The US Senate voted on Wednesday to confirm Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. Senators voted 53 to 46 in favour of confirming Mr Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, who faced tough questions – and frequent interruptions by protesters – during his congressional hearing at the end of last month.
Mr Huckabee, an evangelical preacher, has been outspoken in his support of Israel and has repeatedly referred to the occupied West Bank as "Judea and Samaria", the biblical term that Israeli settlers use to describe the area.
During his confirmation hearing, he skirted questions on his personal position on Palestinian rights, and acknowledged that in the past he had supported Israel's right to annex the West Bank, where more than three million Palestinians live.
“I believe that there always has to be the law being followed and there has to be clarity,” Mr Huckabee said, when questioned over whether Israeli settlers displacing Palestinians from their homes was wrong. “If we're talking about stealing the land, taking it away from them, their land, yeah, that's a problem. If you're talking about purchasing the land, that's a legitimate transaction.”
Mr Huckabee has also long opposed a two-state solution.
US President Donald Trump said after his confirmation that Mr Huckabee would be "fantastic" as ambassador to Israel and that he would "bring home the bacon".
Mr Trump quickly followed that comment up by acknowledging that bacon "isn't too big in Israel", a reference to the fact that it is not kosher. It is also haram in Islam.
'The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting up a Generation for Failure'
Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, Penguin Randomhouse
Rankings
ATP: 1. Novak Djokovic (SRB) 10,955 pts; 2. Rafael Nadal (ESP) 8,320; 3. Alexander Zverev (GER) 6,475 ( 1); 5. Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG) 5,060 ( 1); 6. Kevin Anderson (RSA) 4,845 ( 1); 6. Roger Federer (SUI) 4,600 (-3); 7. Kei Nishikori (JPN) 4,110 ( 2); 8. Dominic Thiem (AUT) 3,960; 9. John Isner (USA) 3,155 ( 1); 10. Marin Cilic (CRO) 3,140 (-3)
WTA: 1. Naomi Osaka (JPN) 7,030 pts ( 3); 2. Petra Kvitova (CZE) 6,290 ( 4); 3. Simona Halep (ROM) 5,582 (-2); 4. Sloane Stephens (USA) 5,307 ( 1); 5. Karolina Pliskova (CZE) 5,100 ( 3); 6. Angelique Kerber (GER) 4,965 (-4); 7. Elina Svitolina (UKR) 4,940; 8. Kiki Bertens (NED) 4,430 ( 1); 9. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) 3,566 (-6); 10. Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) 3,485 ( 1)
Innotech Profile
Date started: 2013
Founder/CEO: Othman Al Mandhari
Based: Muscat, Oman
Sector: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing technologies
Size: 15 full-time employees
Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing
Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now.
MATCH INFO
Arsenal 1 (Aubameyang 12’) Liverpool 1 (Minamino 73’)
Arsenal win 5-4 on penalties
Man of the Match: Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Arsenal)
Scores
Day 2
New Zealand 153 & 56-1
Pakistan 227
New Zealand trail by 18 runs with nine wickets remaining
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
