US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said he could not have said it better after sharing six points by Mike Zell, Republican Party chair in Israel, defending President Trump's Iran deal as a political necessity in an election year while leaving Israel a free hand. Zell argued Trump has not abandoned Israel and the deal is only an agreement to negotiate.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Friday publicly endorsed a detailed defense of President Trump's Iran policy written by Mike Zell, chairman of the Republican Party in Israel. Huckabee said the points could not have been better expressed.
Zell's six-point statement, shared by the ambassador, argued that Trump has not abandoned Israel and that the emerging Iran agreement is merely an agreement to negotiate while maintaining a ceasefire. The election-year calculus, Zell wrote, requires Trump to momentarily pause the Iran conflict to lower inflation and energy prices ahead of the November midterms. He emphasized that the president left Israel outside the deal, giving Jerusalem a free hand in Lebanon, Syria, and even Iran.
As The Zioneer reported June 15, President Trump claimed Prime Minister Netanyahu is on board with the deal; Jerusalem has remained publicly silent. The ambassador's endorsement adds a high-level American voice directly amplifying a pro-deal argument tailored to an Israeli Republican audience.
The statement's framing — that the deal is only a negotiation framework rather than a permanent settlement — aligns with Trump administration language last week describing an 'excellent settlement' (June 11) while also authorizing limited strikes against Iran (June 11). Huckabee's post is the first time a senior U.S. official in Israel directly cites an Israeli-based party figure to defend the diplomatic track to an Israeli audience.
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