US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that Paris will recognize a Palestinian state in September set back talks that had been making progress between Israel and the Palestinian Authority on “some very touchy issues.”

Huckabee doesn’t specify what issues were being discussed during an interview on a Christian broadcaster, but appears to be referring to efforts to coax Israel into releasing over $2 billion in tax revenues that it has been withholding from the PA, which has severely hampered Ramallah’s ability to operate.

“We were not there yet. We were moving in the direction [of resolving these issues], and what [Macron] did [last] week blew it all off the table. We’re back to ground zero, and it’s a real setback,” Huckabee says.

The US envoy also claims that the French announcement was “one of the reasons” Hamas “became unreasonable” in the hostage talks.

Macron’s announcement came hours after the US and Israel decided to pull their negotiators from Doha amid frustration with Hamas’s latest response in the talks that was submitted earlier in the week.

“When Europe and other areas of the world decide they’re going to start telling Israel that it’s got to let Hamas stay in Gaza, or that it’s going to declare unilaterally a Palestinian state, the reaction in Israel is not to surrender,” Huckabee says. “We’ll just get stronger, tougher, and we’ll dig in.”

In a subsequent interview with Fox News, Huckabee says France would be of better assistance if it agreed to take in Palestinians from Gaza who want to leave the war-torn Strip.

Countries have largely refused to take in Gazans, since the start of the war, with some arguing that Israel has not committed to allowing those who leave the ability to return on a later date, while a majority of coalition members have expressed their support for building settlements in the Strip on top of the ruins of Palestinian towns.

In the Fox interview, Huckabee forcefully denies that there’s a rift between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump.

He says claims of a rift between the two leaders are “about as realistic as saying that I was personally responsible for the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby.”

The US envoy insists that ties between the two have never been stronger, particularly since the war with Iran.

“The disconnect is with the media [that] wants there to be an anti-Israel message that they keep getting across; but it’s a false message,” Huckabee says.

On Monday, Trump was asked if he was convinced by Netanyahu’s assurance that there is no starvation in Gaza. The US president responded, “not particularly,” adding that there is “real starvation” in the Strip and that “You can’t fake that.”

Huckabee acknowledges that there is suffering in Gaza but asserts that it’s not “as bad as some of the Europeans say.”

Arab and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, signed a declaration Tuesday condemning for the first time Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, and calling on the Palestinian terror group to release all the hostages it is holding, disarm and end its rule of Gaza, in a bid to end the devastating war in the Strip.

Seventeen countries, plus the 22-member Arab League and the entire European Union, threw their weight behind a seven-page text — obtained by The Times of Israel — agreed at a United Nations conference on reviving the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

The “New York Declaration” sets out a phased plan to end the nearly eight-decade conflict and the ongoing war in Gaza. The plan would culminate with an independent, demilitarized Palestine living side by side peacefully with Israel, and their eventual integration into the wider Middle East region.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes a two-state solution and has rejected the meeting on both nationalistic and security grounds. Israel’s close ally, the United States, is also boycotting, calling the meeting “unproductive and ill-timed.”

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon late Tuesday sharply criticized the some 125 countries participating in the conference, saying “there are those in the world who fight terrorists and extremist forces and then there are those who turn a blind eye to them or resort to appeasement.”

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The conference, which was postponed from June and downgraded from world leaders to ministers, for the first time established eight high-level working groups to examine and make proposals on wide-ranging topics related to a two-state solution.

“In the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State,” said the declaration.

It followed a call Monday by the Palestinian Authority delegation at the United Nations for both Israel and Hamas to leave Gaza, allowing the PA to administer the coastal territory.

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The text also condemned the deadly Hamas-led October 7 assault on Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage — of whom 50 are still held, most of them not alive — and which sparked the war in Gaza. It marks a first condemnation by virtually all Arab nations of the attack.

It also condemned Israeli attacks in Gaza that killed civilians, calling on Jerusalem to abandon many of its policies throughout the war and beyond, including its limiting of humanitarian aid to the Strip, its military rule and construction of settlements in the West Bank, its failure to prevent settler violence against Palestinians, and its alleged alteration of status quos in Jerusalem.

The declaration also called for the possible deployment of foreign forces to stabilize Gaza after the end of hostilities.

It urged an end to Israel’s ban of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, UNRWA, while reiterating the Palestinian “right of return” to places in Israel they left or were expelled from surrounding the 1948 creation of the State of Israel — a notion ruled out by successive Israeli governments which contend this would undermine its existence as a Jewish state.

