The liberal Jewish media predictably greeted Mike Huckabee’s nomination for ambassador to Israel with hysteria. “Mike Huckabee’s old-school Christian Zionism is bad news for anyone who wants Middle East peace,” warned Forward. “America first or annexation first? Punch-drunk Israeli ministers have big plans for Trump,” Haaretz’s headline read. “Trump named Mike Huckabee ambassador to Israel. Is that a sign of the second coming of annexation?” inquired Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
These cynical
pronouncements reveal a failure among the secular Jewish establishment to grasp
that Huckabee’s interests align with Israel’s even more so than those of
previous Jewish ambassadors. His mission is to bring the biblical arc of
history to a close with the repatriation of Judea and Samaria (known as the
West Bank) to the Jewish people.
Compared to the recent slate of Jewish ambassadors to Israel
under Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama—Jack Lew, Thomas Nides, and Dan
Shapiro—a former Baptist minister from Arkansas seems a curious choice. But
consider when, in 2021, Israeli official Ron Dermer ruffled some Jewish
feathers by remarking that evangelical Christians form “the
backbone of Israel’s support in the United States,” citing their “passionate
and unequivocal” devotion. Trump’s choice of the proudly Christian Huckabee
reflects Dermer’s point: The center of gravity for American support of Israel
has moved from the synagogue to the church.
Like most other evangelical Christians in America,
Huckabee’s love for Israel is rooted in the Bible. When God first appears to
Abraham, he promises in Genesis 12:3: “I will bless those who bless you, and
whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed
through you.” Evangelicals interpret this verse spiritually as well as
pragmatically, attributing American prosperity to its support for Israel and
the Jewish people. “I want to be on the blessing side, not the cursed side,” Huckabee
said.
For evangelical Christians, modern Israel’s success has profound theological significance. While they interpret current events through the lens of the End Times, there’s considerable diversity in how different evangelical groups understand eschatology. Some maintain the traditional view that all people, including Jews, must ultimately accept Jesus in order to be saved. But many Christian Zionists embrace a more nuanced theology, recognizing God’s enduring covenant with the Jewish people as foundational and eternal.
Contrary to Jewish conventional wisdom, these Christian Zionists assuage the
angst of Jewish observers by seeing the biblical promise fulfilled through the
repatriation of Judea and Samaria into the modern State of Israel. As a
Christian Zionist, Huckabee’s theology poses no physical or spiritual threat to
the Jewish people, nor does it contain any trace of anti-Semitism. “You can be
a Jew and have nothing to do with Christianity,” Huckabee said in Jerusalem in
2017, “But you cannot be a Christian without having everything to do with all
of Judaism.”
There is a universal element of Huckabee’s Christian Zionist theology that mirrors the view of Trump’s former ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, whose Jewish perspective is rooted in Scripture. Friedman’s ideas, as expressed in his recent book One Jewish State: The Last, Best Hope to Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, represent “a convergence of faith and politics,” defending Jewish self-determination in Israel both theologically and practically.
Released only a few weeks before the first anniversary of Hamas’
October 7 jihadist massacre, One Jewish State warns that “no
good outcome will be achieved by giving the biblical heartland of the Jewish
people to others who do not respect the words of the Bible or the holiness of
the land.”
For Friedman, the October 7 massacre only reinforced the
view that Israel’s repeated, decades-long efforts to trade “land for peace”
with its neighbors had failed. This view is increasingly popular in Israel, and
in July, Israeli lawmakers voted overwhelmingly (68–9) to oppose ceding control
of land in Judea and Samaria for the establishment of a Palestinian
state.
If the biblical heartland is not to be partitioned for a
Palestinian state, what then is its future? For Friedman, the answer is
unequivocal: the complete integration of Judea and Samaria into Israel proper.
He argues that this is not merely the best and most practical option, but the
only path that can fulfill the biblical mandate. “Only through full Israeli
sovereignty,” Friedman writes, “can we create a secure and prosperous nation
that honors its biblical heritage while ensuring dignity, opportunity, and
pride for all who dwell within its borders.”
Knowingly or not, both Friedman and Huckabee’s theological outlook draws significantly from the visionary work of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. Born in Latvia in 1865, Rabbi Kook would become the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine and the architect of modern religious Zionism—elevating Zionism from a political movement to a religious imperative.
Unlike his Orthodox contemporaries who dismissed secular Zionists for their
lack of religious observance, Rabbi Kook saw divine purpose in their pioneering
work. In Kook’s vision, this secular phase of nation-building would naturally
evolve into a spiritual awakening, as Jews returned not only to their land but
to their faith. Kook also foresaw a third and final phase: universal Zionism,
where the Jewish state’s spiritual revival would radiate outward, influencing
and uplifting all nations.
Trump’s Christian and Jewish ambassadors to Israel, despite their different faiths, are united by a universal Zionist theology that transcends religious boundaries. Their shared vision of a secure, sovereign Israel fulfilling its biblical destiny, as opposed to the tired, failed pursuit of the Oslo-era “two-state solution,” represents a new chapter in American-Israeli relations. A chapter where Jewish and Christian support for Israel don’t merely coexist but empower one another.
