OUTCRY AFTER AMBASSADOR MIKE HUCKABEE SUGGESTS ISRAEL HAS GOD-GIVEN RIGHT TO MIDDLE EAST LAND. (PHOTO).

 Outcry after Ambassador Mike Huckabee suggests Israel has God-given right to Middle East land

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee sparked outrage across the Arab world after suggesting in an interview with Tucker Carlson that Israel has a biblical right to expand across much of the Middle East. While Huckabee clarified that Israel is not seeking to take over neighboring countries, his remarks about land promised to Abraham’s descendants were widely condemned. 

A coalition of Arab and Muslim nations, including U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar, issued a joint statement rejecting his comments as “dangerous and inflammatory,” while the Arab League labeled them “extremist and lacking any sound basis.”

Regional governments responded sharply, with Saudi Arabia demanding clarification from the U.S. State Department and Egypt calling the remarks a “flagrant breach” of international law. Iran warned that such rhetoric could embolden Israel’s actions against Palestinians and neighboring states. 

Huckabee later complained that a viral clip of the interview lacked context, saying the discussion was meant to be theological rather than political. He insisted that Carlson had steered the conversation toward broader territorial claims that were not his intention.

The controversy comes amid heightened tensions over Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. Just days earlier, Israel’s Security Cabinet approved measures to tighten control over Palestinian land, stripping local authorities of planning rights in Hebron. 

Palestinians condemned the move as undermining prospects for a future independent state, while Western governments expressed concern. Huckabee, a longtime Christian Zionist, has previously advocated for Israel to annex the West Bank and often refers to the territory by its biblical name “Judea and Samaria,” a position that aligns with far-right Israeli leaders but contradicts decades of U.S. policy.