Mike Huckabee, the US Ambassador to Israel, warned in a leaked letter to Interior Minister Moshe Arbel that he would publicly declare Israel to be unwelcome to Christian groups after Jerusalem failed to approve tourist visas for evangelical missions. He also threatened to have his embassy impose reciprocal visa restrictions on Israeli tourists seeking entry to the United States.
According to The Times of Israel, Huckabee wrote to Arbel on July 16th, expressing disappointment that at the start of 2025, the interior minister launched investigations into several evangelical organizations with long ties to Israel, including the Baptist Conference in Israel and the Christian Missionary Alliance. Huckabee informed Arbel that these organizations were required to complete lengthy questionnaires and that they still have not received new visas for religious leaders to travel to Israel, despite submitting their applications at the beginning of the year.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long been a friend of evangelical Christians. So what spurred U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee’s recent warning to Israel’s government to improve its suddenly sour treatment of evangelicals? Was Netanyahu the culprit, or was someone else the source of this tension?
Here’s my take: Ambassador Huckabe is speaking to a major problem within Netanyahu’s current government, which was made up of largely Orthodox political parties. Unlike Netanyahu, these parties consider evangelicals a religious adversary to the Jewish state, not an ally.
Huckabee and Netanyahu, however, know evangelical Christians are Israel’s greatest friend and partner in defending Zionism.
