JERUSALEM, Israel – This past week, members of Israel’s government, diplomats, evangelical leaders, and friends welcomed the new U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. CBN News was on hand at the packed event, held at the Friends of Zion Museum.
Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Eli Cohen greeted the ambassador, praising him for “taking this mission in a historic time.”
Cohen added, “We are in (a) historical time right now in the State of Israel, while we are fighting with seven different countries. And it’s also the right time to thank the United States of America, President Trump, and you, Mike, for all what you are doing for the State of Israel, and to the Jewish people as well.
Mike Evans, founder of the Friends of Zion Museum, hosted the event.
Evans echoed Cohen’s reference to history, noting, “We have for the first time in the history of the State of Israel, a Bible-believing ambassador in the Bible land.”
He continued, “Mike Huckabee, Israelis were saying to me, ‘This is like a church service.’ Israelis are telling me that. I think it was. The hostage families were here. Ambassadors from all over the world were here. israeli diplomats were here. It was a celebration of moral clarity. They know – they know – they have a friend of Zion in Mike Huckabee.”
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When it was his turn to speak, Huckabee expressed his gratitude, stating, “No greater honor could be bestowed upon me than to be called a friend of the Jewish people. That may seem strange. Why is it that I, as a Christian, would have such a connection to the Jewish people? I try to explain it, it’s pretty simple. It’s because without the Jewish people, I don’t have a faith. I have nothing.”
Huckabee added, “And it is the adherence to the Bible, the belief that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, upon which everything I believe is held. And God decided to bring His light into the world and His law into the world through the Jewish people. That wasn’t my decision, it was His.”
Huckabee continued, “I respect what God chooses to do. I honor what God chooses to do. And in many ways, I like to tell my friends who are Jewish, I owe you. I’m indebted to you; without you, my faith doesn’t exist. And I hope that makes sense to you. And it’s why I have such a revolting hatred toward antisemitism, because it’s really a hatred towards God.”
Evans believes Huckabee brings assurance to the Israeli people.
“I think it’s hope, it’s going to give them hope, because they didn’t have – they’ve had duplicity in the past. Four years of duplicity through Biden, and duplicity through other Democratic leaders. They know they’re going to get honest answers, and they’re going to get a genuine person that wants to help them. There’s two of them. There’s Donald Trump, there’s Mike Huckabee, and then, of course, you even have Marco Rubio. It’s just terrific.”
Huckabee contends that he’s “come home.”
“We have come to Israel so many times, I’ve been here over 100 times in the past 52 years,” he recalled.
He added, “Normally, we come here for a couple of weeks, we bring several hundred people at a time, and then we go home. And the other night we were sitting, talking, and, you know, I said, ‘You know, typically after two weeks, we go home.’ This time we are home – here.”
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