#HolyLand #Jerusalem – Allegations have surfaced that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee’s office withheld or sanitized diplomatic reporting on threats to Christian institutions and the deaths of American citizens, prompting denials from the ambassador and renewed debate over the embassy’s handling of sensitive information.
A New York Times investigation published on October 8, 2026, reported that David Milstein, a senior adviser to Huckabee and stepson of commentator Mark Levin, had repeatedly blocked, delayed, or rewritten embassy cables critical of Israeli government actions. The Times cited interviews with roughly 15 current and former U.S. officials and reviews of internal documents. Sources described efforts focused on West Bank settlement expansion, settler violence, and related accountability issues, with the goal of presenting the Netanyahu government in a more favorable light to Washington amid genocide and war crimes allegations.
One specific case involved a detailed embassy report prepared in response to congressional inquiries about the killings of nine American citizens—primarily Palestinian-Americans—by Israeli settlers or security forces in the West Bank since 2022. Embassy staff concluded that Israeli investigations had largely stalled, some cases had been closed without charges, and accountability remained limited. According to officials briefed on the process, Milstein suppressed the detailed findings and favored a milder response asserting that Israel was cooperating. Sen. Chris Van Hollen and other lawmakers had sought updates on the cases, which included the 2025 death of 20-year-old Sayfollah “Saif” Musallet, who was beaten by settlers while protecting family land in Sinjil. Huckabee had publicly described that killing as a “criminal and terrorist act” and called for an aggressive investigation. A related Senate resolution seeking more reporting failed along largely party lines.
Separate claims about Christian churches emerged around the same time. National File, citing reporting from Insight to Incite, stated that the Jerusalem embassy had received messages titled “Imminent Threat to Christian Churches in Israel” and a follow-up, but that these had not reached Washington. The account linked the messages to earlier concerns raised in Van Hollen’s August 2025 letter to Huckabee, which documented financial and legal pressures on longstanding Christian institutions in the Holy Land. These included collection notices demanding more than 17 million shekels from the Franciscans in Jerusalem, funding issues for Christian schools, threats of bank-account freezes, and foreclosure-related actions involving Armenian Patriarchate property. The letter also addressed settler violence affecting the Christian town of Taybeh. Huckabee had visited Taybeh after reports of vandalism and arson, condemned desecration of holy sites, and earlier pressed Israeli officials over visa delays affecting evangelical Christian organizations. He had described certain anti-Christian incidents, such as spitting on clergy in Jerusalem’s Old City, as “occasional but rare,” while monitoring groups cited higher numbers of incidents in the first half of 2026.
Huckabee rejected the New York Times account in a statement, describing its elements as lacking factual basis and comparing them to other reporting he viewed as inaccurate. Officials noted that the ambassador was required to approve most major reports and decisions, though sources said the aide sometimes acted independently. The broader context included ongoing tensions over Israeli policies in the West Bank, where settler violence towards Palestinians had increased, and the aftermath of the Gaza conflict that restarted on October 7th, 2023.
The allegations centered on West Bank incidents rather than a concealed tally of Americans killed by Israeli forces inside Gaza. Huckabee had frequently highlighted the Americans killed by Hamas on October 7 and dual U.S.-Israeli citizens who died fighting with the Israel Defense Forces afterward, while paying less attention to those killed by Israel. Isolated cases of civilian deaths from Israeli fire in Gaza, including an incident involving a church, had been reported separately and did not form the core of the embassy-reporting controversy.
Huckabee, a longtime evangelical Christian Zionist and former Arkansas governor, had assumed the ambassadorship in 2025 after Senate confirmation. However, since his appointment, he has been under constant scrutiny for his role in protecting Israeli interests over American interests, and often compromising Christians over Israelis. Online commentators often point to him being the Israeli ambassador to the United States, rather than vice-versa.
Cover Image: The U.S. Embassy to the State of Israel in Jerusalem.
