US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Thursday reflected on the moment President Donald Trump informed him of his appointment, describing the call as both unexpected and deeply meaningful, as he addressed the Atlas Award event honoring outstanding Israeli innovation. Huckabee also spoke of Israel’s transformation over the decades, praising the country’s rise as the “startup nation" and expressing optimism about its future.

“He doesn't say, ‘Would you or could you or would you think about?’ No. He calls and he says, ‘Hi, Donald Trump, you'regoing to be my ambassador. Ambassador to Israel. You're going to go. You're going to be ambassador there. You're going to be great. You'll be great."

“That's howit happened," he continued. “There was no way I was going to say no to him. Number one, you don't say no to President Trump. Number two, if he'd asked me to do anythingelse, be a cabinet secretary, didn't matter what it was, I would have said, "No, sir. Thank you very much. I love my life and I'm enjoying it and I don'tneed a federal job."

“But when he said, "You're going to be ambassador to Israel," I realized that it truly was,as said in the book of Esther, ‘For such a time as this.’

“And I felt it was for me an Isaiah moment, ‘Here am I, Lord.Send me’."

"I came because I believe that there is an opportunity to see something that was not evenvisible in 1973, fifty-three years ago when I first arrived here because it was not the startup nation. It was anything but."

He concluded his speech by saying that despite the wars surrounding it on all sides, Israel had succeeded in building an economy that shows "real growth in gross domestic product."