U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Wednesday urged more than a thousand visiting American pastors and Christian leaders to “light the pulpits of America” with the truth about Israel, and to quash criticism of the Jewish state from both the left and the right with the facts and the Bible.
“We need the pulpits of America to be on fire with the truth,” Huckabee said in a fiery address. “I pray that you don’t just go back home and say, ‘Oh, I had wonderful trip. I took some good pictures. I saw some wonderful sites.’ I hope you will go back to the U.S. with the fire of God burning in your bones and say it is time to be pro-biblical, because then you will find your voice to be pro-Israel.”
The Baptist minister turned ambassador urged his fellow pastors to speak out against criticism of Israel that is clouding American support among young people, singling out The New York Times and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson. The boisterous audience loudly booed Carlson’s name amid chants of “U-S-A, U-S-A” and “amen.”
“Those who are saying things about Israel that are not true they have the right to free speech,” Huckabee said. “But you have the free speech possibility to push back, stand up, speak up, and say not in this country. America will not stand silent,” he added to a thunderous standing ovation.
The weeklong visit, which was organized by American evangelical leader Mike Evans with the Israeli Foreign Ministry, was the single largest gathering of pastors in Israel since the establishment of the state in 1948. It included a tour of the southern communities that came under attack during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre as well as meetings with survivors and former hostages.
In his address, Huckabee denounced criticism of Israel that it had overreacted in the two-year war against Hamas in Gaza, noting that the campaign—which, he said, could have been over on Oct. 8, 2023, if Hamas returned the hostages—resulted in the lowest proportion of civilian casualties count of any urban warfare conflict in history.
“That would be true, but that’s not the point,” he said. “Here’s the point: If your daughter or son was held in the tunnel, what would be the limit to your tenacity to get them and bring them home?” he asked. “Why every single one of us …, if those were my children, I would move heaven and earth and I would be like a crazed madman to do anything and everything I could to get into those tunnels and bring my child home.”
The ambassador continued, “And that’s what Israel has done. And instead of criticizing, we should say thank God they had humanity that valued every life.
“Let us never forget every enemy of Israel is the enemy of America: Israel is the appetizer and America is the entre,” Huckabee said.
Omer Shem Tov, whom Hamas terrorists held captive in the Gaza Strip for 505 days, including 450 days alone in tunnels, sang Psalm 121 in Hebrew at Wednesday evening’s event. He had repeatedly recited the psalm during his time in captivity.
700 million non-Jewish Zionists
“There are more than 700 million non-Jewish Zionists in the world,” said Evans, founder of the Friends of Zion Heritage Center in Jerusalem. “They believe in one book and it is a Jewish book. This is a covenant based on faith and a commitment to shared values.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called the gathering “an alliance of believers” against an axis of evil that wants to destroy the Jewish state and its biblical connection to the Land of Israel.
“There is a huge global movement trying to erase our biblical roots and trying to destroy us,” he said. “But the Land will be as it always was: the Land of Israel.
“Over these last two difficult years, we saw who our true friends are,” Sa’ar said. “Our Christian friends are our most important and true friends.”
