Biden Energy Adviser to Discuss Lebanon Border Issues on Israel Trip

Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, gestures as he meets with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. (AP)
Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, gestures as he meets with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. (AP)
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Biden Energy Adviser to Discuss Lebanon Border Issues on Israel Trip

Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, gestures as he meets with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. (AP)
Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, gestures as he meets with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. (AP)

President Joe Biden's energy security adviser Amos Hochstein was traveling to Israel on Monday to discuss issues related to the northern border with Lebanon, including how to stop the Gaza conflict from spreading, a US official said.

"This trip builds on Hochstein's visit to Beirut earlier this month where he made clear the United States does not want to see conflict in Gaza escalating and expanding into Lebanon," the official said.

"While in Israel, Hochstein will emphasize that restoring calm along Israel's northern border is of utmost importance to the United States and it should be a top priority for both Israel and Lebanon."

Hochstein helped to finalize a maritime demarcation deal last year between Israel and Lebanon, bringing a measure of accommodation between the enemy states as they eyed offshore energy exploration.

In the months before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian Hamas militants who run the Gaza Strip, Hochstein said the United States was exploring the possibility of resolving the longstanding border dispute between Lebanon and Israel.

However, tensions have escalated along the border since cross-border raids that Israel says killed 1,200 people. The Israeli response - a bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza - has killed more than 12,300 people as it entered its seventh week, according to health officials in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has attacked Israeli troops at the Lebanese border and Israel has launched air and artillery strikes against southern Lebanon, in the deadliest violence since the two sides fought a war in 2006.



Trump’s Nominee for Ambassador to Israel Avoids Direct Answers on West Bank Annexation

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, US President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, US President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Trump’s Nominee for Ambassador to Israel Avoids Direct Answers on West Bank Annexation

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, US President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, US President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)

Mike Huckabee, facing a US Senate hearing for his confirmation as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel, is facing close questioning from Democrats on his views on the potential for Israeli annexation of the West Bank, but he avoided giving direct answers.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, asked Huckabee whether he thought it would be wrong for a Jewish settler to push a Palestinian family off land they own in the West Bank.

Huckabee, a well-known evangelical Christian, stood by past statements that Israel has a “Biblical mandate” to the land. He also responded by saying he believed in the “law being followed” and “clarity,” but also that “purchasing the land” would be a “legitimate transaction.”

Huckabee also said that any Palestinians living in an annexed West Bank would have “security” and “opportunity,” but wouldn’t answer Van Hollen’s questions about whether they would have the same legal and political rights as Jewish people.

Four pro-Palestinian demonstrators interrupted the hearing in the Senate to decry Huckabee’s ardent support for Israel.

One blew a shofar, a ram’s horn used for Jewish religious purposes, and another shouted, “I am a proud American Jew!” then “Let Palestinians live!”

Police quickly grabbed the protesters, but their shouts could still be momentarily heard in the Senate hallway.

Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and one-time Republican presidential hopeful, has taken stances on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that sharply contradict longstanding US policy in the region.

He has spoken favorably in the past about Israel’s right to annex the occupied West Bank and has long been opposed to the idea of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian people.

In an interview last year, he went even further, saying that he doesn’t even believe in referring to the Arab descendants of people who lived in British-controlled Palestine as “Palestinians.”