Donald Trump is picking a number of pro-Israel voices to join his incoming cabinet.
His selections, some of which have officially been made and others which have only been reported from inside sources, solidify the fact that his administration will embrace a hawkish foreign policy in the Middle East, and advance attacks against organizations aiming to help Palestinians.
Marco Rubio: Secretary of State
According to multiple sources, Trump will pick Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) as his Secretary of State. On the international stage, Rubio has been defined by his aggressive policy toward countries like Iran, China, and Cuba, as well as his staunch support for the Israeli government.
“Israel has no choice but to seek the complete eradication of Hamas in Gaza,” tweeted Rubio after the October 7 attack. “There simply is no diplomatic solution or ‘measured response’ available. This tragically necessary effort will come at a horrifying price. But the price of failing to permanently eliminate this group of sadistic savages is even more horrifying.”
After returning from a trip to the country in the spring, he penned a National Review op-ed declaring that, “In the end, no matter what the international community says, Israel has a right to defend itself, and the United States must support its effort to destroy Hamas as a terrorist threat. We also must support Israel against Iran-backed Hezbollah to Israel’s north.”
On a Fox News Radio show, he compared Israel’s invasion of Rafah to the allied forces pursuing Adolf Hitler.
In June he was one of the lead sponsors of a bill that would have prevented the Biden administration from conditioning military aid to Israel.
“The U.S. must stand firmly in support of its strongest ally in the Middle East, Israel. The Jewish State continues to face increased threats from Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists as well as from the Iranian regime and its proxies,” said Rubio at the time. “While the Biden Administration has weakened our support of Israel, including pausing weapons deliveries authorized by Congress, it is crucial we are able to conduct proper oversight over the administration’s actions that further erode Israel’s ability to defend itself.”
Rubio also introduced legislation to stop the United States government from sending Palestinians humanitarian aid through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Rubio has also repeatedly introduced bills that would provide states with more tools to crack down on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which he has called “single most destructive campaign of economic warfare facing the Jewish state of Israel today.”
Mike Waltz: National Security Advisor
Trump will reportedly pick Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) as his National Security Advisor. Waltz is primarily known for being one of the House’s biggest China hawks, but he’s also a fierce advocate for Israel.
He’s opposed diplomacy with Iran, publicly called for Israel to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, and criticized the Biden administration for calling for a ceasefire.
Waltz recently detailed his foreign policy outlook in an article in The Economist.
“The next administration should, as Mr. Trump argued, ‘let Israel finish the job’ and ‘get it over with fast’ against Hamas,” he wrote. “They should put a credible military option on the table to make clear to the Iranians that America would stop them building nuclear weapons, and reinstate a diplomatic and economic pressure campaign to stop them and to constrain their support for terror proxies.”
Mike Huckabee: Ambassador to Israel
Former Arkansas Senator Mike Huckabee has been selected as Trump’s ambassador to Israel.
Huckabee, an evangelical pastor who has visited Israel over 100 times, has previously declared that Palestinians, settlements, and the occupation do not exist. He’s also said that Israel should annex the West Bank.
“There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria,” he told reporters in 2017. “There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.”
“Basically, there really is no such thing as — I need to be careful about saying this, because people will really get upset — there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian,” Huckabee told voters during his 2008 presidential campaign. “There’s not.”
During a recent podcast interview Huckabee referred to himself as an “unapologetic, unreformed Zionist” and said “radical Muslims want to take us back to the seventh century.”
In 2015 Huckabee generated controversy when he said President Obama was marching Jewish people “to the door of the oven” by signing a nuclear deal with Iran.
“If we don’t stand with Israel, we stand for chaos,” said Huckabee after visiting the Kibbutz Kfar Aza last December. “I thought that we need, as Americans, to say with conviction to our Jewish friends in Israel: we stand with you,” he continued. “What you’ve been through is a level of savagery that no human being should experience. And [we need] to say boldly to the people in the US who are parading in the streets, completely misunderstanding what this is about, that there is no moral equivalency.”
“Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!,” said Trump in a statement announcing the pick.
Elise Stefanik: Ambassador to the United Nations
Trump is nominating Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) as ambassador to the United Nations, an organization that the House member has attacked for its alleged anti-Israel bias. Stefanik celebrated Israel’s decision to ban UNRWA, which she claims “instills antisemitic hate in Palestinians.”
Since the October 7 attack, Stefanik has positioned herself as a prominent critic of domestic antisemitism, despite previously sharing social media posts embracing antisemitic “great replacement” conspiracy theories.
Stefanik’s targeting of Palestine activism drew mainstream attention last December when she confronted the presidents of elite universities during a Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing. She repeatedly asked them misleading questions, like ‘whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated university rules’, despite the fact that no students did such a thing.
The fallout from that hearing led to the resignations of three university presidents, which Stefanik bragged about at Trump’s infamous Madison Square Garden rally. “The world heard,” she told the crowd. “You’re fired!”
In May, Stefanik delivered an address to the Israeli Knesset where she called for “wiping those responsible for October 7th off the face of the earth” and “crushing” the Palestine solidarity movement, which she said was motivated by “blood lust.”
Kristi Noem: Secretary of Department of Homeland Security
Trump is expected to nominate South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as Secretary of Department of Homeland Security. Doubts about the future of Noem’s political career developed earlier this year after she revealed that she had once killed her own dog and was found to have lied about meeting Kim Jong Un.
Earlier this year Noem signed a bill asserting that the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism must be taken into account during investigations into discriminatory practices. The IHRA definition has generated controversy because it conflates antisemitism with criticisms of Israel.
“President Donald J. Trump is building the most pro-Israel Administration in US History,” tweeted the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC). “The days of weakness and appeasement are OVER. Peace through strength is back.”
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