Trump chooses Mike Huckabee, staunchly pro-Israel conservative, as ambassador to nation
Donald Trump is nominating former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel, the president-elect said Tuesday, tapping a staunchly pro-Israel conservative whose choice could signal future U.S. policy toward conflicts in the Middle East.
An evangelical Christian, Huckabee has been a vocal supporter of Israel throughout his political career and a long-time defender of Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. A former Republican presidential hopeful, Huckabee hosted a weekly Fox News TV show for six years, ending in 2015.
“There’s no such thing as an occupation,” Huckabee said in a 2017 interview with CNN, in which he referred to the West Bank by its biblical names, Judea and Samaria.
Evangelicals are an overwhelmingly pro-Israel part of Trump’s base and voted heavily in favour of him in the Nov. 5 U.S. election.
Trump’s announcement of the nomination drew immediate praise from senior Israeli officials, but is likely to be panned by Palestinians, whose nationalist cause Huckabee has denigrated in the past.
“He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!” Trump said in a statement.
Huckabee, 69, would take on one of Washington’s most sensitive diplomatic posts at a time when Israel is fighting the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and the Hezbollah armed group in Lebanon while facing off against regional arch-foe Iran. Over 43,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to its health ministry, while Lebanon has reported more than 3,000 killed in that country over the same time.
Huckabee has criticized President Joe Biden for pressuring Israel to moderate its conduct of the Gaza war and has opposed the current Democratic administration’s calls for a ceasefire there.
“If a person is pro-Israel, how can you be pro-Biden? Because the Biden administration has made it very clear they will make concessions to Hamas,” Huckabee said in an interview in March on NewsNation.
Many Palestinians fear Donald Trump’s election win makes an Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal even more unlikely. Trump, who took an aggressively pro-Israel stance during his first term, has already said Israel should be allowed to ‘go and just finish the job.’
Netanyahu allies praise appointment
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies celebrated the election of Trump, a staunch but sometimes unpredictable ally of Israel. In Trump’s first term, he delivered major wins for the Israeli leader.
Members of Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, which includes pro-settler parties that oppose Palestinian statehood, hailed Huckabee’s nomination.
“I look forward to working with you to strengthen the bond between our peoples,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on X. “As a long-standing friend of Israel and our eternal capital Jerusalem — I hope you will feel very much at home.”
Trump has strongly backed Netanyahu’s goal of destroying Hamas, though he has called for Israel to finish the job quickly. He has promised to bring peace to the Middle East but has not said how.
If his first term is any indication, Trump is likely to pursue a strongly pro-Israel approach, going even beyond the solid support given by Biden to Washington’s top regional ally.
Huckabee, who has led evangelical tours to Israel for years, has been a supporter of Israeli settlement-building in the West Bank, which Palestinians want as part of an independent state that would include the Gaza Strip.
Most of the international community views as the settlements illegal. Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East war.
Huckabee served as Arkansas governor from 1996 to 2007. He fell short in bids for the Republican nomination for president in 2008 and 2016.
His daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is the current governor of Arkansas. She served as Trump’s White House press secretary from 2017 to 2019.
Published at Tue, 12 Nov 2024 22:53:05 +0000
U.S. Air National Guard member who leaked documents on Ukraine gets 15-year sentence
A U.S. federal judge sentenced a Massachusetts Air National Guard member to 15 years in prison Tuesday for leaking classified military documents about the war in Ukraine. Prosecutors said the leak put the country’s national security at risk, endangered other military members and damaged U.S. relationships with its allies.
Jack Teixeira had pleaded guilty in March to six counts of wilful retention and transmission of national defence information under the U.S. Espionage Act, nearly a year after his arrest in the most consequential national security breach in years. Wearing an orange jumpsuit in court, he showed no visible reaction as he was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani.
“Today, Mr. Teixeira has paid a very heavy price for laws he broke, for the incredible damage that he caused,” acting Massachusetts U.S. attorney Josh Levy said afterward.
“This significant sentence sends a powerful message to every individual who holds a top-secret clearance. Anyone who willfully threatens our national security by illegally disseminating classified information will face very serious repercussions.”
Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division, told reporters the sentence held Teixeira accountable for “being one of the most prolific leakers of classified information in American history.”
“This former Air National Guardsman grossly betrayed our country and the oath he took to safeguard its secrets in order to boost his ego and impress his friends,” Cohen said.
“This was not a victimless crime. The exceptionally grave damage he caused will impact our national security for decades to come.”