The text also urged the rehabilitation of the Palestinian economy, as well as the removal of inciting and hateful material from the Palestinian Authority school curriculum — a demand also directed at Israel.

France, which co-chaired the conference with Saudi Arabia, called the declaration “both historic and unprecedented,” calling on UN member countries to support the declaration, which outlines “tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps” toward implementing the two-state solution — which is strongly rejected by the current Israeli government.

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“For the first time, Arab countries and those in the Middle East condemn Hamas, condemn October 7, call for the disarmament of Hamas, call for its exclusion from Palestinian governance, and clearly express their intention to normalize relations with Israel in the future,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

However, while the declaration included general pledges for “full regional integration” and “tangible steps in promoting mutual recognition, peaceful coexistence, and cooperation among all States in the region,” it did not include an explicit intent by the signatories to establish full diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.

The declaration, spearheaded by France and Saudi Arabia, was signed by the Arab League, the EU, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Norway and Senegal.

“We call on you to support this document before the end of the 79th session of the General Assembly by contacting the missions of Saudi Arabia and France in New York,” Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud told the conference on Tuesday. The 80th UN General Assembly is due to start in September.

The first step outlined in the declaration is to end the 22-month war between Israel and Hamas.

“Following the ceasefire, a transitional administrative committee must be immediately established to operate in Gaza under the umbrella of the Palestinian Authority,” it reads.

The declaration supports the deployment of a temporary international stabilization mission, mandated by the UN Security Council, and welcomes “the readiness expressed by some member states to contribute troops.”

It calls on Israel’s leadership to “issue a clear public commitment to the Two-State Solution, including a sovereign, and viable Palestinian State, to immediately end violence and incitement against Palestinians, [and] to halt all settlement, land grabs and annexation activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem.”

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The declaration commits to adopting restrictive measures against violent extremist settlers and those who support illegal settlements, and adopting targeted measures “against entities and individuals acting against the principle of the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine, through violence or acts of terrorism, and in breach of international law.”

It also describes regional integration and independent Palestinian statehood as “intertwined objectives.”

“Only by ending the war in Gaza, releasing all hostages, ending occupation, rejecting violence and terror, realizing an independent, sovereign, and democratic Palestinian State, ending the occupation of all Arab territories and providing solid security guarantees for Israel and Palestine, can normal relations and coexistence among the region’s peoples and States be achieved,” it reads.

The declaration urges countries to recognize the state of Palestine, calling this “an essential and indispensable component of the achievement of the two-state solution.” Without naming Israel but clearly referring to it, the document says “illegal unilateral actions are posing an existential threat to the realization of the independent state of Palestine.”

French President Emmanuel Macron announced ahead of the meeting that his country will recognize the state of Palestine at the General Assembly’s meeting of world leaders in late September.

The document was issued on the second day of the conference in New York, at which Britain announced it would recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel halts fighting in Gaza and commits to a peace process that ends with a two-state solution. Planned for two days, the meeting was extended into Wednesday because representatives of about 50 countries have not spoken.

For decades, most UN members have supported a two-state solution with Israel and a future Palestinian state existing side-by-side.

But after almost 22 months of war in Gaza, the ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and Israeli officials declaring designs to annex parts of Gaza and the West Bank, many countries fear that a Palestinian state could become geographically impossible.

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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the meeting Monday: “The two-state solution is farther than ever before.”

A separate one-page statement titled the “New York Call” was circulated by France, but the language was considered too strong, especially for Arab nations. It was only approved by 15 Western nations, including six that have recognized a Palestinian state and nine others: Andorra, Australia, Canada, Finland, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Portugal and San Marino.

The statement, issued late Tuesday, says the 15 countries have recognized, “expressed or express the willingness or the positive consideration… to recognize the state of Palestine, as an essential step towards the two-state solution, and invite all countries that have not done so to join this call.”

Israel, under the current government led by Netanyahu, has long rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state, and has refused to entertain the possibility of the PA playing any role in the future governance of Gaza.

But it has offered few details of what it envisions as an alternative to the PA in postwar Gaza, beyond advocating for what it insists would be the voluntary mass migration of its population.

Israel’s offensive against Hamas has killed over 60,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and terror operatives.

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told international journalists that Israel would not give in to the “distorted campaign of international pressure” to end the war in Gaza and force a two-state solution on Israel.

