Bill Hagerty Asks Ambassador Nom Mike Huckabee On Importance Of Standing 'Arm-In-Arm' With Israel

4/1/2025

During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last week, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) questioned former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) about the US-Israel alliance.

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Transcript

00:00It's wonderful to see you here.

00:02You're somebody I've long admired.

00:03I appreciate our friendship.

00:05I must say you're one of the best communicators that I've ever had a chance to work with,

00:08and what a beautiful skill set to bring to such a critical role as being our next ambassador

00:13to Israel.

00:16In President Trump's first term, he stood by Israel in a way that was unprecedented,

00:22and he did it in a way that weakened our mutual enemies, and he did it all while avoiding

00:27a costly war.

00:28If you think about what happened, he moved our embassy to Jerusalem, he acknowledged

00:33Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and he acknowledged and negotiated the historic

00:42Abraham Accords.

00:44He did all of this despite the pearl clutching in Washington without a single war.

00:51We also withdrew from the disastrous JCPOA, and we implemented maximum pressure on Iran

00:57at a time that was absolutely critical.

00:58I participated in that, getting the Japanese government to stop buying Iranian crude oil.

01:02It happened around the world.

01:03Guess what happened?

01:04Iran was broke.

01:06Then something changed.

01:08The administration changed.

01:09The Biden administration came in, waived the sanctions, stopped enforcing the sanctions

01:13on Iran.

01:14Iran became rich again.

01:16They began to talk in ways that created distance and daylight between America and its ally,

01:24Israel.

01:25I think that had a great deal to do with emboldening Hamas, emboldening Iran, and leading up to

01:31the October 7, 2023 attacks.

01:33I'd just like to hear your viewpoint, Governor Huckabee, in the event that you're confirmed,

01:41how important it is to you that the United States stand arm-in-arm with Israel and not

01:45show any daylight between ourselves and our ally.

01:49Senator, thank you.

01:50A wonderful question and an opportunity for me to remind everyone that it was during President

01:55Trump's first term that there really was peace.

01:58It was peace in the Middle East.

01:59He did extraordinary things to show our relationship to Israel in recognizing Jerusalem as the

02:05eternal indigenous capital of the Jewish people.

02:09When he moved the embassy, basically the entire world told him not to do it, that the world

02:14would blow up if he did it.

02:16He did it.

02:17I happened to be with him one-on-one about two weeks after he made that decision and

02:22announced it.

02:23I'll never forget, Senator, what he said to me, because I ask him, why did you do it?

02:28Everyone told you not to, the world leaders, people in government positions, they all said

02:33don't do it.

02:34You did it.

02:35Why?

02:36I'll never forget.

02:37He looked at me very simply and said, because I said I would and it was the right thing

02:40to do.

02:41And, Senator, that's why I am honored and privileged to be able to be named by this

02:47president to serve in this capacity, because I like his sense of clarity when it comes

02:54to the moral issue of standing with an ally.

02:58And right now, Israel needs an ally.

03:01And frankly, let me add, the Jewish people need to know they have friends.

03:06There's a long line of enemies that the Jewish people experience across this globe and sadly

03:12on some of our own university campuses.

03:14It's going to be a privilege to be able to be one of those people, not Jewish, Christian

03:20in fact, but to say to our Jewish friends, you will never go through what you've gone

03:26through alone.

03:28We will stand not behind you.

03:30We will stand with you.

Bill Hagerty Asks Ambassador Nom Mike Huckabee On Importance Of Standing 'Arm-In-Arm' With Israel

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