Tucker Carlson asked US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee about the territory God promised Abraham in Genesis — land stretching, in biblical terms, from the Nile to the Euphrates, covering what is today Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and large portions of Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Huckabee’s response: it would be “fine if they took it all.”
The interview aired on February 20 and triggered an immediate diplomatic storm. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the remarks as “extremist rhetoric” and “unacceptable,” demanding clarification from the State Department. A joint statement signed by at least fourteen Arab and Muslim nations — including Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, Lebanon, and Bahrain, as well as the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the League of Arab States, and the Gulf Cooperation Council — declared that Israel has “no sovereignty whatsoever” over occupied Palestinian territory or any other occupied Arab land.
Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and evangelical Christian, later described the comment as “somewhat hyperbolic.” But the controversy exposes something more than a single slip. The United States has an ambassador to Israel who frames the entire geopolitical landscape of the Middle East in biblical covenant terms, and who — in an interview with a former Fox News host known for amplifying far-right and antisemitic conspiracy theories — endorsed the idea of Israeli territorial expansion into sovereign neighboring states as theologically legitimate.
There was no immediate response from Israel. The White House did not comment. The State Department did not provide the clarification Saudi Arabia demanded. What the United States did do, in the same week, was host the inaugural meeting of the so-called Board of Peace — a body chaired by Donald Trump and led in part by Jared Kushner, tasked with governing Gaza after the displacement of its entire population.
When the official representative of the United States to Israel describes territorial maximalism as scripturally justified, and the White House stays quiet, it is not a gaffe. It is a policy signal. Every nation in the region is watching what Washington does and does not say, and they are drawing their own conclusions.
Trump’s Ambassador Said Israel Could ‘Take It All.’ Fourteen Nations Condemned Him. The White House Said Nothing.
Tucker Carlson asked US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee about the territory God promised Abraham in Genesis — land stretching, in biblical terms, from the Nile to the Euphrates, covering what is today Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and large portions of Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Huckabee’s response: it would be “fine if they took it all.”
The interview aired on February 20 and triggered an immediate diplomatic storm. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the remarks as “extremist rhetoric” and “unacceptable,” demanding clarification from the State Department. A joint statement signed by at least fourteen Arab and Muslim nations — including Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, Lebanon, and Bahrain, as well as the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the League of Arab States, and the Gulf Cooperation Council — declared that Israel has “no sovereignty whatsoever” over occupied Palestinian territory or any other occupied Arab land.
Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and evangelical Christian, later described the comment as “somewhat hyperbolic.” But the controversy exposes something more than a single slip. The United States has an ambassador to Israel who frames the entire geopolitical landscape of the Middle East in biblical covenant terms, and who — in an interview with a former Fox News host known for amplifying far-right and antisemitic conspiracy theories — endorsed the idea of Israeli territorial expansion into sovereign neighboring states as theologically legitimate.
There was no immediate response from Israel. The White House did not comment. The State Department did not provide the clarification Saudi Arabia demanded. What the United States did do, in the same week, was host the inaugural meeting of the so-called Board of Peace — a body chaired by Donald Trump and led in part by Jared Kushner, tasked with governing Gaza after the displacement of its entire population.
When the official representative of the United States to Israel describes territorial maximalism as scripturally justified, and the White House stays quiet, it is not a gaffe. It is a policy signal. Every nation in the region is watching what Washington does and does not say, and they are drawing their own conclusions.