“Establishing a Palestinian state today is establishing a Hamas state. A jihadist state,” said Sa’ar. “It ain’t gonna happen.”

Michael Bachner, Jacob Magid and Lazar Berman contributed to this report.

Israel is unlikely to attack Iran without a green light from Washington, says US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee in an interview with Ynet.

“I won’t be making that decision,” says the former governor and Baptist minister. “I just don’t in my mind see that that would be something that would likely happen because of the closeness of the relationship and the trust, and that’s the word I would emphasize, there is a trust between the US and Israel.”

Huckabee cast doubt on reports that US President Donald Trump told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week not to attack Iran: “I can’t say that the president gave any instructions. I know they’ve had many conversations and they’ve discussed all aspects, but it would not be like the president to give instructions to the prime minister any more than it would be typical that the prime minister would give instructions to the president.”

Trump will not agree to a JCPOA 2.0 deal in nuclear talks with Iran, insists Huckabee.

“He was the president who tore up the first one,” he says, referring to the 2015 nuclear deal spearheaded by the Barack Obama administration. “I think the last thing he would have any interest in doing would be to embrace an Obama policy that was a total failure and one that he rejected as soon as he got in office.”

“The president made very clear that Iran is not going to have a nuclear weapon, that Iran isn’t going to have any enrichment, and I don’t know how much clearer he could get than he was,” Huckabee adds.

He also says that reports that Trump is frustrated with Netanyahu are “simply not the case.”

“The relationship is, I believe, rock solid.”

Turning to the Gaza war, Huckabee blasts Western partners for “putting more pressure on Israel than they’re putting on Hamas.”

He blames Hamas for the continuation of the war by refusing to surrender, while stressing that the terror organization cannot be allowed to stay in power in Gaza: “Leaving Hamas in power and letting them rule Gaza for the same way that World War II could not end, leaving the Nazis in Germany and letting them continue to rule the place. Plus, that is the message the president has sent us here with Hamas can’t stay.”

“Hamas is not gonna have a role,” Huckabee continues, “so I don’t think there’s any difference of opinion between the president, the prime minister on what it has to look like at the end.”

Despite violence and chaos at distribution sites, Huckabee doubles down on support for the Gaza Humanitarian Fund: “It’s getting better every day. We learn something new every day, and how it’s being carried out. We’re getting greater levels of security, pushing the food further inward to the people who are receiving it, so it’s easier for them to get it. Hamas is doing everything it can to disrupt the flow of the food, and that’s the piece of this that isn’t getting reported.”

He adds that the US is “very frustrated with the fact that the UN has been screaming to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, and then when we created an organization to do that very thing, they’ve sat on their hands.”

He calls the French-Saudi United Nations on Palestinian statehood next week “ridiculously ill-timed.”

“This was in the midst of a war, for heaven’s sakes, that they, they’re facing threats on all sides,” he says of Israel. “You would think that if European countries have time and energy to put pressure on anyone, anything for any purpose, they would say, Hamas, we’re putting all the pressure on you.”

Huckabee says that Washington would not interfere with a decision to annex parts of the West Bank.

“We don’t want to tell Israel what it should do and how it should create communities in Judea and Samaria,” he says, using the Israeli name for the West Bank. “We have been very clear, and this goes back to the first Trump administration, that developing communities in Judea and Samaria is not a violation of international law.”

Asked about the International Criminal Court, Huckabee calls the Hague-based court “an incredibly lawless, worthless entity that is going after Israelis.”

Dozens of ministers gathered at a United Nations conference on Monday to urge the international community to work toward a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, with Israel and the United States boycotting the event.

The 193-member UN General Assembly decided in September last year that such a conference would be held in 2025. Hosted by France and Saudi Arabia, the conference was postponed in June due to the Israel-Iran war.

“We must ensure that it does not become another exercise in well-meaning rhetoric,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in opening remarks.

Days before the conference, French President Emmanuel Macron announced he would formally recognize Palestinian statehood in September, provoking strong opposition from Israel and the United States.

Luxembourg hinted Monday that it could follow France and recognize a Palestinian state in September, with the possibility that other countries could announce similar plans when the conference resumes Tuesday.

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France is hoping Britain will follow its lead. More than 200 British members of parliament on Friday voiced support for the idea, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that recognition of a Palestinian state “must be part of a wider plan.”

For decades, most UN members have supported a two-state solution with Israel and a Palestinian state existing side-by-side.

