Donald Trump has selected former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as the next US ambassador to Israel.

Huckabee has a track record of harsh, sometimes provocative, pro-Israel rhetoric and has previously said that Israel has a rightful claim to the West Bank, which he refers to by its Hebrew and Biblical name Judea and Samaria.

The area is claimed by Palestinians as part of a supposed future state, but is dotted with several Israeli settlements that are not recognized under international law. Huckabee has declined to call the settlements by that name, insisting they be called “communities” or neighborhoods. He has also denied that the West Bank, captured by Israel from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War, is under military occupation.

Trump predicted on his Truth Social network that Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, would “work tirelessly to bring peace to the Middle East.”

“He loves Israel and the people of Israel, and the people of Israel love him the same way,” Trump wrote, calling Huckabee “a great public servant.”

It was also announced Tuesday that Trump would appoint former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Ratcliffe, a close Trump ally, served as director of national intelligence at the end of his first term.

Ratcliffe was confirmed as the country’s top spy in May 2020, eight months before Trump left office. A former member of the House of Representatives and US attorney for Texas, he did not receive support from Senate Democrats during his nomination.

As director of national intelligence, Ratcliffe was accused by Democrats and former intelligence officials of releasing intelligence for use by Trump and his Republican allies to attack political opponents, including Joe Biden, then Trump’s rival for the presidency — an accusation that Ratcliffe’s office has denied it.

In addition, the president-elect had selected real estate investor and campaign donor Steve Witkoff as his special envoy to the Middle East. Witkoff is a real estate investor, landlord and founder of the Witkoff Group, which he founded in 1977.

Huckabee’s appointment will likely mark a return to the explicitly pro-Israel stance of Trump’s first administration, when he moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that Palestinians saw as damaging to peace prospects.

While Israel claims Jerusalem as its indivisible capital, the Palestinians claim the eastern part of the city as their future capital.

Speaking to CNN in 2017, Huckabee – who has made several visits to Israeli settlements – made his position clear.

“The only people who have ever had Yerushalayim (the Hebrew name of Jerusalem) as their capital are the Jews,” he said. ‘No one else has ever made this city the capital. So it shouldn’t even be controversial.”

He was also uncompromising on the West Bank issue and refused to use the term.

“I think Israel has a title to Judea and Samaria,” he said. “There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It is Judea and Samaria. There is no such thing as a settlement. They are communities, they are neighborhoods, they are cities. There is no such thing as a profession.”

Huckabee’s zealous support of Israel has occasionally offended Israelis and Jewish groups.

He was criticized in 2015 during a failed presidential bid after accusing Barack Obama of marching Jews “to the furnace door” by signing a nuclear deal with Iran.

The comment drew a rebuke from Ron Dermer, then Israel’s ambassador to Washington, and the Anti-Defamation League, an advocacy group dedicated to combating anti-Semitism.

Nevertheless, Huckabee was unrepentant. “The response from the Jewish people has been overwhelmingly positive,” he said.

Huckabee’s daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the current governor of Arkansas, was White House press secretary during Trump’s first presidency.