Trump’s pick of Huckabee and Witkoff a clue to Middle East policy

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Trump’s pick of Huckabee and Witkoff a clue to Middle East policy

Reuters

Donald Trump said Mike Huckabee would “work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East”

For now, Mike Huckabee seems to be keeping his cards close to his chest.

Shortly after being announced as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to *******, the former *********** governor of Arkansas said: “I won’t make the policy. I will carry out the policy of the president.”

But he did give an indication of what he expected that policy to be, citing the previous Trump administration’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and to recognise the occupied Golan Heights as ******** territory – decisions as warmly welcomed by the ******** right wing as they were categorically rejected by Palestinians.

“No-one has done more,” he told an ******** radio station. “President Trump and I fully expect that will continue.”

What approach Trump will take to the *******-Gaza war is still unclear. But the right wing of ******** politics has welcomed the president-elect’s appointment of Huckabee, seeing it as predicting another term of ********* policy highly favourable to their longstanding aims of holding on to territory in the West Bank and expanding settlements.

The appointment was greeted with joy by two far-right ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. On the social media platform X, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich messaged his congratulations to “a consistent and loyal friend”, while Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, wrote “Mike Huckabee” with heart emojis.

AFP

In 2011, Mike Huckabee helped lay a cornerstone for the ******** settlement of Beit Orot in occupied East Jerusalem

Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have reason to be cheered by Huckabee’s appointment. He has been a consistent supporter of many Israelis’ ambitions to expand into territories that would form part of any future ************ state.

Holding a press conference in 2017, shortly after a cornerstone-laying ceremony at one of the biggest ******** settlements in the West Bank, Huckabee said: “There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighbourhoods, they’re cities.

“There’s no such thing as an occupation.”

The following year, he said: “I think ******* has title deed to Judea and Samaria,” using the name used by many in ******* for the area which became the occupied West Bank when it was captured by ******* in the 1967 Middle East war.

The previous Trump administration declared in 2019 that it did not consider ******** settlements ******** under international law, contradicting decades of US policy. Other decisions, including a 2020 peace plan greenlighting the annexation of ******** settlements, were seen as more favourable to the settlers than any previous administration.

The ******** far right has indicated that it sees Huckabee’s appointment as a sign that it will be able to further advance its agenda, including annexation of the West Bank, during the next Trump term.

On Monday, Smotrich said that 2025 would be “the year of sovereignty” in the West Bank, adding that he had instructed ******** authorities to begin preparatory work for annexation of the occupied territory.

That happening is a genuine ***** for Mustafa Barghouti, a West Bank-based veteran ************ politician who is leader of the ************ National Initiative political movement.

“You can imagine the reaction of other powerful countries in the world would be, when the idea of annexing occupied territories, obtained by war, becomes legal and acceptable,” he says. “So it’s not just about Palestinians and our suffering, it’s about the international order.”

Reuters

Steve Witkoff is Donald Trump’s golf partner and spoke at his campaign events

Whether Smotrich will get his wish ******** to be seen. Tal Schneider, a political correspondent at the Times of *******, says it is not a foregone conclusion that a pro-settler US ambassador will result in pro-settler policies in Washington.

“Four years ago, some of the people that surrounded Trump were very much pro-settlements and pro-annexing, but it didn’t work like that last time. I predict it’s not going to work like that this time around.”

Huckabee was not the only appointee announced on Tuesday. The president-elect also said Steve Witkoff would serve as his special envoy to the Middle East.

As well as being a real estate developer, Witkoff is also a longtime golf buddy of Trump’s. The pair were playing together at the time of a second ******* ************** attempt in September.

It is not clear what foreign policy experience Witkoff brings to the role, but he has previously praised Trump’s dealings with *******.

In July, he argued that Trump’s “leadership was good for ******* and the entire region”.

“With President Trump, the Middle East experienced historic levels of peace and stability. Strength prevents wars. Iran’s money was cut off which prevented their funding of global *******,” he said.

Netanyahu’s decision to nominate a hardline settler leader for ******** ambassador to Washington three days after Trump’s election also indicates that the prime minister believes the next administration will be receptive to right-wing arguments.

US-born Yechiel Leiter, who was Netanyahu’s chief of staff when he was finance minister, supports the annexation of the West Bank. According to the Haaretz newspaper, he was once active in the US-based ******* Defence League, the organisation founded by far-right ****** Meir Kahane. His son was ******* fighting in Gaza.

He was also reported to support the Abraham Accords, Trump’s efforts to normalise relations between ******* and ***** states, which had some success. However, advancing that process has been derailed by the ongoing war in Gaza and ***** anger over the suffering of the Palestinians.

Palestinians, already disillusioned with the US over Joe Biden’s support for ******* during the war in Gaza, say Trump’s pick for ambassador suggests the next president will make the prospect of an eventual two-state solution to the *******-************ conflict even more remote.

“Mr Huckabee has said things that are absolutely contradictory to international law,” says Mustafa Barghouti, a West Bank-based ************ politician.

“It will be really bad news for the cause of peace in this region.”

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