WASHINGTON: United States President-elect Donald Trump chose Mike Huckabee on Wednesday, a former Arkansas governor, to be his ambassador to Israel.
“Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, as he stated that Huckabee ‘loves’ Israel. The former Arkansas governor has long been a strong advocate for a one-state solution.
Huckabee has run for president himself twice in the past. In his first bid which came in 2008, the former governor stated that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.” He went on to state that the notion of Palestinian state is used as a “political tool to try and force land away from Israel.”
In 2017, Huckabee visited the west bank to advocate for the then recently elected Trump’s policies relating to Israel. Using the slogan “build Israel great again,” Huckabee reiterated his stance on Palestine. “There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria,” he said, adding shortly after that “there’s no such things as an occupation.”
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Huckabee, who has previously worked as a Baptist preacher, stated that the October 7 attack by Hamas was “beyond anything I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime.” In June of this year, the former governor said that Hamas is “not capable of having an honourable negotiations,” in regards to President Joe Biden’s attempts to broker a ceasefire.
MUSLIM VOTE
A poll from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) showed that more Muslim Americans voted for Trump than Vice President Kamala Harris. It was close between the two candidates, with eh poll showcasing that around 21 per cent of Muslims voted for Trump, while 20.3 per cent voted for Harris. Both lagged far behind Jill Stein, which received 53 per cent of the vote according to the poll.
While results between Trump and Harris are close, it is a big drop for Democrats relative to 2020, in which CAIR found that 69 per cent of Muslim voters chose Biden. According to CAIR, Trump has become increasingly popular with Muslim voters, as the President-elect received four per cent more of the Muslim vote than in 2020, when he received 17 per cent. In 2016, CAIR reported that exit polls showed he received 13 per cent of the Muslim vote.
Despite Trump gaining favour with Muslim voters, exit polls shows that Harris’ poor showing is in part due to Muslim Americans choosing to vote for a third-party candidate or withhold their vote all together.
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Before the election, a poll from the Arab News Research and Studies unit illustrated Arab Americans displeasure with the Biden administrations handling of the conflict in the middle east. Poll takers believed that Trump would be more likely to “successfully resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict,” despite not favouring either candidate in regards to who would be “better for the Middle East.”