U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Sunday praised former President Bill Clinton’s approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict, saying he wished more Democrats shared his understanding of the issue.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) “is one of the few who do,” Huckabee tweeted, sharing footage of Clinton’s October 2024 remarks about negotiations he led between Israel and the PLO in the ’90s and early 2000s.
I wish there were more Democrats today who understood what President Clinton did. @SenFettermanPA is one of the few who do. https://t.co/c2KmRXy70D
— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) June 7, 2026
PLO leader Yasser Arafat “didn’t tell me the truth ... when he promised me he was gonna accept the peace deal that we had worked out, which would have given the Palestinians a state on 96% of the West Bank and 4% of Israel—and they got to choose where the 4% of Israel was,” Clinton said, speaking at a Kamala Harris presidential campaign rally in Michigan on Oct. 30, 2024.
“All this was offered ... and they said no,” Clinton said in his speech. “And I think part of it is that Hamas did not care about a homeland for the Palestinians; they wanted to kill Israelis and make Israel uninhabitable.
“Well, I got news for them: They were there first before ... their [Islamic] faith existed,” the former president added.
Clinton said Hamas had made a deal with Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthis, aiming not to create a Palestinian state but rather to nullify previous progress toward peace.
“Essentially, we’re going to have to start the peace process again,” he said during the speech in Michigan.
The Israel-PLO peace talks collapsed weeks before Clinton left office in January 2001.
