I caught this on Twitter.

First of all, Ambassador Huckabee: If you ever catch yourself noticing that you may be perceived as advocating for Israel rather than the United States, that’s actually a problem. There may be times when an ambassador has to shine the reputation of a foreign partner in front of domestic audiences, but doing so must be grounded in the American interest.

Huckabee’s strange assertion that Israel is akin to America’s spouse is unhelpful, even if his comments were less declarative and more folksy than the above tweet makes it sound (I’d encourage you to watch the whole clip). There is obviously a tide of anti-Israel sentiment rising in the world, along with antisemitic sentiment and conspiracy theories that somehow the Jews control American foreign policy in their interest. And analogizing our relationship as a marriage is a funhouse way of fueling those conspiracy theories, as it casts Israel in a privileged role.

Israel is a source of Western values. It is an important partner in intelligence gathering and in military technological development. We have many American citizens who love Israel and have relations there. You could even argue the way Douglas Murray does now that Israel is a kind of rampart of our civilization, defending it from attack and modeling resistance to the demographic and political tides that roll against us. All of that would make a lot more sense.