Two shofars sit on a shelf in US Ambassador Mike Huckabee’s office at the American Embassy in Jerusalem. One is banded with an American flag.
A guitar leans behind the desk, next to a print that says “Proud to be an American.” On the desk, a mezuzah made from the metal of an Iranian missile curves in the silhouette of a B-2 jet, a quiet nod to the American strike on Iran (“It is too big for the door frame”).
Huckabee opens with ground rules. “I do not do off-record interviews,” he says. “Only on the record.”
On Tuesday, in the Museum of Tolerance’s Jerusalem amphitheater, with the walls turned into moving screens, Huckabee will plug in alongside Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and philanthropist Paul Singer to belatedly mark the US’s July 4th celebrations, postponed due to the Iran war.
Lee Greenwood will headline, and US President Donald Trump will appear via video. There will be no speeches, only a night meant to let Israelis and Americans exhale together.
Huckabee insists the evangelical bond with Israel is intact, even if the social-media soundtrack suggests otherwise. “It’s there,” he says of the generational chill, “but it is a loud minority.”
He blames the feed more than the pews. “Social media influences kids more than their schools, parents, or even their churches.” Some pastors, he adds, need to do better homework. “There are pastors in the evangelical world who have not explained to their congregations where the support for Israel comes from biblically.”
The numbers explain the noise: A new University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll finds more Americans now sympathize with Palestinians than with Israelis, with a striking gap among younger Republicans. That does not define evangelicals, but it maps the terrain Huckabee is watching, and it helps explain why the loudest dissent skews youngsters.
Huckabee shifts to Israel’s own homework.
“After October 7, they had someone at the podium every day, all day, and they controlled the message,” he says. “They need to be more aggressive again.”
He calls much of the viral content “fabrications,” then asks the question he says no one can answer. “When in the history of the world has a country that is being attacked been expected to feed the territory that attacked it while the war is still going on? Name one,” he challenges.
We talk politics in the plainest way. Israel is less bipartisan than it once was, he says.
“You still have strong pro-Israel Democrats, but it is not the prevailing view.”
Republican support, in his telling, peaked under President Donald Trump. That is where the room’s mezuzah meets the moment. Huckabee argues the Iran strike mattered beyond the target set.
“We sent a message to allies that America will stand with you when it counts,” he says. “We sent an equally important message to adversaries. Do not mess with us.” He says Israelis felt it instantly. “You could feel the confidence meter go all the way over, like an electric car accelerating.”
The Israel lobby, the PR war, and what changed
Outside the embassy walls, the conversation about the “Israel lobby” has turned blunt. Trump told The Daily Caller last week that Israel was “losing the war of public relations” and that “Israel was the strongest lobby I’ve ever seen. They had total control over Congress, and now they don’t.”
That line ricocheted through Washington and Jerusalem this week for a reason. It captures the shift Huckabee is diagnosing from the other side of the desk, where he keeps insisting the coalition is still there if Israel wins the story again.
Huckabee sees the same headlines we do, then answers them like a pastor. Social media is louder than scripture, he says, and foreign money tries to buy influence online. “People write checks if they think they can change a point of view, and they can sponsor social media influencers,” he says. “What do you influence. What do you produce?”
He hints at senior US participation at the City of David opening. Without details, he says he is “pretty sure” that “Secretary [Marco] Rubio” will be there. He also repeats that any Trump visit this fall will be about scheduling, not conditions. “He’ll come when it works in his schedule,” he says. “It’s not dependent on a ceasefire or a hostage deal.”
There is one more local note I cannot ignore. Last weekend, Huckabee paid a social visit to Efrat, joining Kabbalat Shabbat at Shirat David. Council head Col. Dovi Shefler called it a boost for the community and spoke about a “historic opportunity” to apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. Huckabee has history there. Years ago, after laying a cornerstone, he joked that he might buy a home in Efrat. “Anybody with an IQ above broccoli would know I was kidding,” he laughs.
We end where we started, in a room that blends symbols with sentences. We ask him for a biblical verse before we leave, one that describes this period of time. Huckabee quotes Judges to describe the culture, “Every man did what was right in his own eyes,” then cites the Shema for the US-Israel bond. The ambassador’s closing is simple.
“Put out factual information and make sure the world hears it,” he says. “Control the message.”