Mike Huckabee Wows at JNS Summit | WATCH

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee delivered a forceful defense of the Trump administration's commitment to Israel on Sunday, telling the second annual JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem that Iran would never acquire a nuclear weapon, and pushing back on growing concern about the state of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

"There is a high level of anxiety about the relationship between the United States and Israel," Huckabee acknowledged, speaking before a crowd of roughly a thousand policymakers, journalists, and supporters of Israel gathered at the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem, days after Washington signed a memorandum of understanding with Tehran. But he moved quickly to reassure his audience. "The one thing that I've always heard him say, always, and I've always seen him do, is that America has an unbreakable bond with the State of Israel, and I trust that he means what he says," Huckabee said of President Donald Trump.

The ambassador pointed to a series of past Trump administration decisions, including recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, relocating the U.S. embassy to the city, and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, as concrete evidence of that commitment.

On Iran, Huckabee was unambiguous. The best strategy for neutralizing Tehran's network of regional proxies, he said, was to "turn off the spigot at the source," rather than managing threats from Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis individually. He added that Trump had issued direct warnings to Iran that day. "If they think that the United States is going to fold and collapse and let them have their way, he has made it clear that he will do it," Huckabee said, referring to military action, while declining to repeat the specific language Trump used.

The summit opened just days after the United States signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran, a development that has sharpened debate within pro-Israel circles about the direction of American policy toward Tehran.

Huckabee also struck a personal and religious note, telling the audience he feels safer in Jerusalem than in Washington. He described being confronted recently by what he called "pro-Hamas crazy people" in Washington, and said he couldn't wait to return to Israel. He drew on American founding history and Jewish scripture to argue that the United States' deepest values are inseparable from the Jewish people and the Land of Israel, invoking Psalm 121 and the founders' references to the Exodus.

Also at the summit, JNS CEO Alex Traiman announced a rebrand of the outlet, with "Jewish" replaced by "Jerusalem" in the organization's name, now the Jerusalem News Syndicate. The three-day conference features keynote addresses from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, Fox News host Mark Levin, and other senior figures in government, diplomacy, and national security.