Friend and frank critic: Huckabee on Israel, Gaza, and why Iran may need a 'third kick of the mule'

On a balmy summer afternoon this week, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and his team were scoping out the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem ahead of the embassy’s annual Independence Day celebrations set to take place there next week.

This year, it’s a big deal. The US recently celebrated 250 years since its founding.

Huckabee, who was handpicked for his role by US President Donald Trump, will be marking it at the museum, which, according to the ambassador, makes the special anniversary even more notable.

“It is a magnificent venue, perfect for our event because it’s large enough and the technology here is state-of-the-art,” Huckabee said, smiling with his trademark enthusiasm. “I can’t think of any location in the entire State of Israel that would be more appropriate.”

Huckabee, 71, a former Arkansas governor and die-hard supporter of Israel who recognizes the power of the tiny Jewish state, spoke to The Jerusalem Post as part of a special interview marking the anniversary.

“We have a lot to celebrate as Americans, and we have a lot to celebrate with Israel,” said the envoy, who unwaveringly believes that the US needs Israel as much as Israel needs the US.

“If there was never a Jewish state, if there was never a Jewish people, there would never have been a Christian foundation,” Huckabee said. “We feel like our roots as America really come from here … It’s the Judeo-Christian foundation upon which Western civilization was built, and America formed.”

It has been an intense few months in the Middle East

THE 250TH Independence Day celebration is taking place a little late this year, two months after the July 4th Independence Day holiday, to be precise. This is mostly, Huckabee said, because it has been an intense few months in the Middle East.

He has been more focused on the ongoing wars, endless ceasefire negotiations, and the flaring violence that US citizens living under his purview have had to face.

The ambassador is known for expressing his support for Israel, stating often that “the partnership with Israel is incredibly valuable to the United States.” And listing the benefits of the partnership as being in the fields of “intelligence,” “military hardware,” “technology,” and “counterterrorism.”

However, Huckabee has been unable to turn a blind eye to the growing violence being perpetrated by Israeli citizens against Palestinians in the West Bank, which, like many Israeli officials, he refers to as Judea and Samaria.

“Violence is violence. It doesn’t matter who does it – it should be condemned,” he stated.

“It would be inappropriate for me to say it’s terrible when Palestinians attack Israelis, which they do … and I’m very clear on how unacceptable that is … so I would be a bit of a hypocrite if I only spoke out against violence that was Palestinian on Israeli and refused to speak up if it was Israeli against Palestinian.”

Most of those committing the violence recently in and around Palestinian towns such as Qusra, Jalud, Turmus Aiya, and Taybeh, Huckabee said, are not Israelis living in established West Bank settlements.

“They represent a very tiny minority of the half million Israelis who live very peacefully in Judea and Samaria and raise their families to be good citizens.”

Huckabee was also clear that “Israelis have a right to build in Area C under the Oslo Accords, something that is not breaking any of the agreed-upon terms of Oslo from 1993.”

“They not only have the right, but they have really a responsibility to help create communities where their people can live,” he said. “Israel is growing rapidly. I know right now the whole country is less than 10 million, but that is changing.”

“With antisemitism rising around the world, I think you’re going to see more and more people making their way to the Jewish homeland, so it makes sense that part of those new communities are going to be in Judea and Samaria,” the ambassador continued.

“You can’t divorce the Jewish people from what has been a homeland of theirs for 3,800 years,” Huckabee said, adding that “eighty percent of the Bible happened in Judea and Samaria.”

Still, the ambassador said he was concerned about the rising violence.

“I would hope that every person says it’s unacceptable,” he said, adding that he was encouraged last weekend by condemnations from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, President Isaac Herzog, and Yesha Council head Israel Gantz.

Further, Huckabee said he was hopeful that the arrest warrants issued against several of the perpetrators would “help discourage, because there have to be consequences.”

“I tell people the things I’ve learned from raising children and training dogs … if there’s a behavior you want more of, you reward it; if there’s a behavior you want less of, you put consequences on it,” he said. “I think what we’re seeing is the beginning of the Israelis recognizing we got to have consequences for bad behavior.”

The media-savvy Huckabee said he was acutely aware that the images of balaclava-wearing, baton-wielding young men taking over family homes of Palestinians, including some US citizens, in the West Bank, and attacking international journalists in recent weeks were extremely damaging for Israel, including within the Republican Party.

“I think it’s hurting Israel’s reputation and image across the world. That’s why it’s not good that a very small number of people ... [who] don’t even live in Judea and Samaria and [who] are not settlers ... are doing things that are intentionally disruptive,” he noted.

“I wish that they understood the damage they’re doing to the country they claim to love because it is not helpful.”

Huckabee said he would like to challenge their actions “on the basis of the Torah.”

“Thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not covet what another person has,” were the biblical verses he said he would use.

“So biblically, for those who say: ‘We’re religious, good, and practice it,’ then don’t do things that are a violation of the most fundamental tenets of the Torah.”

'Nobody knows what's going to happen'

THE AMBASSADOR’S faith and learning are apparent when speaking about Iran, too.

Asked if this week’s rising tensions between the US and Iran, with missiles intercepted over Jordan, could mean a return to a more intense stage of the war, similar to earlier this year, Huckabee responded cautiously that even though “this is the land of the prophets and many of them have lived here … I am not a prophet, nor the son of prophets.”

“This is the Middle East. Nobody knows what’s going to happen,” he quipped. “Honestly, could something happen again? Of course it could. It’s a place in the world that is so incredibly contentious all the time.”

