If the Islamic Republic of Iran refuses to give up its ambitions to build nuclear weapons, President Donald Trump “won’t be dragged into a war, he’ll lead it,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said at the JNS International Policy Summit on Monday night.
“The president has been very clear that there will never be a possibility for nuclear weapons; he’s been explicit about that,” Huckabee told JNS ahead of his keynote address at Jerusalem’s Waldorf Astoria hotel.
Speaking at the conference on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said regarding Iran that “the only good deal that works is a deal like the one that was made with Libya, that removed all the infrastructure.”
While it is “important” that Israel and the U.S. share the same goals, “We have to make sure that Iran does not get nuclear weapons,” the prime minister emphasized.
Huckabee said on Monday that the alliance between Washington and Jerusalem was not political. “It is spiritual, because the only explanation for the creation and the survival and the victory of Israel is that God’s hand is upon this land, and it always will be. Let us never doubt that.
“I’m proud of the president for doing some things immediately when he was sworn in,” Huckabee told the conference. “He reversed a lot of the ridiculous policies of the previous administration, one of which was to not give Israel the necessary tools to fight a war against the worst savages that we have seen, not just in our century, but perhaps in human history,” the ambassador said, referencing the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
The envoy noted that Trump has “made it very clear that Hamas has no future in Gaza or anywhere else on this Earth,” adding, “Let’s get the hostages home and let’s get them home now. Every last one of them.”
Huckabee, an evangelical Christian and former Arkansas governor, took up his post as Washington’s envoy to Jerusalem on April 21.
Ahead of the ceremony in which he presented his credentials to Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Huckabee visited the Western Wall to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and to insert a handwritten note from Trump between the stones of the holy site.
Huckabee, speaking to a group of reporters, told JNS that “Israel is an incredibly important ally to us, and … the United States and its citizens are directly the beneficiaries of some of the extraordinary achievements and accomplishments and innovations of the people here in Israel.
“People sometimes only think that Israel benefits from the United States,” the Trump administration envoy explained. “The truth is the United States benefits a great deal from Israel, and not just militarily.”
On Sunday, Huckabee attended a ceremony honoring 46 Americans murdered by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, as well as 23 dual U.S.-Israeli citizens who have died fighting terrorism since.
“Together with their families, I pray their sacrifices were not in vain,” Huckabee wrote in a post on X. “May their memories be a blessing.”
