US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Wednesday made an appearance at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial in a highly unusual move and a strong show of support for the Israeli leader.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which is very critical of Netanyahu, described Huckabee’s visit to the trial as an “American, Mafioso-like intimidation tactic on a democratic ally’s independent justice system for the sake of protecting its political partner.”
After visiting the trial, Huckabee backed President Trump’s recent calls for an end to Netanyahu’s trial. “I stopped by the trial of [Netanyahu] in Tel Aviv today. My conclusion? [President Trump] is right…again,” Huckabee wrote on X. Netanyahu thanked the US ambassador for his support.
The Israeli leader is facing charges of bribery, theft, and breach of trust, and has been accused of using his executive power to delay his trial, including by waging war across the region. According to The Times of Israel, Netanyahu’s trial was adjourned on Wednesday upon the news that Israel was bombing the Syrian capital of Damascus.
In a post on Truth Social earlier this month, President Trump said the US would not “stand” for Netanyahu’s corruption trial and appeared to suggest he could try to leverage US military aid to Israel to get the charges dropped. “The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this,” he said.
The Trump administration has also opposed the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) case against Netanyahu, who is wanted for his role in war crimes in Gaza, by imposing sanctions on the ICC and threatening the court with further action.
Huckabee recently helped Netanyahu avert a political crisis ahead of the 12-day US-Israeli war on Iran by meeting with Haredi lawmakers who were threatening to quit the government over the lack of a draft exemption law for the ultra-Orthodox.
The US ambassador is known as a Christian Zionist and a staunch supporter of Israeli settlements and the occupation of the West Bank, which he calls Judea and Samaria. On Tuesday, he offered rare criticism of Israeli settlers by denouncing the killing of 20-year-old Sayfollah Musallet, an American citizen who was murdered by settlers in the West Bank, as an act of “terror.”
Huckabee called on Israel to “aggressively” investigate the murder and spoke with Musallet’s father. But there’s no indication that the US will conduct its own investigation, which is what the family requested, and his show of support for Netanyahu signals there won’t be any real accountability.
