Former Governor Mike Huckabee, a prominent Republican and close confidante to the Trump White House, visited a building site in the Tamar neighborhood of the town of Efrat, in Gush Etzion, on Wednesday, offering support for continued growth of communities across Judea and Samaria.
Speaking beneath a large banner reading “Build Israel Great Again”, Huckabee said that he knows the US President is similarly supportive of construction. “President Trump is naturally a builder and he would be proud to see what is going on here in Efrat.”
Huckabee was half-joking when he added that he may one day “purchase a holiday home” in Efrat.
Huckabee, known to be a staunchly supportive figure of Israel’s right to self-determination and the Jewish State’s legal presence in Judea and Samaria pointed to the construction workers around him as evidence that these communities promote rather than impede peace, “The greatest path to peace is by empowering people via economic growth and that is exactly what we are seeing. Every single day some 1,300 Palestinian workers come into this area to build homes and are given the means to provide for their families as a result.”
Governor Huckabee’s visit to Israel is an initiative of the National Council of Young Israel and the mission was led by its First Vice President Dr. Joe Frager.
YESHA Council Hananel Dorani asked Governor Huckabee to relay a very specific message back to the White House saying that while they are deeply appreciative of the right to build new homes, he would implore the US Government to permit even further construction across Judea and Samaria. “While we have the chance to build now under the Trump administration in ways unlike Obama, it’s still not enough and we need to be able to develop thousands of new homes and buildings in order to best serve the needs of our growing population who want to live in this area and benefit from all that it has to offer.”
The Governor’s mission will include stops across Israel with visits to the Golan Heights as well as the Southern border areas to enable the group to better understand the myriad of security and practical challenges faced on all fronts.
Assisting construction crews to build a supporting wall around a new home in the community, Huckabee said with a smile, “This area is so great- perhaps now’s the time to purchase a vacation home.”