Prospects for peace in the Middle East

Mike Huckabee is the former governor of Arkansas and ­currently serves as the U.S. ambassador to Israel. During the last year, he’s had a front-row seat to the war in Gaza, as well as Israel’s fight against Iran and terror groups in Lebanon and Syria. President Donald Trump has made peace in the Middle East a top priority, even though many of the president’s most vocal supporters question whether America should invest so much time and energy in the region. Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor, says part of his job is to help convince skeptics back home that the U.S.-Israel relationship is vital. With the prospects for peace so close, Huckabee says now is not the time for America to draw back.

The next phase of the ceasefire plan calls for a board of peace to replace Hamas as the ruling authority over Gaza. Who should serve on this board? Anyone on that board is going to be very carefully vetted. President Trump will personally oversee every single person. He will be its first chair. The people who are on the board are going to be those who are committed to creating a different kind of Gaza, one that is not driven by Hamas, or terror, or the mindset that it is OK to slaughter Jewish people. I really believe we’re on the brink of something historic in the Middle East. And it wouldn’t have happened without President Trump. He’s the only person I know who could have gotten every one of the Arab nations to come to Sharm El Sheikh and sign that document saying that they’re going to be a part of the future of Gaza, and they’re also going to be standing together to ensure that Hamas has no future there, and must disarm.

You’ve mentioned a historic future. What does that look like? I think we could see something such as Abraham Accords expansion in 2026. Let me surprise you and tell you I think the next countries to join the accords could even be Syria and Lebanon, something that would have been unthinkable even a year ago. That’s just indicative of the complete realignment that’s taking place in the Middle East because of a very different kind of diplomacy that President Trump has employed.

Most everyone who comes into office as president sort of takes whatever has been done and they do the same thing. Even though it doesn’t work and never brings peace, every administration, Democrat or Republican, keeps doing it. But President Trump is the ultimate pragmatist. He looks at every decision and wants to know two things: Will it work and will it make things better? And if it won’t work, he won’t do it. And if it won’t make things better, he won’t do it. He’s less concerned about the horizontal, left and right. Will it be liberal? Will it be conservative? He’s interested in the vertical. Will it work? And will it make things better? And if it doesn’t, then he throws out the playbook, and he puts something on the table that nobody ever thought of before. And time and time again, what he puts in place of the unworkable becomes the unimaginable that actually works.

President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are allies but they have had their differences. Do you see friction between them in the future? If there’s any friction between the two of them on a personal level, I just simply don’t see it. In fact, I would say that I think their relationship is close enough that it can afford the differences they sometimes have. But these aren’t differences of policy. They’re not differences that are divisive. My gosh, I’ve been married 51½ years. My wife and I have some differences too, but we know we can trust each other. We know that we have committed to the relationship. What I see with President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu is the most amazing relationship between two world leaders who like each other personally, who enjoy each other’s company, who talk regularly, but they talk honestly. And if there’s a disagreement—and surely they have some from time to time—they deal with it respectfully. And they come to a conclusion that they both can live with. That’s how good relationships work.

The Trump administration in the past has expressed at least some support for a Palestinian state. Netanyahu has always insisted that would be a danger to Israel’s security. What’s the administration’s current position? President Trump has never said that there would be a Palestinian state. And he’s never said there wouldn’t. In his first term, he made it pretty clear it would have to start with some serious reform in the Palestinian Authority. They’re going to have to stop things like paying people who have murdered Jews. That’s been an incredibly negative thing that has enriched people who carried out acts of terror, and it made it very difficult to come to a peaceful solution.

Also, Palestinian textbooks teach children from the age of 6 that it is a noble thing to kill a Jewish person, and that carrying out an act of terrorism is not a crime or not something that is evil. It is something that is wonderful and desired, if the person that you murder is a Jew. Well, you can’t bring about a peaceful settlement, and you cannot grant a state, as long as that mindset continues to exist. So if there’s going to be something like a Palestinian state, it will have to be based on a peaceful view of the future and a respectful view of the right of Israel to live in the homeland that they have had since God said to Abraham: Here’s your homeland. This is a place for you. You are the people I’ve chosen, and I’ve got a purpose for you.

Many Christians view Israel through a prophetic lens. Do you believe the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 was the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy? If so, do the Jewish people in the state of Israel have a role to play in prophecy going forward?

You know, I tell people sometimes that when I was 18, I was an absolute expert on prophecy and how the end of the world was all going to happen. And the older I’ve gotten, the dumber I’ve become! I do believe that it was a fulfillment of prophecy for Israel to return to the land that God gave them. There’s something very incredible about that. Every day, I see the dry bones come to life with the flesh put on them, just like Ezekiel said. I see the desert come to bloom, as the prophet said, literally, seeing the desert bloom with fruits and vegetables, groves and trees that did not exist 52 years ago when I first came. So I believe in Biblical prophecy.

As to when is the end of the world coming? I don’t have a clue. Could be tomorrow; could be 2,000 years from now. What I do know is that whenever it comes, I believe I’ve lined up on the right side. When people ask me, “Are you feeling okay and comfortable over there?” I say, “Yeah, if the worst thing that could ever happen to me should happen, my next move from here would be a local move.” So I don’t try to predict when the end of the world will be or how it’s going to come about, or who’s going to instigate it. I simply don’t know. But I know that when I say this is the holy land, it is indeed just that.