However, Huckabee said, Trump was not surprised by Iran’s refusal to yield, even though its regime and capacity appear to have been significantly weakened over the six months of fighting; rather, he said, the president was “exasperated with their stubbornness.”

“Where I come from in America, we have a saying: ‘There is no education in the second kick of the mule.’ What it means is, if the mule kicks you once and you don’t learn something from that, the chances are that the second kick ain’t gonna teach you much either,” the ambassador said.

“The Iranians are now after ‘two kicks of the mule,’ and they still don’t seem to get it … they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon, they’re not going to get to enrich uranium, and it may take a ‘third kick of the mule’ at some point. But I hope they get the message. I hope they change their ways,” he said.

While a formal ceasefire remains elusive, Huckabee said that for him, the joint US-Israel opening strike against Iran showed the strength and power of the relationship between the two countries.

“It was a day that I don’t think any of us will forget,” said Huckabee of February 28, the day the two countries launched a surprise attack on their nemesis.

Listing it as the 5th war-like engagement since arriving as ambassador to Israel in April 2025, Huckabee said he felt an “extraordinary sense of comfort knowing that our militaries were so aligned – unlike anything in history.”

“I say this not just from my perspective, but from the perspective of both US military leaders like Adm. [Brad] Cooper, who heads CENTCOM and was the strategic partner putting the American part of the plan together, as well as from the Israelis and the IDF, with whom I have almost daily contact,” Huckabee recounted. 

“The level of seamless operation that was experienced by both militaries ... was unprecedented.”

“The US has had many partners in military engagements through 250 years. We’ve never had one quite like this, where our planes were flying wingtip to wingtip. Our armed refuelers were refueling Israeli aircraft,” Huckabee said.

He described seeing the scene at the operation center, where American and Israeli military personnel sat side by side, distinguishable only by the flags patched onto their uniforms.

“It was a kind of integration that was just unbelievable,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee hopeful to see even small steps toward peace

LOOKING AT alliances – and tensions – across the broader region, the ambassador said he was hopeful that even small steps being taken toward resolutions between Israel and Lebanon and in Gaza under Trump’s Board of Peace were significant.

“I would say small steps are better than stepping backward,” Huckabee remarked. “They are the small steps that you have to take before you can make the big ones.”

He called the US-mediated talks between Israel and the Lebanese government “historic.”

“[Lebanese President Joseph] Aoun is truly trying to move Lebanon to where its people are free, free to live their lives, free to have homes and to regain the beauty of what once was one of the most beautiful places on Earth,” Huckabee noted, pointing out that for the past 70 years, the Lebanese were banned from even talking to Israelis.

“And here we are, sitting in the same room over several weeks in Washington with Israelis, Lebanese, and Americans, talking about how we move forward and get Hezbollah out of the picture so that there could be peace,” he said, recalling comments by President Herzog that he dreamed of one day being able to drive freely from Jerusalem to Beirut.

“That vision, that aspiration, is exactly what we all are hoping and praying for,” Huckabee underscored.

“For the first time in 70 years, we actually can see that this could happen. Will it happen this year? No. Will it be next year? I don’t know, but we are closer today than we’ve been.”

On Gaza, Huckabee shared the same optimistic view, highlighting that less than a year ago, most people doubted that all the Israelis brutally taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 would be returned home, or that the fighting in the war-torn territory would largely be brought to an end.

“Every single hostage, living and dead, in the Gaza Strip was returned nearly a year ago. That’s amazing. People didn’t think that would ever happen,” he said.

He was very critical of Hamas and its failure to disarm.

“They said they would do it, but they haven’t done it,” Huckabee stated, adding, “When people say, ‘Well, are they going to do it?’ I don’t know [the answer to that].”

“But here’s what I do know,” he continued. “While they said they’re going to give up their weapons, do you know how many they’ve given up so far? Zero. Not even so much as a cap pistol … So, we’re all waiting on Hamas to fulfill what it said, and at some point, they will either do it, or it will be done for them.”

As for criticisms that Israel has not kept its side of the bargain, the ambassador is steadfast.

“I’ve been in the meetings with the Board of Peace, and they’ve been very clear that Israel has every right to defend itself, every right to neutralize the weapons that are formed against them, and particularly, target those who were responsible for the horrific and heinous attacks of October 7.”

Acknowledging the upcoming third anniversary of October 7, Huckabee said it was important that “people don’t forget what happened that day.”

“I don’t want Americans to forget there were 16 Americans murdered that day and many other Americans taken hostage,” he said.

“Had this happened in America, given the scale of population that we have, it would have been the equivalent of 40,000 Americans being mutilated, slaughtered, massacred, and 10,000 people being taken hostage.”

“If anyone thinks that America would have been patient and kind and thoughtful,” sending “a strongly worded letter in response to the murdering and butchering of 40,000 Americans,” the ambassador stressed, “they don’t know America very well.”

But, again, Huckabee said he is hopeful that the tragic events of the past three years will make way for something better. He noted that he believed that moving forward, there could be a resumption of countries joining the historic Abraham Accords brokered by Trump during his first term.

“I think we’re seeing it already in the foundations of other countries recognizing that peace with Israel makes more sense than enmity with Israel,” he said, gesturing around him to the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem, which states that it serves as a vital platform for dialogue, understanding, and the fight against antisemitism and hatred in all its forms.

“We’re sitting in a place right now that is really kind of the epicenter of reminding people that peace is possible,” Huckabee continued.

“The Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem is a great reminder of the travails of the Jewish people, coming from some of the most horrific moments of history to a place where now, in the very center of the heart of Jerusalem, this magnificent facility stands as a testament to the resilience of the Israeli people of the Jewish state.”