US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee holds a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, May 9, 2025. Photo by Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Bloomberg News that Washington does not see room for a Palestinian state at the moment.
Huckabee told Bloomberg that U.S. support for a Palestinian state in the current climate has cooled.
“Unless there are some significant things that happen that change the culture, there’s no room for it,” Huckabee told the news outlet during an interview in Jerusalem.
The Evangelical Christian ambassador and longtime supporter of Israel also suggested that a Palestinian state could be formed somewhere outside of the territory under Israeli control.
The interviewer pressed him for details, asking, “Are you suggesting that somewhere other than Mandatory Palestine area, that it could be in Saudi Arabia, or something?” This reference to Saudi Arabia stems from a statement made earlier this year by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he quipped that Saudi Arabia was welcome to establish a Palestinian state within its own territory.
Huckabee responded, “I’m just saying, I think every option should be, and could be, on the table.”
The question was a response to a statement by Huckabee questioning the ability of any entity to declare the “exact” geography for a Palestinian state.
“I don’t believe anyone can say ‘it’s impossible, it’ll never happen’ – but if someone wants to declare that this is the exact strip of geography that is going to be the future Palestinian state, that’s where the complication comes from,” Huckabee had stated earlier in the interview.
The U.S. ambassador also highlighted the size disparity between the small territory controlled by the Jewish state and the vast territory controlled by Muslim nations.
“Israel has a little, narrow strip of real estate,” Huckabee noted. “Muslim-controlled countries have 644 times the amount of land that Israel has. So when people say ‘Israel has to give something,’ you kind of scratch your head and say, okay, let me see if I get this right.”
Meanwhile, Israel Hayom reported on Wednesday that, following pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, France has decided that unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state would not be part of the final declaration of the upcoming UN conference on the matter, scheduled to take place in New York.
The news site said that a senior advisor for French President Emmanuel Macron presented the goals of the conference to Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem, stating that the conference was actually intended to help Israel by advancing Israeli interests. Such interests include the demand that Hamas be excluded from any government of a Palestinian state, a commitment by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to stop its “ pay for slay ” program, and the removal of incitement against Jews from school curricula.
The Israel Hayom report stated that in recent days, President Trump’s administration has repeatedly conveyed its opposition to the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state by France in the upcoming UN conference. It claimed that administration officials told the French government that Trump would take such a step as a “personal insult.”
France and Saudi Arabia will co-chair “The High Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution” at the United Nations in New York next week. The conference is widely expected to result in French recognition of a Palestinian state.
Jewish Insider cited a French diplomatic source as stating that France is “determined to recognize the state of Palestine to create the conditions for the existence of this state … Our goal for this conference indeed goes beyond the question of recognition. It is indeed about recreating an international consensus around the two-state solution, which allows for a lasting resolution to the conflict.”
The Israel Hayom report comes amid a recommendation by the French Ministry of Interior that France formally recognize a Palestinian state in order to “appease” Muslim voters and ease internal tensions.
Huckabee, himself, previously criticized France’s push for a two-state solution during the present Gaza War.
“It’s incredibly inappropriate in the midst of a war that Israel is dealing with to go out to present something that Israelis are steadfast against,” he told Fox News in an interview last week.
“If France is really so determined to see a Palestinian state, I’ve got a suggestion for them: carve out a piece of the French Riviera and create a Palestinian state.”