However, the establishment of a Palestinian state and its would-be borders appear to be increasingly shrinking after more than 21 months of devastating war in Gaza sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 terror onslaught, the ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and Israeli officials declaring designs to annex the territory along with the Gaza Strip.

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French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said it would be an “illusion to think that you can get to a lasting ceasefire without having an outline of what’s going to happen in Gaza after the end of the war and having a political horizon.”

Beyond advocating for encouraging the mass migration of Palestinians from Gaza, Israel has offered little detail of what it envisions for a post-war Strip and has pushed back against international calls for the Palestinian Authority to gain a foothold in the enclave.

Barrot told reporters at the UN that while there was international consensus that the time for a political solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is now, words need to be followed up with action.

“The European Commission, on behalf of the EU, has to express its expectations and show the means that we can incentivize the Israeli government to hear this appeal,” he said.

The aim of the conference, Barrot said, was “to reverse the trend of what is happening in the region — mainly the erasure of the two-state solution, which has been for a long time the only solution that can bring peace and security in the region.”

He urged the European Commission to call on Israel to lift a financial blockade on 2 billion euros he says the Israeli government owes the Palestinian Authority; stop settlement building in the West Bank, which threatens the territorial integrity of a future Palestinian state; and end the “militarized” food delivery system in Gaza by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.. Critics of the GHF have denounced its distribution sites as “death traps,” with hundreds of Palestinians reportedly killed while trying to gather aid.

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Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said on Monday: “This conference does not promote a solution, but rather deepens the illusion. Instead of demanding the release of the hostages and working to dismantle Hamas’s reign of terror, the conference organizers are engaging in discussions and plenaries that are disconnected from reality.”

The Trump administration tore into the “unproductive and ill-timed” UN conference, calling it a “publicity stunt that comes in the middle of delicate diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.”

“Far from promoting peace, the conference will prolong the war, embolden Hamas and reward its obstruction and undermine real-world efforts to achieve peace,” the State Department said in a statement.

The US again called out Macron for saying he will recognize a Palestinian state in September, noting that the French announcement was welcomed by Hamas. Paris’s decision was also welcomed by the more moderate PA, which backs a two-state solution with Israel.

The US statement avoided criticizing Saudi Arabia, which helped engineer Macron’s announcement and is co-hosting this week’s UN conference. Trump has a close relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has pledged to invest billions in the US economy.

The US statement did not express a broader position on the two-state solution. Trump officials have avoided weighing in on the matter, but have not criticized the Israeli government as it has taken steps in the West Bank aimed at foreclosing such a framework.

Beyond facilitating conditions for recognizing Palestine, French officials said the conference is focused on three other issues: Reforming the Palestinian Authority, disarming Hamas and excluding it from Palestinian public life, and normalizing relations between Israel and Arab states.

Saudi Arabia reiterated its stance that normalization with Israel “can only come through the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

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Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the UN event, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan said that stance was in keeping with the position outlined a year ago by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“It is based on a strong conviction that only through the establishment of a Palestinian state, and only through addressing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, can we have sustainable peace and real integration in the region,” Prince Faisal said.

Israeli officials have long insisted that Riyadh would be willing to settle for less, perhaps even mere lip service to a two-state solution in exchange for normalizing ties with Israel.

Saudi officials have pushed back against that notion, demanding that Israel establish an irreversible, time-bound pathway to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Israel, under the current government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has long rejected such a framework and has taken steps toward formally annexing West Bank lands that Palestinians hope would be part of their future state.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa used the conference to reiterate Ramallah’s call for the release of all hostages and for Hamas to end its control of Gaza and transfer its weapons to the PA, during an address aimed at promoting a two-state solution.

“All countries bear the responsibility to act now to end the war against our people in Gaza and throughout Palestine, to ensure the release of all hostages and prisoners, and to ensure the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces,” he said.

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Mustafa added that the PA is prepared to welcome and coordinate with an international Arab force that will help stabilize Gaza after the war.

While Israel has expressed openness to assistance from Arab countries like the United Arab Emirates, those countries have conditioned such support on the PA’s involvement, which Israel has long rejected, likening the Ramallah-based entity to Hamas.

“We must all work to reunify the Gaza Strip with the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, without occupation, siege, settlements, forced displacement or annexation,” Mustafa said. “We must rebuild Gaza with and for our people, end the occupation, achieve Palestinian independence, and implement the two-state solution, where Palestine and Israel live side by side, in peace and security, towards achieving regional peace, security, and prosperity.”