Glimpse at secret assessments
The leaks exposed to the world unvarnished secret assessments of Russia’s war in Ukraine, including information about troop movements in Ukraine, and the provision of supplies and equipment to Ukrainian troops. Teixeira also admitted posting information about a U.S. adversary’s plans to harm U.S. forces serving overseas.
As It Happens6:38U.S. intelligence must tighten security wake of leak, says former CIA officer
Jack Douglas Teixeira, 21, a U.S. Air Force National Guard member with top secret security clearance, has been charged with unlawfully copying and possessing classified defence records, and knowingly removing classified records to an unauthorized location. Michael (Mick) Mulroy — a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defence, CIA officer and U.S. marine — has questions about how Teixeira was able to allegedly remove those documents, and who might have been whispering in his ear on the Discord chat room where he reportedly shared them.
Outside court, Teixeira’s attorney Michael Bachrach called it a “very difficult day” for his client and said Talwani imposed a “very severe punishment.”
Still, he said, it was better than taking the case to trial, where Teixeira would have faced 30 years to life behind bars.
“It’s a significant sentence that will deter others,” Bachrach said. “But it’s also one that will allow him to self-reflect and grow. And we fully expect that he will be doing so.”
Before he was sentenced, Teixeira showed little emotion as he stood in court and apologized for his actions. The 22-year-old had previously admitted to illegally collecting some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets and sharing them with other users on the messaging platform Discord.
“I wanted to say I’m sorry for all the harm that I brought and caused,” Texeira said. “I understand all the responsibility and consequences fall upon my shoulders alone and accept whatever that will bring.”
Afterward, Teixeira hugged one of his lawyers and looked toward his family and smiled before being led out of court. His family left without commenting to reporters, but his mother and others did submit letters to the court, seeking leniency.
Diplomatic, military fallout from leak
The security breach raised alarm over America’s ability to protect its most closely guarded secrets and forced the Biden administration to scramble to try to contain the diplomatic and military fallout.
The leaks also embarrassed the Pentagon, which tightened controls to safeguard classified information and disciplined members found to have intentionally failed to take required action about Teixeira’s suspicious behaviour.
Earlier in court, assistant U.S. attorney Jared Dolan told Talwani that 200 months — or a little more than 16 and a half years — was appropriate given the “historic” damage caused by Teixeira’s conduct that aided adversaries of the United States and hurt the country’s allies. He also said such a sentence would send a message to anyone in the military who might consider similar conduct.
“It will be a cautionary tale for the men and women in the U.S. military,” Dolan said. “They are going to be told this is what happens if you break your promise, if you betray your country.
“They will know the defendant’s name. They will know the sentence the court imposes.”
But Bachrach told the judge Tuesday that 11 years was sufficient and would amount to half of the 22-year-old’s life.
“It is a significant, harsh and difficult sentence, one that will not be easy to serve,” Bachrach said, adding that Talwani should consider that his client has been diagnosed with autism.
Teixeira didn’t intend harm: defence
Defence attorneys had described Teixeira as an autistic, isolated individual who spent most of his time online, especially with his Discord community. They said his actions, though criminal, were never meant to “harm the United States” and that he had no prior criminal record.
“Instead, his intent was to educate his friends about world events to make certain they were not misled by misinformation,” they wrote. “To Jack, the Ukraine war was his generation’s World War II or Iraq, and he needed someone to share the experience with.”
Prosecutors in court filings countered that Teixeira did not suffer from any intellectual disability that would prevent him from knowing right from wrong, adding his post-arrest diagnosis of “mild, high-functioning” autism was of “questionable relevance” to the proceedings.
Teixeira, who was part of the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts, worked as a cyber transport systems specialist, which is essentially an information technology specialist responsible for military communications networks. He remains in the U.S. Air National Guard in an unpaid status, a U.S. Air Force official said.
Authorities said he first typed out classified documents he accessed and then began sharing photographs of files that bore SECRET and TOP SECRET markings. Prosecutors also said he tried to cover his tracks before his arrest, and authorities found a smashed tablet, laptop and an Xbox gaming console in a dumpster at his house.
Ukraine has been fighting an all-out war with Russia for nearly three years, after Moscow launched a wide-ranging invasion of its neighbour in February 2022. The U.S. has been a key source of support for Kyiv ever since, providing Ukraine with military and financial aid, and building support from Western partners to enact sanctions on Russia for its actions.
Published at Tue, 12 Nov 2024 22:35:30 +0000
