U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee conveyed a message to the growing isolationist camp on the American right as he submitted his diplomatic credentials on Monday: Maintaining close relations with Israel and countering the Iranian nuclear threat are beneficial to Americans.

“The Iranian regime and all the hostility it has inflicted on the world for 46 years continues to threaten not only the peace of Israel but the peace of the United States,” Huckabee said in the ceremony at the residence of Israeli President Isaac Herzog. “Iranians have always said, ‘Death to Israel,’ and chapter two is ‘Death to America’… Israel is the appetizer, and the United States is the entree.”

“We care deeply about the threats that face Israel because those are also the threats that face our country,” he added.

In remarks Huckabee specifically directed at his “American colleagues,” he said that Israel and the U.S. “share the values of the Bible. We share the understanding that the Judeo-Christian foundation is the foundation of all of Western civilization. Without it, there is no sense of democracy, and love, appreciation and respect of the individuals.”

“It’s also important for Americans to know that, while we hope to be a good friend of Israel and provide assistance when we can, I never want Americans to think that we Americans are not greatly benefitted by our partnership with our ally Israel,” the ambassador stated. “We benefit dramatically in the sharing of intelligence, in the sharing of technology and in the sharing of agricultural innovation that Israel has led the world in creating.”

Huckabee’s remarks come amid the rise of the isolationist faction in the Republican Party and the Trump administration that has been pushing for a nuclear agreement with Iran and opposes a U.S.-backed Israeli strike on Iran. In addition, a growing number of right-wing podcasters have grown increasingly skeptical of the U.S.-Israel relationship, and in some cases spread anti-Israel conspiracy theories.

Much of the ambassador’s remarks were dedicated to his personal connection to Israel, which he first visited in 1973, when he was 17 years old. Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, Fox News host and Southern Baptist pastor, has since been to Israel dozens of times and led tens of thousands of people on trips to the country, he said.

“I still feel a sense of absolute joy and an overwhelming sense of awe that I am in a land that God himself said ‘this is mine and these are my people,’” Huckabee said. “I come to stand today with the State of Israel and the Jewish people because I believe it is not simply a geopolitical position, but a divine position.” 

Huckabee joked that he will reside in Israel for the next few years, “unless the president tweets something early in the morning and tells me to come home.” 

The ambassador said that philanthropist and GOP donor Dr. Miriam Adelson suggested he be appointed to the job, but that he never spoke to Trump about it, until he “got a call out of the clear blue just a few days after the election.” Trump did not ask Huckabee if he wanted the job; Huckabee recounted. “[The president said,] ‘Mike, you’re going to be my ambassador to Israel.’” Huckabee said that when he responded to the president-elect’s statement, he wasn’t just saying yes to a job but “to a calling from God himself.” 

Huckabee recounted that earlier this month, “the president handed [him] a handwritten note with a prayer for the peace of Jerusalem.” His first act as ambassador was to put the note in the Western Wall on Friday, “on behalf of the American people, with a reminder that we stand with you, we stand with the people of Israel.” 

The ambassador expressed hope that in the coming years, he will “see times when…that young Israeli mother puts her babies to bed at night and does not fear that some harm will come upon them as they sleep, but they will rest with peace, and they will continue to live with the extraordinary resilience of the Israeli people, which I’ve come to admire, as second to none.”

He also said he prays for the return of all the hostages from Gaza. 

Herzog commended Huckabee for being “a leading voice of moral clarity and conscience” and his appointment “a shining reflection of the president’s love, friendship and support for the State of Israel.” 

Huckabee was one of several ambassadors to hand their credentials to Herzog on Monday. Such ceremonies are usually brief, with few guests and almost no media coverage, but the new American ambassador attracted a crowd.

Among the attendees were Yael Eckstein, the president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and Adelson, who wore a dress she had specially designed for the dedication of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, which is emblazoned with the Hebrew words, “If I forget thee, Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its cunning.”