Mike Huckabee prepared for his Senate confirmation hearing to be ambassador to Israel by visiting the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Queens on Sunday. Huckbee’s visit to the shrine of the messianic Chabad-Lubavitch sect of Hassidic Jews was a signal that the former Arkansas governor, a booster of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, wants to tout his alignment with the Israeli religious right and their American allies. Huckabee’s views have drawn opposition to his nomination from left-leaning Jewish groups and lawmakers.
But the visit—during which Huckbee was escorted by Joseph Frager, a gastroenterologist and rabbi who is executive vice president of the Israeli Heritage Foundation, a right-leaning pro-Israel group—was also a reminder of ties Huckabee may be less eager to highlight.
In 2018, a lobbyist for Qatar paid Huckabee $50,000 to make a brief visit to that country’s capital city, Doha. As Mother Jones reported that year, it was one of a series of trips for high-profile Americans organized by lobbyists hired by the wealthy Gulf state. Huckabee’s visit, which Frager also helped arrange, came at a crucial moment for Qatar, as it scrambled to improve its standing in Washington and among influential pro-Israel pundits, many of whom had faulted Qatar for past funding of Hamas. At the time, Qatar was being blockaded by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries in the region.
Upon returning to the United States, Huckabee tweeted positively, if vaguely, about Qatar. The former governor did not disclose at the time that he had been paid to travel there. That was revealed later when a lobbyist working for Qatar filed paperwork that characterized the fee as an “honorarium for visit.”
