Huckabee blames ‘biblical illiteracy’ for declining US support for Israel

US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee notes that the recent souring of public opinion in the United States towards Israel is the result of a lack of "biblical literacy".

Key points

• For Israel, the decline in backing has become alarming as prominent critics of Israel won a number of elections, including Zohran Mamdani.
• In an interview with NewsNation on Thursday, the ambassador suggested there were three sources of declining backing for Israel.
• "You add all that together, I guess you just want to be mad at Israel and blame them for everything, " he remarked.

He cited disinformation and foreign propaganda, a hatred of those who believe "there is a God and that he's made up the rules for life", and not knowing the Bible.

Huckabee asserted that accusations of genocide in Gaza and that Israel is an apartheid state are false, and Americans would have a more favourable view of Israel if they would "look at the truth".

Although favourable opinion of Israel remained relatively solid at 65 percent among white evangelicals, such as Huckabee, 60 percent of the US adult population held an unfavourable view of Israel, a Pew Research poll in April indicated that.

Although roughly half remarked they did not know enough to answer, an AP-NORC poll from July suggested that Americans who believed Israel committed genocide in Gaza outnumbered those who did not.

For Israel, the decline in backing has become alarming as prominent critics of Israel won a number of elections, including Zohran Mamdani. This person became New York City mayor.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu applied part of his speech at the United Nations General Assembly to lambast Mamdani, claiming that Jews in New York informed him that they no longer feel safe in the city.

Netanyahu, too, has seen declining popularity in the US, with the same Pew survey indicating more than half of Americans did not trust him to do the right thing regarding world affairs.

According to Mamdani has previously, he opposes hatred and bigotry, including anti-Semitism, but promised to execute an International Criminal Court warrant for Netanyahu for war crimes when the Israeli leader next visited New York City – before eventually concluding that the city did not have the legal authority to do so.

Taken together, the developments around huckabee blames 'biblical illiteracy' for declining US support for Israel point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.