Huckabee Says Muslim Nations Should Give Their Own Land for Palestinian State

The American ambassador to Israel has said that it should be up to “Muslim countries” to build a Palestinian state on their territory instead of in the areas that much of the world recognizes as Palestinian lands.

If the statements by Ambassador Mike Huckabee are confirmed as representing the U.S. administration’s position, it would be a sharp shift away from decades of American foreign policy on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. A State Department spokeswoman downplayed his remarks.

“Muslim countries have 644 times the amount of land that are controlled by Israel,” Mr. Huckabee said in an videotaped interview with the BBC. “So maybe, if there is such a desire for the Palestinian state, there would be someone who would say we’d like to host it, we’d like to create it.”

The United States has long supported a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would give Palestinians sovereignty in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza. That has been American policy since the United States helped broker the Oslo Accords in 1993, which were widely expected to lead to statehood for the Palestinians, and, for Israel, realization of the long-held goal of land for peace.

Mr. Huckabee said in a separate interview with Bloomberg News that it would be a “problem” if someone wanted to declare those exact territories a future Palestinian state. Bloomberg quoted him as saying in off-camera remarks “I don’t think so” when asked whether the Trump administration supported a two-state solution as ongoing American policy.

“I know that many American administrations and other European countries have pushed for it. But the question is: Where should that be?” he told the BBC. Both interviews were published on Tuesday but it was not clear precisely when they had taken place.

Asked about Mr. Huckabee’s remarks, a State Department spokeswoman, Tammy Bruce, told reporters, “I think he certainly speaks for himself,” and added: “When it comes to American policy and certainly where the president stands, I’d suggest you call the White House.”

At least 146 of the world’s 193 countries, plus the Holy See, support statehood for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Although none of the so-called Group of 7 industrialized countries currently recognize a Palestinian state, France and Britain have recently been discussing steps toward doing so.

Next week, President Emmanuel Macron of France will jointly chair a U.N. conference in New York with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia to explore the creation of a Palestinian state.

Before he became ambassador this year, Mr. Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and Southern Baptist minister, had said that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian” and argued that all of the occupied West Bank belonged to Israel.

But last fall, Mr. Huckabee said he would “carry out the policy of the president” while serving as the top American diplomat to Israel.

“I won’t make the policy,” he said in November.