During an interview aired on Wednesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said that he doesn’t believe Israel is “overly worried” about the sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia and doing so “is not, in and of itself, something that would be offensive to Israel, as long as they maintain, again, what is a statutory requirement that they have superiority.” He also stated that Congress will and needs to get involved on the issue.
Huckabee said, “I don’t think they’re overly worried. They know that there are still statutory requirements from the United States that Israel has a superiority in terms of defense mechanisms.”
He added, “I think that they believe that the U.S. is going to honor that. And so, selling some F-35s to the Saudis to give them the ability to protect themselves, perhaps against Iran, is not, in and of itself, something that would be offensive to Israel, as long as they maintain, again, what is a statutory requirement that they have superiority.”
Host Elizabeth Vargas then said, “I guess the question being, does this tip us away from that statutory requirement? I’m sure Congress will be taking that up. This is something Congress must get involved in as well.”
Huckabee responded, “Yeah.”
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