U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s push against bringing Arab parties into Israel’s next government in an interview with Newsmax on Saturday.
Netanyahu’s opposition to including the mostly Arab Joint List and Ra’am parties in a governing coalition was “a necessary course,” Huckabee told Newsmax host Tom Basile.
Some of the 19 Arab lawmakers elected to the Knesset “have been outspoken in their condemnation of the very nation they want to be a part of,” Huckabee noted.
He added that they had expressed no real condemnation of the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, and that “it would be troubling for anyone to include them if that’s going to be their position in a government.”
Huckabee said it was “completely reckless” for someone to seek to “help lead the country” while declining to denounce the Hamas-led massacre.
The ambassador also said that campaign pledges not to sit with political rivals would likely be dropped.
“Throw all that out the window,” he said. “Politicians say that during the election season, but if it comes down to being in the government or having nothing but a trip home and spend the next four years wondering what happened, many of them will, let’s just say, they’ll renege on that ‘absolutely, will not sit with’ promise.”
Huckabee called it “the big surprise” of election night that Netanyahu and his right-wing partners finished ahead of Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition bloc.
Some 160,000 Israeli citizens had flown in for Election Day because Israel does not allow absentee voting, he said.
“Many people saw that influx of voters as coming in to vote against the prime minister. Obviously they were wrong about that,” Huckabee continued.
He was also asked about reports that the Mossad had joined the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) in investigating alleged foreign interference. Hostile nations, reportedly including Qatar and Turkey, are suspected of funneling money into Israel to influence voting in Arab communities.
Huckabee called the probe “a very serious and a full-level investigation.”
Proven election meddling would “really stir up some very strong feelings in Israel,” he said, adding, “We don’t know the results of that investigation.”
Huckabee also defended the U.S.-Israel strategic relationship, saying that “what we share in intelligence actually saves American lives almost every day.”
“The relationship we have with Israel is very important, both strategically as well as tactically, in making sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon and that they’re going to decide to be civilized people and not continue the murderous threats that the regime has been throwing out there for 47 years,” he concluded.
