The following is excerpted from the Deseret News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
At a Senate confirmation hearing for Mike Huckabee, nominated by President Donald Trump as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel, Utah Sen. John Curtis spoke about his time in Israel while he was a student at Brigham Young University, and asked Huckabee to clarify his feelings toward The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Huckabee’s nomination comes as the war continues to rage between Israel and Hamas, which started on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants brutally attacked Israel. Fighting in Gaza resumed earlier this month after a two-month ceasefire deal fell apart. For the ceasefire to continue, Israel is demanding the immediate release of live and dead hostages held by Hamas, and that Hamas lay down its weapons of war, which Hamas will not agree to.
Thousands of people have died in the conflict, and thousands more have been displaced from their homes in Gaza.
Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and GOP presidential candidate, has expressed his support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During his Senate testimony on Tuesday, Huckabee, who is also an ordained Southern Baptist pastor, praised the Abraham Accords, historic peace agreements signed between Israel and several other Middle Eastern countries during Trump’s first term in office, and he also said he supported Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
“The challenges facing Israel and the United States in this part of the world are enormous,” he said. “The ongoing war and situation with hostages, including American citizens makes this assignment urgent.”
Curtis: Utah has a ‘special relationship with Israel’
During his opportunity to question Huckabee, Curtis asked him to clarify his feelings about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Huckabee spoke critically about the church when he was running against former Utah Sen. Mitt Romney in the 2008 Republican primary, but later apologized.
Curtis spent six months in Israel as part of a BYU study abroad program in 1979, before the school’s Jerusalem Center was built.
“Utah has a very special relationship with Israel,” he told Huckabee. “I like to tease my friends with ties to Israel that until I was 18, I thought I grew up in Zion in Utah. We have Zion Park, we have a Jordan River. There’s lots of ties. One of those ties is Brigham Young University, sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that has a campus there.”
Curtis then asked Huckabee about his feelings about the church.
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