Mike Huckabee, U.S. ambassador to Israel, praised President Donald Trump on Newsmax on Thursday for bluntly telling French President Emmanuel Macron that recognizing a Palestinian state while Hamas, which is backed by Iran, still holds Israeli hostages is tantamount to rewarding terrorism.
Huckabee told “Rob Schmitt Tonight” that Trump’s public rebuke Tuesday of Macron on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly was powerful and necessary.
“It was one of the great moments,” Huckabee said. “The president was sitting with Macron and says to his face that what you’re doing … is only rewarding Hamas and forgetting Oct. 7 [2023 attack on Israel]. Macron sat there like an 8-year-old boy who had broken a window with a baseball and had been caught at it. It was just a great move.”
Trump, seated beside Macron, told reporters:
“It honors Hamas, and you can’t do that because of Oct. 7. You just can’t do that. But we want our hostages back, and we don’t want them back in ones and twos and take the next two years to do it. … I was always saying, the last hostages are going to be the toughest ones, but you can’t honor them by doing anything like you [Macron] suggest.
“All you can do is say, ‘We want our hostages back, and we want the war to end. We’re going to want it to end.'”
Trump added that Oct. 7, 2023, was “one of the most savage days in the history of the world,” recalling reports of babies and children being murdered by Hamas.
Huckabee echoed Trump’s view, crediting him with keeping the plight of hostages at the forefront of global discussions.
“That’s what I love about my president,” Huckabee said. “He just says it to their faces.”
Huckabee also previewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address Friday at the U.N., predicting some members would stage walkouts in protest but insisting they would miss a speech of historic importance.
He compared it to Trump’s appearance Tuesday, which Huckabee called “one of the greatest speeches in the history of the United Nations.”
As Israel continues its war against Hamas nearly two years after the Oct. 7 massacre, Huckabee warned that efforts by European leaders to push Palestinian statehood only embolden terrorists while families of the hostages still wait for their loved ones to come home.
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