US no longer fully backs independent Palestinian state, Ambassador Huckabee reportedly says

An Israeli outpost established during the Israel-Gaza war in the West Bank’s northern Jordan Valley, pictured in April 2025

Ben Samuels reports in Haaretz on 10 June 2025:

The United States no longer fully supports an independent Palestinian state, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday.

According to the report, the ambassador said that changes allowing for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank would not occur “in our lifetime.”

Huckabee told Bloomberg that such a state, if established, would be outside the West Bank, and even suggested that a Muslim state allocate territory for it. “Does it have to be in Judea and Samaria?” he asked, using the Israeli settlers’ designated term for the West Bank, embraced by their government.

Two decades of U.S. policy treated a Palestinian state as an objective; however, the American ambassador expressed ambivalence when asked if the Trump administration would support this longstanding position.  In an interview with Haaretz in May, Huckabee expressed a similar ambivalence, saying, “I’m asking whether there truly needs to be a separate state.”

“Muslim countries collectively have 644 times the landmass that Israel has,” he added. “So I’m not saying there shouldn’t be [such a state], but the real questions are: Where would it be? How would it be governed? And what kind of culture would underpin it?”  He also questioned in the interview if a Palestinian state would “have to exist within the current geographical boundaries of Israel?”

Huckabee also addressed the Gaza war when speaking to Bloomberg Tuesday, blaming Hamas for the lack of a cease-fire deal. He called for the release of hostages and endorsed the aid distribution system operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, saying it prevents Hamas from taking control of aid while solving the humanitarian conditions in Gaza.

Amid threats of ultra-Orthodox Knesset factions to quit the government over the lack of a law exempting Haredi men from IDF service, Huckabee confirmed that he met with ultra-Orthodox leaders in Israel and warned them about the impact of governmental collapse on relations with the US. “Americans won’t understand a collapse of a government,” Huckabee said. “That, to Americans, signals instability.”

Regarding Iran’s nuclear program, Huckabee reiterated Trump’s position that Iran will not enrich uranium or possess nuclear weapons, noting that “nothing’s off the table” if talks fail.  “The president has made clear that there’s a limit to his patience with Iran,” Huckabee told Bloomberg. “He doesn’t want there to be carnage. But he also has been even more clear that Iran’s not going to have a nuclear weapon, they aren’t going to enrich, and they’re going to have total dismantlement.”

Shortly after Bloomberg’s report, U.S. President Donald Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier that Iran is becoming “much more aggressive” in nuclear talks. Concurrently, Commander of the United States Central Command Michael Kurilla said in a U.S. House Armed Services Committee hearing that he presented the president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with a “wide range of options” in case diplomatic efforts do not halt Iran’s nuclear program.  When asked, he confirmed that the U.S. Central Command is prepared to “respond with overwhelming force to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.”

Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, has been a vocal supporter of Israel throughout his political career. He has visited Israel dozens of times, describing his connection as “not so much political as it is visceral, personal.”  “I come to stand today with the State of Israel and with the Jewish people, because I believe that it is not simply a geopolitical position, but a divine position,” Huckabee said in his speech marking the beginning of his tenure in April.

He said taking on the role was “not so much saying yes to a president … but it was yes to a calling from God himself, to come and fulfill what I believe is not just a job, but a mission.”

Liza Rozovsky contributed to this report.

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