A telegram praising Israel replaced an American report on settler violence

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Documents and interviews with American officials revealed that David Milstein, a senior aide to the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, repeatedly withheld or edited reports from the embassy in Jerusalem on Israeli activities, thus making Benjamin Netanyahu's government appear better to decision-makers in Washington, according to what was reported by the New York Times. Huckabee strongly denied what was published without addressing specific facts, and he and Milstein declined interview requests.

This comes recently at a time when international controversy over settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank is escalating, as Britain, Canada and France announced sanctions on the settlements last month. The sources say that Milstein's interventions, who are 36 years old, go beyond what any of his predecessors did, and that some of them may conflict with President Donald Trump's declared policies, including the refusal to annex the West Bank. This information is based on interviews conducted by the New York Times with 15 American officials and nine former diplomats who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, in addition to dozens of documents, telegrams and internal correspondence that it reviewed.

According to three officials, embassy staff in late March prepared an urgent memo after Israel approved an unprecedented number of new settlements at once, during the height of the war with Iran, and saw the move as potentially challenging one of Trump's red lines. However, the memo did not reach Washington because, according to officials, Milstein aborted it.

The sources described a recurring pattern: As settler violence escalated in the spring, Milstein blocked reports indicating the Israeli government's inaction, and instead sent a cable praising Israel for responding to those attacks. The title of the cable was: “The government is firmly confronting the escalating violence in the West Bank.” Officials also said that a report described an Israeli measure to facilitate land purchases as aiming to meet the humanitarian needs of settlers, without detailing them.

According to the same officials, after his arrival in Jerusalem in April 2025, Milstein began requiring his approval of the correspondence of the department concerned with Palestinian affairs. The number of telegrams decreased from several telegrams per week to a few telegrams per month, and some employees refrained from writing for fear of being blocked or reworded.

In the file of Americans of Palestinian origin, officials said that in March the embassy prepared a detailed report on investigations into the killing of 9 of them at the hands of settlers or Israeli forces, after a letter from 30 members of Congress led by Senator Chris Van Hollen. The report concluded, according to the sources, that most investigations had made little progress, that some of them had been closed, and that no one had been charged. Officials say Milstein instead suggested a message stating that Israel was handling the cases appropriately, and the official response came on May 4 talking about working with Israel to ensure accountability. Van Hollen said that the lack of accountability puts more American citizens at risk.

In the summer of 2025, officials who saw the cable said that Milstein rewrote a diplomatic report that warned of the chaos and dangers of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s operations, declaring their success while ignoring the large numbers of casualties. Four officials also reported that he asked colleagues whether they supported Israel or Hamas, which they considered inappropriate and made some of them afraid to speak freely.

Dan Kurtzer, the former US ambassador to Israel under George W. Bush, said that the embassy must inform Washington of everything, and that failure to do so harms the policy-making process and may undermine the president's policies. Four officials reported that senior officials in Washington, including those in the White House, expressed their frustration with some of his actions, and that officials bypassed the usual channels at least twice to communicate directly with embassy employees.

Officials say Huckabee signs most of the cables, and that he restrained Milstein in instances where he felt he had gone too far, sometimes working with him to reformulate information. Huckabee had declared his "absolute confidence" in his aide after a critical article published by Politico about him inviting his wedding guests to give him money. The ambassador described the newspaper's account as lacking in facts, while the State Department said its team was focused on the "America First" agenda, and the White House referred questions to it.

Milstein is known as the stepson of right-wing broadcaster Mark Levin, who is close to Trump and Netanyahu. He previously worked as an assistant to Senator Ted Cruz, then to former Trump ambassador David Friedman, and to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.