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Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, has signaled he would not oppose Israel’s occupation of much of the Middle East, emphasizing Jewish rights to what he called land.
In an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that aired Friday, Mr. Huckabee was pressed about Israel’s geographic borders, which he claimed are rooted in the Bible.
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Mr. Carlson told Mr. Huckabee that a passage in the Bible promises land to Abraham’s descendants that includes the area between the Euphrates River in Iraq and the Nile River in Egypt.
Such an area would include parts of present-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
“I’d be fine with them accepting everything,” said Huckabee, who was appointed by President Donald Trump last year.
Mr. Carlson seemed surprised by the statement and asked Mr. Huckabee if he really approved of Israeli expansion throughout the region.
“They don’t want to take it over. They’re not asking for it to take over,” the ambassador replied.
The US envoy, an avowed Christian Zionist and staunch defender of Israel, later appeared to backtrack on his claims, saying it was “a bit of an exaggeration.”
Still, he left the door open to Israeli expansionism based on religious interpretation.
“If they get attacked from all these places and end up winning that war and taking that land, that’s a whole different story,” Huckabee said.
The State Department did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on whether Secretary of State Marco Rubio shares Huckabee’s views on Israel’s expansion rights.
The principle of territorial integrity and the prohibition of land acquisition by force have been the cornerstones of international law since World War II.
In 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal and must end immediately.
However, Israeli law does not clearly define borders. Israel also occupied Syria’s Golan Heights, which it illegally annexed in 1981.
The United States is the only country that recognizes Israel’s claims of sovereignty over Syrian territory.
After the 2024 war with Hezbollah, Israel also established military outposts in five locations in Lebanon.
Some Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have openly promoted the idea of a “Greater Israel” with expanded borders.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sparked international outrage in 2023 when he spoke at an event featuring a map that included the Palestinian territories and parts of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan as part of Israel, set in the colors of the Israeli flag.
In his interview with Carlson, Huckabee tried to argue that Israel’s right to exist is rooted in international law, but he also attacked legal institutions that oversee international law against human rights abuses by Israel.
“One of the reasons I’m so grateful that President Trump and Secretary Rubio are working so hard to get rid of the ICC (International Criminal Court) and the ICJ is because they are no longer effectively rogue organizations that are no longer about equal application of the law,” he said.
Huckabee has faced criticism not only for his professed religious devotion to Israel but also for failing to represent the rights of Americans killed and imprisoned by Israeli forces while he was ambassador.
Huckabee even drew the ire of some American conservatives last year when he met Jonathan Pollard, a convicted spy who sold American intelligence secrets to the Israeli government, details of which were later passed on to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.
Mr. Pollard is a former civilian analyst in the U.S. Navy who served 30 years in prison and immigrated to Israel in 2020 after his release. He has never expressed remorse for his crimes and in 2021 called on Jewish personnel in U.S. security services to spy for Israel.
Huckabee said he disagreed with Pollard’s views, but denied hosting him, insisting he only met with him at the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.
Asked if anyone could enter the embassy to meet the envoy, Mr. Huckabee acknowledged that such a meeting would require a pre-approved appointment.
“He was able to come and meet with me at the U.S. embassy at his request, which I did, and frankly I don’t regret it,” Huckabee said.
“I’ve met a lot of people while I’ve been here, and I’ll continue to meet a lot of people.”
