Huckabee Points to Israel's Biblical Right to the Land: 'A Connection that Goes Back 3,800 Years' 

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is at the center of the raging storm in the Middle East. Before Israel's preemptive strike against the Iranian regime, he sat down with our Middle East Bureau Chief Chris Mitchell. Ambassador Huckabee spoke about Iran's nuclear threat, America's relationship with Israel, and how his faith in God directs all he does.

Chris Mitchell: "When President Trump called you, he didn't ask you. You said he told you. What did that mean for you to become Ambassador to Israel?"
 
Ambassador Huckabee: " It is, truly for me, an Isaiah moment. I just felt that it was, 'Here am I, Lord send me,' because it was the one thing that he would have or could have asked me to do, that I couldn't say no to him."

Mitchell: "You come at one of the most critical times in the history of Israel. One of the greatest threats facing Israel is Iran. Right now, they're talking about, just revealing that they've been doing a nuclear implosion test. And we seem to be at a tipping point. Do you see a possibility of either an Israeli or U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear facilities?"
 
Huckabee: "Never want to make a prediction about what could happen or even should happen. That's kind of beyond the portfolio of an ambassador. But I think President Trump has been crystal clear. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. And he's made it also clear throughout all the negotiations they can have no enrichment. They have to totally dismantle their nuclear aspirations for weaponry." 

WATCH: Israel's Daring Espionage Behind Iran Attacks

Mitchell: "One of the other threats facing Israel is the war in Gaza. Just about a month ago, you announced that there was going to be a new humanitarian aid program, now called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.  And it's been in operation on the ground for a couple of weeks now. How would you assess how it's done so far?"
 
Huckabee: "You know, I think all things considered, the environment that is having to work and it's working out very successfully. Every day, something is learned. We're scaling up. We started with four distribution sites. Those are now expanding to eight. We hope to have even more. We went there with the mission that the president gave us, which was twofold. One, get humanitarian aid to people to keep it out of the hands of Hamas.  Hamas had been taking the aid that had been going in, whether it was UN trucks or relief organizations. They would hijack the trucks, steal the food, put it in warehouses and then sell it to the people at twice the market price instead of giving it to them, which was the whole idea of humanitarian relief."
 
Mitchell: "You know there has been talk, you know, in the last couple of months that maybe there's some daylight between Israel and the United States with the Houthis, with Iran, with Gaza. You're right there in the middle. What do you say?"
 
Huckabee: "What I've said, and I really believe this is the hard fact. There is no breakup. America has friends. It has allies. It only has one partner. And by partner, I mean the relationship is like a marriage. It is so tight. And that's Israel. And the reason is, is because we share intelligence at a level with which we share with no other country.  We share military capacity, hardware and strategy. In a way we don't share with anybody else for both of our benefits. We do this, and it's a true partnership. And the reason the marriage is not about to break up is because neither side could afford to pay the alimony if we ever got a divorce."
 
Mitchell: "Boulder, Colorado. Washington, D.C. Two antisemitic attacks.  As an American, how concerned are you about the rise of antisemitism in the U.S.?"
 
Huckabee: "I'm mortified by it. I'm absolutely mortified by it because it signals that there is a breakdown in the culture of America. When people think that killing a Jew is okay, that it is justified by anything. It is not. It is a vile act of sheer evil.  And it's not a horizontal act of the left or the right. It is a vertical issue of good and evil, of right and wrong, of heaven versus hell. And those are hellish actions that every American, even non-faith-oriented Americans, needs to condemn without any ambiguity."
 
Mitchell: "How does your faith influence your role as ambassador?"
 
Huckabee: "It grounds me. It gives me an understanding that this is a very special place on Earth, that there is a geopolitical equation here that is primarily the role of the ambassador. But one cannot understand his role, one cannot even understand this part of the world without recognizing that the Jews have a connection to this land that goes back 3,800 years all the way to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  You can't understand even the geopolitical without understanding that if you try to separate it, you'll miss it every time."

***Please sign up for CBN Newsletters to ensure you receive the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***

Mitchell: "Final question, ambassador. I have had so many Israelis and Americans just thrilled at your appointment. You know, as they say, for such a time as this, and people want to know, how can they pray for you?"
 
Huckabee: "Well, I pray that there will be wisdom that not only that I will have, but that America's leaders will have, Israeli leaders will have, and that the leaders of the rest of the Middle East will have.  We're on the verge of what could be a transformational moment in the Middle East with a realignment, more countries joining the Abraham Accords, more countries normalizing their relationship to Israel. It's fragile. I'm not going to tell you it's a done deal, but there are things on the horizon. Pray that there would be not only the peace of Jerusalem, but peace throughout the region."