US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Thursday that recent moves by European countries to recognize a Palestinian state effectively encouraged Israel to expand its settlement activity in the West Bank.
Speaking to Al Arabiya, Huckabee linked Israel’s approval of the controversial E1 settlement project to European recognition efforts. “By their actions, they’re accomplishing something I don’t think they wanted to do — essentially giving a green light to Israelis to take more pieces of Judea and Samaria,” he said, using the biblical term for the West Bank.
Huckabee stressed that the Trump administration, while not taking a position on the E1 approval, had already shifted US policy by declaring that settlements are not illegal under international law.
He argued that Europe’s recognition efforts hardened Hamas’s stance in negotiations and undermined peace efforts. France initiated the recognition push after Hamas’s latest rejection of a Doha proposal.
Critics note that Israel itself has also violated the Oslo framework through settlement expansion and by withholding tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority. Huckabee countered that unilateral recognition of statehood without Israel’s participation also violates Oslo.
“If there’s going to be this massive violation, people must prepare for the consequences on both sides,” Huckabee warned.
