A FEW weeks ago in the Sunday National, I quoted a remark made in the run-up to the US election by the Berlin bureau chief of The New York Times.

“The world doesn’t pick the US president, but it will live with the consequences,” observed Katrin Bennhold.

I make no apology for quoting Bennhold here again now as the world watches the tally of senior appointments to Donald Trump’s White House.

Already the running order is enough to give any progressive minded person the heebie-jeebies. To start with, there is Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy running a new Department of Government Efficiency (or “Doge”).

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This effectively means that the oligarchs have got their feet well and truly under the table of government – though arguably there’s nothing new in that.

Meanwhile, Pete Hegseth, up until recently a television co-host of Fox and Friends, becomes Pentagon chief as Secretary of Defence.

This was a choice that compelled one defence industry lobbyist who when asked on condition of anonymity by Politico magazine to express his candid views on the appointment did just that by asking rhetorically; “Who the fuck is this guy?”

Then there is Mike Waltz, Trump’s new national security adviser, the ex-Green Beret and man who once penned a memoir entitled Warrior Diplomat about his time serving with US forces in Afghanistan – and we all know how well that “hearts and minds” military campaign went.

Yes, I’m sure you can already see where this is going, but there was one name among Trump’s top level appointees that especially caught my eye.

I’m talking of course about the first non-Jewish American to be named ambassador to Israel in almost 20 years.

Not that being a Christian evangelical will stop Mike Huckabee – who by his own admission is also an “unapologetic Zionist” – from making the suffering of countless Palestinians even worse in the foreseeable future.

Let me put it this way; if Israel’s ultranationalist religious zealots like national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich had been given a wish as to who they’d like as America’s next ambassador to Israel, they could not have imagined someone more blindingly in tune with their own bigoted politics than Huckabee.

The former governor of Arkansas views don’t come any clearer than those expressed in an interview he did with CNN back in 2017.

“There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighbourhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation,” Huckabee insisted, and since underscored such views.

During the presidential campaign he even went as far as to question Palestinian identity.

“I need to be careful about saying this, because people will really get upset – there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian,” he opined.

It almost goes without saying then that for Palestinians, Huckabee’s appointment as US ambassador is the equivalent to a fifth horseman of the apocalypse.

Someone who will join the Israelis in galloping over the ruins of Gaza dressed up in his evangelical do-gooder disguise while in reality doubling down on the already existing conquest, war, hunger, and death that’s been inflicted on Palestinians.

If Palestinians and others in the world who support them in favour of a two state solution were hoping for positive change, then this, a man steadfastly against it, will make it even more unattainable.

Huckabee is on the record as saying that in order to be prevent Israeli Jews from being a minority in one state, there should be an “aggressive interest in bringing Jews from around the world to the homeland”.

If Palestinians and the international community then were looking for the United States to address the issue of further expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank which are illegal under international law, then they now have an added opponent in the shape of Huckabee.

The 69-year-old former Fox TV host – yes, another one – might though find an uptick to his lucrative sideline which during his time in the US political doldrums, found him focusing on offering all-inclusive evangelical Christian tours of Israel for $5850 per trip.

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As the UK based media website Middle East Eye recently highlighted, Huckabee’s tours, marketed towards senior citizens, were a curious marinade of travel and predictable politics detailed in its advertising.

“You’ll learn about Israel’s heritage from both a biblical and a historical perspective. You’ll hear from top Israeli officials about the strategic place Israel holds today and why America is such a valuable ally to her,” the advertisement for the Huckabee-led tours made clear.

What visitors would not hear about of course was the fundamental injustice of the occupation, the pass laws, violence and repression under which Israel’s apartheid system operates.

In one single social media statement made by Trump in the wake of Huckabee’s appointment and characteristically laced with contradiction, the president-elect told the world of America’s continued positioning with regards to its Middle East ally.

“He (Huckabee) loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him,” Trump’s post read. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!”

Trump is right here about Huckabee’s commitment to Israel, equally he is being totally disingenuous when he promises these efforts at establishing peace.

Few people familiar with US- Israel relations have ever doubted that this alliance will be upheld whatever “moral” overtures or “outrage” American presidential administrations’ make about the need for upholding Palestinian rights.

The reality in that America does what Israel wants has never been more true than of late, as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed his contempt for any “pleading” from Joe Biden over the humanitarian situation in Gaza or settler aggression in the occupied West Bank.

Israel’s disregard of Washington’s deadline this week to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza or face “unspecified” restrictions on military assistance is precisely a case in point.

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In Huckabee, Israel now has a US ambassador who like his fellow Christian Zionists, unequivocally believes that today’s Israel is an expression of biblical prophecies and therefore the fate of the US is inextricably connected to it.

Indeed Bennhold is right when she says that “the world doesn’t pick the US president, but it will live with the consequences”.

But shamefully, yet again, few people are about to realise that more than the Palestinians.