WASHINGTON (TNND) — President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel will face a confirmation hearing Tuesday as the U.S. and Arab mediators struggle to get a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas back on track after the Israeli military resumed attacks on Gaza last week.

Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and Baptist minister, was nominated in November just days after Trump won reelection.

"Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years. He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him," Trump said in his nomination announcement. He vowed that Huckabee would bring "peace to the Middle East."

Huckabee, a one-time presidential hopeful, has spoken favorably in the past about Israel’s right to annex the West Bank and incorporate its Palestinian population into Israel. He has repeatedly backed referring to the West Bank by its biblical name of “Judea and Samaria,” a term that right-wing Israeli politicians and activists have thus far fruitlessly pushed the U.S. to accept.

Most notably, Huckabee has long been opposed to the idea of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian people. In an interview last year, he went even further, saying that he doesn't even believe in referring to the Arab descendants of people who lived in British-controlled Palestine as “Palestinians.”

“There really isn’t such a thing,” he said on the podcast show “Think Twice” with Jonathan Tobin. “It’s a term that was co-opted by Yasser Arafat in 1962,” referring to one of the early leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

During the same interview, Huckabee described himself as an “unapologetic, unreformed Zionist.”

After the collapse of the fragile ceasefire last week with airstrikes, Israel expanded its offensive on Sunday by taking control of more territory and giving civilians new evacuation orders in a ramp-up of its pressure campaign. Israel says the growing campaign is targeting Hamas targets and infrastructure, including leadership figures, and has blamed civilian casualties on the militant group for operating in densely populated areas.

Israel has ramped up its military activity in a move to pressure Hamas to return to the negotiating table and release the remaining 59 hostages, only 24 of which are believed to be alive.

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Editor's note: The Associated Press and The National Desk's Austin Denean contributed to this article.