Huckabee: ‘Hamas cannot exist—that’s a done deal’

U.S. ambassador-designate to Israel Mike Huckabee said that “Hamas is not going to be able to exist,” calling it a “done deal”

Speaking during an interview on Fox News‘ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo,” the former Arkansas governor said that under U.S. President Donald Trump, the Middle East would see change of “biblical proportion.”

Huckabee, whom Trump has tapped for the role of U.S. ambassador to Israel, gave a brief history of Gaza and the 2005 Israeli disengagement.

“A lot of people forget that Gaza was once a place inhabited by both Jews and Palestinians, until 2005 when [former Israeli prime minister] Ariel Sharon decided to give it all away. He did. They [Israel] militarily marched 10,000 Jewish people out of Gaza. Turned it into a complete Palestinian state, and the result we saw was [the Hamas-led attack on] Oct. 7" 2023, he said.

President Trump, he continued, “did something bold. He looked into the future and said kind of a what if. We don’t know exactly what might happen in Gaza, but here’s what could have happened in Gaza: Gaza could have been Singapore. Instead, Hamas turned it into Haiti. And in fact, maybe worse, far worse than that.

“The only time we’ve had real, significant peace in that region was the four years that Donald Trump was president, and I’m very optimistic that with his leadership, his bold and innovative thinking—he doesn’t think like the other politicians and diplomats have thought, and thank God he doesn’t because we get results.”

Trump, he continued, doesn’t think outside the box. “He throws the box away and says, let’s start with a blank slate and see where this could go. That’s leadership, and that’s what we have with President Trump,” he said.

“I’m personally optimistic that we’re going to see something bold. I will use this term, Maria: I think we will see something of biblical proportion happen with his leadership in the Middle East.”