Huckabee to JNS: America ‘benefits a great deal from Israel’
Hamas brought the Gaza war upon themselves, the ambassador said, adding that "Everything that people see there is not the result of anything other than the vicious hatred that Hamas harbors and carried out on October the 7th."
Newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee arrived at the Western Wall on Friday morning during the Passover holiday, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and to insert a handwritten note from President Donald Trump between the stones of the ancient Jewish edifice.
It was the ambassador’s first action, less than 24 hours after arriving to take up his post, and even before he presented his credentials to Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Huckabee, speaking to a group of reporters, told JNS that “Israel is an incredibly important ally to us, and … the United States and its citizens are directly the beneficiaries of some of the extraordinary achievements and accomplishments and innovations of the people here in Israel.
“People sometimes only think that Israel benefits from the United States,” he explained. “The truth is the United States benefits a great deal from Israel, and not just militarily. We certainly benefit from the technology, from the innovation, from defense systems that were developed here, but there’s a much more important and long-lasting side where Americans benefit in agriculture, technology, medical advancement.
“It is not a one-way street,” Huckabee told JNS.
“The relationship between the United States and Israel is not ceremonial. It’s deep. It’s rooted in our love of democracy and our love of the Judeo-Christian understanding that every life has worth and value,” he said.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, rabbi of the Western Wall, at the holy site in Jerusalem, April 18, 2025.
Asked about demands on Israel to resume aid in Gaza amid a now 18-month war in the Strip, Huckabee did not press Israel, saying that Hamas “brought this upon themselves.”
Noting that the entire war was preventable, Huckabee stated, “If Hamas had been a civil people, if they had been something less than savages that massacred, in the most vicious way, innocent civilians … they did not attack soldiers. They attacked civilians. They attacked women, children, babies, helpless, elderly people.
“Everything that people see there is not the result of anything other than the vicious hatred that Hamas harbors and carried out on October the 7th.”
Hamas is now “paying the price,” he said. “And tragically, so many innocent people are paying the price for the sins and the evil of these monsters.”
Regarding negotiations taking place between the United States and Tehran over its illicit nuclear weapons program, Huckabee said, “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. They will not be in a position where that they can threaten the peace, not just of Israel, but all of the people of the rest of the world.”
Expressing the position of the United States, Huckabee went on to explain, “Let’s never forget that the Iranians have not simply threatened Israel with extinction, which they have repeatedly over 46 years. But they have also threatened the United States. They don’t just say ‘Death to Israel,’ they say ‘Death to America.’”
He continued, “There’s an old saying that when people tell you over and again they’re going to kill you, you might want to take them seriously.
“I don’t think that this is just about Israel. Israel has often been called the little Satan and the U.S., the great Satan. I’d put it in simpler terms for the Iranians, Israel is the appetizer and the U.S. is the entrée. Whatever happens to Israel at the hands of the Iranians is intended to happen to those of us in the United States.
U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee holds a handwritten note from President Donald Trump at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. April 18, 2025.
While standing together with Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, rabbi of the Western Wall, Huckabee expressed his profound awe in making his first stop as ambassador at the Jewish holy site.
“What an honor it is for me to be here on behalf of President of the United States Donald Trump and to present a prayer that he handwrote and gave to me last Thursday in the White House, with the instruction that my first act as the ambassador would be to take his prayer, praying for the peace of Jerusalem, and to bring it to the Wall and to pray that there would in fact be peace in the land,” Huckabee said.
“It’s a special honor and joy to be able to do this on this final weekend of Passover. I cannot think of a better time to come and to bring this message of goodwill, and I also come with a prayer that all of the hostages will come home now and that we’ll bring them home. And that is the prayer of the president as well.”
Huckabee noted that Trump was the only U.S. president to have visited the Western Wall, a site revered by Jews as the retaining wall of the Second Temple that stood on the Temple Mount.
Rabinowitz, who recited Psalm 121 together the new ambassador, said, “Words cannot describe the emotion felt by the citizens of Israel and throughout the Jewish world upon hearing the announcement that you would come directly upon landing to the Western Wall, to pray and place a note on behalf of the president of the United States—one of Israel’s greatest friends. Especially in these difficult days of war, pain and uncertainty—your acts of friendship, faith, and support give the people of Israel strength and hope.
“I come today on behalf of the American people with prayers for best wishes, not just for Passover, but for all eternity,” Huckabee said.
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