US Ambassador Huckabee: Israel’s GDP growth amid multi-front war is ‘unheard of’
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee highlighted Israel’s economic strength and shift “from aid to trade” in a C4Israel interview aired on Saturday.
“Israel has become a very strong economy. It's stunning to me that it had GDP growth in a year in which they were at war with the Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah, and Iran, all in the same year,” he stated. “That’s unheard of.”
Huckabee underscored that Israel is not in the position of needing aid but instead offering trade in ways that benefit the security and prosperity of both Israel and the United States.
Israel’s GDP growth has generally remained positive, with the most recently evaluated quarter (Q3 2025) seeing an 11% increase according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. The economy weathered war-related setbacks, including a 20.4% drop in Q4 2023 following the outbreak of the Oct. 7 war, and a 4.6% dip in Q2 2025, during Operation Rising Lion.
By comparison, both declines were smaller than the 28% drop in Q2 2020 that was caused by COVID-19, which was followed by a 39.7% recovery peak in the subsequent quarter.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
