After emerging from a Tel Aviv meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, Huckabee told “Washington Watch” there is a “very strong relationship” between the Trump administration and the state of Israel despite ongoing disagreements over Middle East peace.
“And reports to the contrary are simply not so,” Huckabee told show host Tony Perkins.
Huckabee’s assurance comes one month after President Donald Trump publicly admitted to cursing Netanyahu after the prime minister pushed a military offensive against Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon.
Israel's attack came after Iran-backed Hezbollah violated a peace treaty and attacked Israeli targets across the Lebanese border, but the IDF counter-offensive frustrated the White House because it threatened the already-fragile “Memorandum of Understanding” peace agreement with Iran’s leadership that was signed last month.
One of the demands from Iran was an end to the IDF’s military campaign in Lebanon, which made Netanyahu and the military campaign a factor in the U.S.-Iran negotiations.
Likely reacting to the White House pressure, Netanyahu publicly stated Israel is determined to become less dependent on U.S. military aid in the future, eliminating the flow of aid as a possible factor in any negotiations with the White House and the State Department.
Speaking to IDF officers, and also to the Trump administration, Netanyahu said Israel appreciates the support from its “American friends” over the years. “But today I say: We need our own independent weapons-production system. We must manufacture our own armaments,” he stated in late June.
Moving forward several weeks, now to mid-July, it appears the U.S. president finally grew tired of Iran’s lies and trickery when he ordered a U.S. military campaign to resume over the weekend. After Iran attacked and struck commercial vessels, the U.S. is hitting coastal targets in an attempt to degrade Iran’s ability to attack maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump told White House reporters Monday “we’re knocking out all of their offensive capability, and we’re controlling the straits.”
“These strikes will continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” U.S. Central Command stated in an X post.
Wednesday morning, Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst said CENTCOM had launched daytime strikes against targets in Iran in a first-ever daylight attack.
Huckabee said one example of an ongoing U.S.-Israel “partnership” is the Mossad sharing intelligence with President Trump over an Iranian plot to assassinate him.
“I want people in the U.S. to understand this is not a one-way street. We get benefits,” he said. "Sometimes it's in the way of information and intelligence. Other times it's in the way of technology. But it is a partnership that is vital as much to the U.S. as it is to the nation of Israel.”
