Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President-elect Donald Trump has selected former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R.) to serve as the next ambassador to Israel, signaling that relations with the Jewish state will greatly improve after four years of near-constant diplomatic tension under the Biden-Harris administration.

"Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years," Trump said in a statement. "He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!"

Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, will replace Ambassador Jack Lew, who has served in the role since November 2023 and led the Biden-Harris administration's efforts to pressure Israel into inking a ceasefire with Hamas and Hezbollah. While the ambassador to Israel's role is traditionally meant to strengthen ties between the United States and its top Middle East ally, the Biden-Harris administration enlisted Lew to threaten Israel and thrust a lopsided peace agreement on the Jewish state.

Huckabee, both inside and outside government, has been a vocal defender of Israel's efforts to eradicate Hamas and crush Iran's regional terror proxies. Just a month after Hamas's Oct. 7 terror spree, he traveled to Israel to tour border towns targeted during the terror group's rampage.

"If we don't stand with Israel, we stand for chaos," Huckabee said while touring a decimated kibbutz near the border with Gaza. "The evangelical community is, I think, overwhelmingly united in recognizing that Israel has a right to exist and a right to defend itself from those who try to question its existence."

Huckabee, a two-time presidential candidate, is a staunch Trump supporter who touted the president-elect's pro-Israel bona fides while on the campaign trail.

"I think the best thing you can say about Trump is that he's the guy that moved the Embassy, who recognized the Golan Heights, who recognized Jerusalem as the eternal capital, and got the Abraham Accords signed," Huckabee told the Jerusalem Post last year. "I don't know what else he could do to show his absolute support for Israel."

Huckabee has been a vocal critic of the Biden-Harris administration's efforts to push Israel into a ceasefire deal, suggesting these pressure campaigns will end when Trump takes the White House this January.

"There's no valid reason to have a ceasefire with Hamas," Huckabee said in June. "They're not capable of having an honorable negotiation. And every time something is put on the table, they pretend that they're gonna listen to it, they pretend that they're for it, and then they always reject it."

As a member of the International Fellowship for Christians and Jews, a group that works to improve faith-based relations, Huckabee has made clear that support for Israel is a top priority.

"This is a biblical mandate, and we need to stand on it and recognize that we should never ever allow the Jewish people to feel that they're alone again," he said in February.

Huckabee's daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is the governor of Arkansas and served for two years as Trump's White House press secretary.

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