The U.S. Senate voted 53-46 on Wednesday to confirm Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, to be U.S. ambassador to Israel.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was the lone Democrat to back Huckabee, who has mounted two presidential campaigns since leaving office, and has been a TV and radio host since 2008. Every Republican voted to confirm Huckabee except Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who did not vote.
Ahead of the vote, Republicans said that Huckabee would be a more pro-Israel diplomat than his predecessors in the Biden administration.
“For years, the previous administration wrung its hands and withheld American support for Israel in the wake of the horrendous, awful Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas,” Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said Wednesday on the Senate floor.
“To execute on President Trump’s iron-clad support of Israel, we urgently need a qualified ambassador in the region,” he added. “I have no doubt Gov. Huckabee is that person.”
During Huckabee’s nomination hearing in March, Democrats expressed concern about Huckabee’s views on Israeli policy toward Judea and Samaria, as well as the viability of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“His idea that he’s not supportive of a two-state solution or a path forward,” Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) told JNS. “We have to have a path forward that has buy-in in the region.”
Rosen, who is Jewish, voted against confirming Huckabee on Wednesday, as did the nine other Jewish senators, all Democrats.
Christians United for Israel touted Huckabee’s confirmation, saying that he was “a true friend, a statesman and a Zionist.”
“When our emissary to Jerusalem is a true friend to the Jewish state, he has the potential to move mountains,” said Sandra Parker, CUFI Action Fund chairwoman. “Amb. Huckabee is a lifelong friend to Israel, and we have every confidence that he will not only strengthen the alliance but will help Israel bring the war in Gaza to an appropriate end and stabilize the region.”
The Republican Jewish Coalition also welcomed Huckabee’s confirmation in a statement.
“Israel has had no greater friend in the White House than President Trump, and Amb. Huckabee will serve with distinction as part of the Trump administration’s pro-Israel dream team,” RJC national chairman Norm Coleman and CEO Matt Brooks stated. “B’hatzlacha, Mr. ambassador.”
Morton Klein, the national president of the Zionist Organization of America, celebrated the confirmation of “our close friend” and stated that Huckabee “has a powerful understanding of the complexities of the Arab Islamic war against Israel and the West, of the holiness of Judea and Samaria to the Jewish people and the danger of creating a Palestinian Arab terrorist state which pays Arabs to murder Jews.”
