US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, appeared on the Tucker Carlson show, aired on Feb. 20, 2026. (Screenshot from a video posted on the X account Tucker Carlson Network/@TCNetwork)
A dozen countries, including Lebanon, condemned in a joint statement the "provocative" remarks made by U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, claiming that Israel would have a biblical right to lands spanning a large part of the Middle East.
"It would be acceptable if [Israel] took all" the land stretching "from the Euphrates to the Nile," in accordance with chapter 15 of Genesis, Huckabee, a figure of U.S. evangelical conservatism, said during an interview with host Tucker Carlson, broadcast Friday.
The statement published Saturday night was signed by Lebanon, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bahrain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Oman, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, as well as the secretariats of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the League of Arab States, and the Gulf Cooperation Council of Arab States.
Direct contradiction with the Trump plan
The foreign ministries of most Arab and Muslim countries expressed "their firm condemnation and profound concern" over the ambassador’s statements, which refer to "acceptance of the exercise by Israel of its sovereignty over territories belonging to Arab states, including the occupied West Bank," denounces the statement published notably on the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ website.
They expressed their "categorical rejection of such grave and provocative statements, which constitute a flagrant violation of the principles of international law and the United Nations Charter, and represent a serious threat to security and stability in the region."
They thus warned against "the continuation of expansionist policies and illegal measures undertaken by Israel which will only serve to further fuel violence and conflict in the region and undermine prospects for peace."
According to them, the U.S. ambassador’s statements "are in direct contradiction with the vision presented by U.S. President Donald Trump, as well as the overall plan aiming to end the conflict in Gaza."
The 19th and penultimate point of the "Trump plan" for Gaza, announced on Sept. 29, 2025, emphasizes that "as Gaza’s development progresses and when the Palestinian Authority’s reform program is faithfully implemented, the conditions could finally be in place to open up a credible path toward self-determination and the creation of a Palestinian state."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has since repeatedly stated that Israel would not allow a Palestinian state to come into being.
Against Zionist expansionism
The ministers of Arab and Muslim countries also expressed "their total rejection of any attempt to annex the West Bank or to separate it from the Gaza Strip, as well as their strong opposition to the expansion of settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, and their categorical refusal of any threat to the sovereignty of Arab states," at a time when Israel is increasing settlement in the occupied West Bank.
Several Arab countries had denounced the adoption last Sunday by the Israeli government of new land measures reinforcing its control over the West Bank, the latest decision raising fears of an annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.
Questioned on the Old Testament
Huckabee was questioned about what the entity "Israel" encompasses in the Old Testament. "You haven't defined what the land is, and you haven't defined what Israel is... What are the borders of Judea and Samaria?" asked Carlson.
He continued: "We've also established that the Bible gives Jews the right to occupy the land from the Nile to the Euphrates. And that would include practically the entire Middle East. That would be the Levant. So that would include Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon. It would also include vast parts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq... Well, I’m not sure if it goes that far... In any case, it would be many territories that are today countries," the former Fox News host asked.
"Do you think Israel has a right to this land?" asked Carlson, to which Huckabee replied: "But this specific area we are now talking about, Israel, is a land that God gave through Abraham to a people that he chose. It was about a people, a place, and a mission." "It would be acceptable if they took it all," said the U.S. ambassador.
Huckabee, who has held his post since April 2025, is a staunch supporter of Israeli government policy under Netanyahu. In his first speech after the announcement of his nomination as U.S. ambassador to Israel in November 2024, he reiterated his "support" for Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank, illegal under international law and denounced internationally.
"There is no territory called the West Bank, it’s Judea and Samaria [biblical names given to this territory, and re-appropriated by the Israeli right]," he declared as early as January 2017. "There are certain words that I refuse to use. Settlements don’t exist, these are communities, neighborhoods, towns. Occupation doesn’t exist."
Since the rise to power in 2022 of the most right-wing coalition in Israel's history, Israeli expansionism and the Judaization of the West Bank and East Jerusalem has been thriving, particularly since Oct. 7, 2023, and the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza that followed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Aug. 12, 2025, in an interview with i24NEWS, that he felt invested with a "historic and spiritual mission" and deeply "committed" to the vision of a "Greater Israel." The use of this term was then condemned by Arab states and several Western governments.
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