A new Middle East?

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Envisioning a New Middle East.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee remembers the day the last hostages came home.

MIKE HUCKABEE: It was that kind of moment where you remember exactly where you were. I knew most of these families, so when I saw their faces and I saw the reunions, I was just overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude to God and joy.

October 13, 2025, following 738 days of captivity.

Ambassador Huckabee says he thinks we are on the brink of a historic time in the Middle East. WORLD’s Travis Kircher talked to him recently about what that might look like.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: Ambassador Mike Huckabee, shalom. Thank you for joining us.

HUCKABEE: What a pleasure, Travis. Great to be with you.

KIRCHER: I want to start with the next phase of the cease fire plan. It calls for a board of peace to replace Hamas as the ruling authority over Gaza. Who do you think should serve on this board, and how can we prevent Hamas sympathizers from getting a seat at the table?

HUCKABEE: Well, I think anyone on that board is going to be very carefully vetted. President Trump will personally oversee every single person on that board, 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 mindset that it is okay to just murder and slaughter Jewish people. I really believe we're on the brink of something historic in the Middle East. Wouldn't happen 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 Sheik 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 that they must disarm, as President Trump has told them over and over and over again.

KIRCHER: Well obviously President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are allies, but the two have had their differences. Netanyahu himself has expressed skepticism about the proposed board of peace. Do you see friction between the two in the future?

HUCKABEE: I speak or meet with the Prime Minister almost every other day, that's part of my job as ambassador from the United States. 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 that their relationship is close enough that it can afford the differences that they sometimes have. But these aren't differences of policy, they're not differences that are divisive. My gosh, I've been married 51 and a half years, my wife and I have some differences too, but we've still been married all this length of time because we know that we can trust each other. I think, in many ways, 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 are realistic and can live with. That's that's how good relationships work.

KIRCHER: Talk more about the future of the Middle East generally. What does that future look like?

HUCKABEE: I think we could see something such as Abraham Accord's expansion in 2026. Let me surprise you and tell you I think it could be that the next countries that would be a part of Abraham Accords could even be Syria and Lebanon. Something that would have been unthinkable even a year ago, unheard of. But it's just kind of maybe 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. 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.

KIRCHER: So Lebanon and Syria are entertaining joining the Abraham Accords?

HUCKABEE: I think it's possible, yeah. I mean, I'm not going to make a prediction as to when or exactly how it'll all come about, but there's real progress being made there.

KIRCHER: What would be the implications of that, were it to happen?

HUCKABEE: It would bring an incredible calm to the northern and eastern borders that Israel has with both Syria and Lebanon. And I think the leaders of those countries do understand that they have more to gain by normalizing a relationship with Israel than they do by not. They understand Israel is not interested in going into an incursion in either Lebanon or Syria on any permanent basis. The only thing they want is they want a secure border. Israel would love not to have anything to do with Lebanon or Syria, other than waving across the fence and saying, 'Good morning neighbor,' and that would be a blessing to everyone on both sides of the fence.

REICHARD: We’ll run a longer discussion with Ambassador Huckabee this weekend on The World and Everything in It podcast feed.

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