U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee condemned Israel’s Interior Minister Moshe Arbel after the country delayed granting visas to evangelical Christian groups.
Huckabee’s letter, obtained by Ynetnews, warned Arbel that the situation is “not the relationship Israel wants to have with its best partner and friend.”
“As of the beginning of 2025, the Visa Department has stopped honoring the recommendations and has launched an independent investigation of each of the evangelical organizations to determine whether they should be recognized as religious institutions and whether they should continue to receive visas,” Huckabee wrote. “This includes organizations such as the Baptist Conference in Israel, the Christian Missionary Alliance and others, some of which have been active here since before 1948. The vast majority of them are located in the United States. All of them were required to fill out huge questionnaires. To my knowledge, none of them have received new A3 visas for religious leaders since the beginning of the year. We simply requested that the visa department return to status quo.”
He warned that it would be “deeply regrettable if our embassy were to be forced to publicly announce throughout the United States that the State of Israel no longer welcomes Christian organizations and their representatives and that, instead, it is engaging in harassment and negative treatment of organizations with longstanding ties and positive engagement with Zionism.”
The letter added that the development is an “inexplicable disappointment.”
In response to Huckabee, Arbel wrote that he has “issued the same instructions regarding the cases mentioned in your letter – cases that were not previously brought to my attention.” He added that he was “particularly surprised by the manner” in which Huckabee raised the concerns and his “decision to address a wide range of senior officials in your letter without first contacting me or my office directly,” a move that felt “deviates from accepted working norms and does not reflect the direct and structural relationship we have established.”
“The relationship between the United States and the State of Israel is among the most valued and meaningful partnerships. I greatly appreciate your consistent support for Israel and your strong commitment to our partnership. For this reason, I believe it is our duty to act in a spirit of coordination, mutual trust, and respect – even when misunderstandings or difficulties arise,” the response letter read.
