Mike Huckabee, Trump's next ambassador to Israel, tells ALL ISRAEL NEWS his Evangelical faith informs his deep love and respect for Jews and Palestinians

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL -- Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate, first came to visit Israel when he was 17 years old.

And he's never stopped coming.

Over the past 52 years, Huckabee reckons he's come to the Holy Land about 100 times.

Along the way, he has brought thousands upon thousands of Americans -- mostly born-again Evangelical Christians -- on his tours.

Why does he keep coming back again and again?

I asked Huckabee about this in an extended interview I conducted for ALL ISRAEL NEWS and THE ROSENBERG REPORT, the weekly prime time TV show I host on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).

HUCKABEE HAD NO IDEA TRUMP WAS GOING TO NOMINATE HIM TO BE AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL

Huckabee told me how stunned he was to receive a phone call from President-elect Donald J. Trump asking him to be the next American ambassador to Israel.

It was a job Huckabee told me he neither sought nor expected.

We also spoke about how his deep and outspoken Evangelical Christian faith informs his love and respect not only for the Jewish people but for Palestinians, as well.

"Joel, I'm still in shock," Huckabee told me. "This was very unexpected and I didn't see it coming."

"Even though there had been some people who had said to me, 'Gee, I hope you get appointed,' I was thinking, 'Yeah, well, that doesn't mean anything -- I've got a busy life....I've got a lot on my dance card."

Trump's phone call "came out of the clear blue for me," Huckabee said.

He admitted that his historic appointment as the first devout Evangelical ever to be appointed to the post, and the first non-Jewish person appointed in about two decades, "is a bit overwhelming."

HUCKABEE 'GRATEFUL TO GOD' FOR 'EXTRAORDINARY OPPORTUNITY' -- SAYS IT IS HIS LOVE FOR THE BIBLE THAT INFORMS HIS LOVE FOR ISRAEL & HER NEIGHBORS 

"And yet I'm grateful to God for what I believe to be an extraordinary opportunity,' he quickly added.

"Joel, you and I have had so many conversations through the years. And, you know, my love for Israel -- my passion for the people of Israel -- having been there so many times since 1973 during my first trip there."

"So, in so many ways, of anything that I could have been asked to do [to serve the incoming Trump-Vance administration], this is the one thing that I sort of had to have that Isaiah moment and say, 'Here am I, Lord, send me.'"

Huckabee told me that it is his love for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- and his love for Jesus Christ and the entire Bible, both the Old and New Testaments -- that teaches him to love Israel and the Jewish people with a deep and unconditional love.

It is also the teachings of the Bible that teaches him to love Israel's neighbors.

HOW DOES HUCKABEE RESPOND TO PALESTINIAN FEARS OVER HIS APPOINTMENT?

"Many Palestinians are going to be nervous" about your appointment, I noted in our conversation. "But I know that you have a love and a compassion for the Palestinian people."

I noted that when we co-led a Delegation of Evangelical Christian leaders from the U.S. to visit Israel last December, we not only met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with Minister Gideon Sa'ar (recently promoted to Foreign Minister), but also with Israeli hostage families, Jewish and Christian leaders in the Land, and visited Israeli border communities invaded and savaged by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.

Additionally, we made it a point to spend time with some Palestinian Christians to better understand the enormous challenges that they have been going through, especially during this past year.

"What is your message to the Palestinian people?" I asked Huckabee.

I acknowledged that he is not in a position right now, especially in this transition period before his Senate confirmation hearings, to talk about President-elect Trump's policies towards the Palestinians.

But I asked him to share with our readers and viewers his values and how he views the Palestinian people and the suffering that they have gone through because of the war that Hamas set into motion.

HUCKABEE TALKS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF PROTECTING THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

"I'm speaking strictly on a personal level, not speaking policy here," Huckabee began.

"But I feel it's very important that we understand that human rights know no boundaries, no ethnicities, no religious barriers," he said.

"Every human being on the planet deserves to be treated with respect and dignity."

Huckabee said he wants to see these raging wars in Gaza and Lebanon come to an end soon, and that he believes Trump can help Israel win and achieve security, while also showing respect to the needs and rights of the Palestinian people.

"Some of the most incredibly important things that I've seen happening for the Palestinian people" in recent years, he said, "have happened because of economic opportunities that were brought about by private sector companies."

Huckabee told me that "the best jobs that many of the Palestinian people have ever had that paid them great wages and benefits" were with Israeli companies.

"The way to overcome many of the conflicts" in this region, he said, requires "a recognition" of Israel's right to exist in safety and security by "those who are, let's say, maybe historically Jordanian, or historically Arabic."

Huckabee explained that many Arabs "may identify now as Palestinian, but that's really a relatively modern term, mostly created by Yasser Arafat."

"I mean, there's not a Palestinian country that has existed historically."

"So, I get in trouble sometimes for mentioning that, but it's just a fact."

PALESTINIANS DESERVE 'HIGHEST LEVEL OF RESPECT' BUT MUST ALSO RESPECT ISRAEL'S RIGHT TO SAFETY AND SECURITY

The Palestinian people, he told me, "are deserving of the highest level of respect."

But, he said, "they must recognize the right of Israel to exist, the right of Israel to protect itself and to be safe."

"And the degree to which there can be a real desire to see not a two-state government solution, but a two-people humanitarian opportunity, that's the future, where people have economic opportunity."

"They may be Arabic in their ethnicity, they may be Muslim in their faith -- or they may be Christian...because there are quite a few Arab Christians, as you well know -- but [it's important that they are] able to say, 'We can live peacefully and coexist with our Jewish neighbors because we are all going to live in a land in which we want to have freedom, we want to have safety and security for our families, we want to have good jobs, and we want to be able to contribute something to our neighborhoods and to our world."

I absolutely agree and believe it's very important what Huckabee told me.

True, I've been writing and speaking for years about the importance of Evangelical Christians showing love and respect not only to Israel but to Palestinians, as well.

But I'm not about to serve as President Trump's ambassador to Israel.

Mike Huckabee has that job, and I'm so glad he does.

That's why it's so important to know how his biblical faith informs his love and respect for people on both sides of this conflict.