Introducing Governor Huckabee to the Chareidi World

The decision by Trump to name Governor Huckabee to this important post has thrilled people who are looking for a pro-Israel approach from the US government. Throughout his career, Huckabee has expressed strong and emphatic support for Israel. And while left-wing Jews whose own support for Israel’s defense is questionable made noises after the nomination because Trump hadn’t chosen a Jew, people who have been watching the Jewish members of the Biden administration know that someone being a Jew doesn’t mean they will protect other Jews.
At the meeting on Sunday, high in the Trump World Tower in Midtown Manhattan, one of the first things that Mr. Huckabee mentioned was that question. He said that he had heard a very positive reaction from the vast majority of people about his nomination.
“Because some people may say, oh my heavens, we need a Jewish guy to be the ambassador. But here’s what I’ve heard, Rabbi, from a number of people. They said, in a way, this is going to be better for this reason. If a Jewish person is ambassador, everybody says, oh, of course he’s going to be pro-Israel.”
A non-Jew, he said, creates a bigger impact when he is pro-Israel.
Huckabee said that he sees the appointment as something that he has been prepared for by G-d all his life, and he noted that he had not asked Trump for the position. The decision to nominate him was essentially a surprise—one that he sees as providential.
But Rav Hofstedter’s intentions in meeting Governor Huckabee were not to discuss general Israel policy. The governor visits Israel regularly and has numerous pro-Israel Jewish friends and contacts. What Rav Hofstedter was looking to do was to introduce the ambassador nominee to the chareidi world, a part of the Jewish world he has not had the same level of contact with.

Between the Raindrops

In arranging the meeting with the governor, Rav Hofstedter was attempting to walk a fine line. The support of a pro-Israel evangelical like Mike Huckabee generally manifests itself in support for the policies of the Israeli government and the right-wing elements of the Israeli electorate.
But Torah Jews have a sometimes uneasy relationship with the government—as is the situation in which we find ourselves right now. Rav Hofstedter wanted to find out if, as ambassador, Mr. Huckabee could give a measure of support for the chareidi community in Israel (as well as chareidim elsewhere around the world), despite that level of tension that it may have with the Israeli government.
After sitting down, Rav Hofstedter said that he felt that having a religious man as ambassador to Israel was particularly important.
“I think it’s important that there’s an ambassador who’s a man of faith and who will appreciate the people of Israel who are loyal to the Bible, to the Torah, and to their faith,” he said.
He noted: “We’re going through a very difficult time now. You just can’t believe that it’s such a short period after the Holocaust that the world has forgotten all of that. And we are under attack around the world, especially the Orthodox Jews who are visibly Jewish and are easy targets. The people of the world can have tolerance for everything and almost anybody, but not Orthodox Jews. It’s so sad. And we are under assault in America. The yeshivah system, the Torah school system in New York, is under assault.
“Not everyone has an appreciation that this is the community that adheres to the Bible,” Rav Hofstedter noted. “The woke culture that affects so much of Western civilization affects Israel as well. They’re not immune from it by any means.”
Mr. Huckabee agreed. “There is a big difference between the lifestyle in Tel Aviv and the lifestyle in Jerusalem. I think it’s a fair assessment to say wokeism is alive and well in many parts of Tel Aviv and Herzliya.”
That, Rav Hofstedter said, was why he would like to invite Mr. Huckabee to join him and meet the leaders of the chareidi world in Israel and to better understand the chareidi populace of Israel. He noted that many of them are, in fact, Americans, learning Torah there.
“That would be wonderful,” Mr. Huckabee said. “And I think if anti-Semitism continues to gather steam here, there may be more Americans going to Israel, because it may be the safest place on earth for them to go. Which is tragic but true.”

The Role of an Ambassador

I asked the governor how he sees the role of the ambassador in public policy. After all, there are a number of different administration officials who deal with the Middle East.
“I clearly understand that the purpose of the ambassador is to represent the United States and the president in Israel in that position,” he said. “But it’s also incumbent upon an ambassador to a particular country to be able to communicate and be somewhat of a connector between the two countries. [Former Ambassador] David Friedman, who is a very close friend, has told me that part of his responsibility was to not only communicate the US’ wishes to Israel and to be a representative in that direction but to also share with the president observations and recommendations—and that was a very important part of the role. He said that some of his most effective work was when he came back to Washington and met with the president to make those connections.
“So I think that it helps to explain that it’s not that you’re simply the conduit for US policy to Israel, but that you’re there to assess the impact of that policy, communicating it back to the national security team on this side, too.”
I asked whether we would see policy differences in his ambassadorship in contrast with Joe Biden’s ambassadors.
He replied: “One of the things I have to be aware of is that an ambassador doesn’t get to initiate his own policies. He serves at the pleasure of the president. So the policies will be those that the president says, this is the official policy of the United States. It’s my role to carry that out and interpret it.
“Will I be able to influence that policy? I wouldn’t have taken the job if I didn’t think I could. Because part of what made me compelled to do this is having a deep-seated understanding of what Israel is and why it’s important. And so I think that’ll be a very important part of the role that I’ll play.”
Rav Hofstedter asked whether he feels that President-elect Trump still shares those views.
“I think so,” Governor Huckabee said. “If past is prelude to the future, his four years in office were without question the most pro-Israel views and policies that we’ve ever had as America. The recognition of Jerusalem as the eternal and indigenous capital of the Jewish state. Recognizing the Golan Heights. Moving the embassy. Taking away the penalties for people living in Judea and Samaria. All of those policies that the president put in place strongly supporting Israel and its right to defend itself, and recognizing that the threat, whatever it may be to Israel, particularly from the Iranian regime, is ultimately a threat to the United States.
“All of those things are policies that have already clearly demonstrated where he is. I can’t imagine that in the past four years he’s had a significant change of mind as it relates to that. And I look at the people that he’s surrounding himself with. People on his national security team: Marco Rubio as secretary of state, and selecting me. These are not indicative of people who are going to have a radical departure from his first term in office. So I’ll be very surprised if he comes and says, ‘Let’s go out there and get a two-state solution.’”