Former President Donald Trump tapped former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a supporter of Israeli annexation of the West Bank and a longtime leader in the evangelical Christian wing of the Republican Party, to be his ambassador to Israel as the U.S. ally wages multiple conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran and Syria.

Huckabee is the latest selection by Trump for his next administration who is a fervent supporter of Israel’s war efforts, with New York Rep. Elise Stefanik having been nominated for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, a hawkish backer of Israel and critic of Iran, as his national security adviser. Ambassadorships are mostly Senate confirmable positions, meaning Huckabee will have to be approved by a Republican-controlled chamber.

Huckabee, who was a top contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, is the father of current Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s former White House press secretary.

“I am pleased to announce that the Highly Respected former Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, has been nominated to be The United States Ambassador to Israel. Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years,” Trump said in a statement on Tuesday. “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!”

The 69-year-old Baptist minister and former Fox News host has remained in right-wing media since leaving office in 2007 and ran again briefly for president in 2016. Huckabee said after Trump was first elected in 2016 that he discussed a Cabinet role with the incoming president, but that it was not “the right fit.” He was also reportedly considered for the Israeli ambassadorship at the time.

U.S. support for Israel is central to many evangelical Christian’s foreign policy beliefs and Huckabee has long-standing ties with the country.

“Evangelicals and so many people support Israel so much more. It's not just a Jewish people, it's so many Christians are so supportive of Israel,” Trump observed at a “Believers and Ballots” town hall in Georgia last month. 

Huckabee has led paid tour group visits to Israel for years, frequently advertising the trips on conservative-leaning news outlets. He wrote in 2017 he started organizing trips to Israel in 1981. 

“Let me help you experience Israel in a comprehensive way---embracing the Biblical history and lessons, but also understanding Israel as the center of the geo-political universe of the Middle East and many parts of the world,” Huckabee wrote in a 2017 Facebook post. 

During a 2017 trip to an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, which are illegal according to international law, Huckabee said “there is no such thing as a West Bank” and “no such thing as an occupation.” In 2018, he said he “one day might want to purchase a holiday home” in another settlement. He has expressed support for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank

In 2019, Trump named Huckabee to the board of the Kennedy Center in Washington for a term set to expire in September 2024. After supporting and spreading Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election, Huckabee campaigned for him this year. 

Israel will garner much focus during the early months of Trump’s upcoming administration, as it has for the last year since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that triggered a larger conflict. Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities, who don’t say how many of those killed were militants. The United Nations’ Human Rights Office said last week that around 70% people killed between Nov. 2023 and April 2024 were women and children.

“There’s no valid reason to have a cease-fire with Hamas. They’re not capable of having an honorable negotiation,” Huckabee said in June. “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.”

“This is like trying to negotiate with the Nazis in World War II. You just don’t,” he continued. “You beat them. You defeat them. You eradicate them.”

Around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been displaced, and hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps, with little food, water or hygiene facilities. The United States has rushed billions of dollars in military aid to Israel during the war, while pressing it to allow more aid into Gaza. Israeli President Isaac Herzog was at the White House to meet with President Joe Biden on Tuesday as fighting between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah has increased and humanitarian aid organizations have said that Israel’s failure to get aid into Gaza has “dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza.” 

On Tuesday, Palestinian medical officials said Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed at least 31 people in the past 24 hours and paramedics in Lebanon said an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building killed at least six people while four, including a woman who is almost 90, remained buried under the rubble. Hezbollah began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza. Since the conflict erupted, more than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 14,000 wounded, the country's Health Ministry reported.

Trump has promised to end the wars in the Middle East without saying how. He was a staunch defender of Israel during his previous term, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says they have spoken three times since his reelection last week.

The Republican Jewish Coalition praised Trump’s pick, noting Huckabee’s “abounding love of Israel and its people is second to none.”

“As the Jewish state continues to fight an existential war for survival against Iran and its terrorist proxies, Governor Huckabee will represent America’s ironclad commitment to Israel’s security with distinction,” the coalition said in a statement. 

Trump’s ambassador to Israel during his first term, David Friedman, wrote on social media that Huckabee “is one of Israel’s greatest friends.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.