The US Senate on Wednesday confirmed Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian who has said Israel enjoys a divine right to the West Bank, as ambassador to Israel.
Huckabee will head to the US embassy in Jerusalem as Israel seizes large areas of Gaza, part of a renewed military campaign that has had President Donald Trump's blessing.
The Senate voted largely on party lines to confirm Trump's nominee, with one Democrat, John Fetterman, supporting him.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar quickly spoke with Huckabee by telephone to congratulate him, calling him a "true friend of the Jewish state."
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is a West Bank settler, on X voiced hope for working with Huckabee on "advancing our shared values and common goals."
Trump told reporters after the vote that Huckabee is "going to be a great ambassador to Israel."
"He's going to bring home the bacon," Trump said, using a popular idiom for achieving success, before clarifying that bacon, which is not kosher in Judaism, "isn't too big" in Israel.
Huckabee, a Baptist minister who served as governor of Arkansas and ran for president in 2008, has long been an outspoken supporter of Israel, backing calls to annex the West Bank before such talk became increasingly mainstream.
On a 2017 visit to a settlement in the West Bank, which was seized by Israel in the 1967 war, Huckabee said there was "no such thing as an occupation."
He later said that Israel "has title deed to Judea and Samaria," using a biblical term for the West Bank.
Grilled about his remarks at his confirmation hearing by Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, Huckabee denied that he was backing the expulsion of Palestinians.
"I've never, never indicated that that was a part of that. I simply referenced the biblical mandate that goes all the way back to the time of Abraham, 3,500 years ago," Huckabee said.
Huckabee in his hearing repeatedly said that he would defer to Trump and not set policy based on his personal beliefs.
Trump, before taking office, backed a ceasefire in the Gaza war, which started with the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
But he also vowed full-fledged support to Israel including expediting arms shipments.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expanded settlements in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law, but stopped short of a formal annexation backed by some of his far-right supporters.
Huckabee has also been a television talk-show host and plays guitar in a classic-rock cover band.
His daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, served as Trump's press secretary in his first term and now serves as governor of Arkansas.
