal, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Tuesday.
“Unless there are some significant things that happen that change the culture, there’s no room for it,” Huckabee told Bloomberg, adding that a culture shift is unlikely to take place “in our lifetime.”
When asked by Bloomberg if an independent Palestinian state is the goal of the Trump administration, the diplomat responded: “I don’t think so.”
A Palestinian Arab state does not necessarily need to be established in Judea and Samaria, he stated, insisting that Palestinian self-governance in another Muslim country “should be and could be on the table.”
“Israel has a little narrow strip of real estate,” he continued. “Muslim-controlled countries have 644 times the amount of land that Israel does. So when people say that Israel needs to give up something, you kinda scratch your head and say: ‘OK, let me see if I get this right,’” he said.
“If the idea is that Israel needs to carve out more and more land, maybe that’s why they’re resistant to that,” the American ambassador added.
“Does it have to be in Judea and Samaria?”
— Bloomberg (@business) June 10, 2025
Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, tells Bloomberg's Ethan Bronner that if one day there is a Palestinian state, it need not necessarily be based in the West Bank, as has long been assumed https://t.co/ztBtSo2Lyc pic.twitter.com/EJHLwtcAPl
Several countries have recently moved ahead with the recognition of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, including Spain, Norway and Ireland.
In early 2024, Israel’s Knesset plenum voted 99-11 to back a Cabinet decision to reject any unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood.
All coalition members and most lawmakers from Zionist opposition parties voted to support a Cabinet statement against “international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians.”
The Israeli government has recently warned some key European nations that any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state could prompt Jerusalem to extend sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer reportedly told France, the United Kingdom and other countries that one-sided moves could lead Israel to annex Area C and legalize outposts.
U.S. President Donald Trump is not expected to announce a decision on Israeli sovereignty in the nearby future, Huckabee told JNS on April 28.
“Those are important questions,” the ambassador acknowledged in a conversation following his keynote address at the JNS International Policy Summit, “but for the president, getting the hostages home, especially our Americans, is front and center above everything else.”
He went on to say that there was “certainly time for that discussion, but right now, our priority is seeing the hostages safely returned, ensuring the Iranians are no longer aspiring to nuclear weaponry designed to murder and kill. Then we’ll take on the other issues.”
