Documents and interviews with US officials revealed repeated intervention by David Milstein, a senior aide to US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, in reports and cables prepared by the embassy in Jerusalem on Israeli activities. Some were withheld or rewritten to portray Benjamin Netanyahu’s government more favourably to policymakers in Washington, according to The New York Times.
Huckabee strongly denied the report but did not address the specific facts it presented. The ambassador and Milstein also declined requests for interviews. The US State Department said its team was focused on implementing an “America First” agenda, while the White House referred questions about the matter to the department.
Debate intensifies over settlement expansion
The accounts come amid growing international debate over settlement expansion in the West Bank. Britain, Canada and France had announced sanctions on settlements in the month before the report was published, as debate continued over Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories and the US administration’s position on them.
Three officials said embassy staff prepared an urgent memorandum in late March after Israel approved an unprecedented number of new settlements at once, during the height of the war with Iran. The authors believed the move might challenge one of Trump’s red lines, but the document did not reach officials in Washington after Milstein halted it, according to their accounts.
Officials described a similar pattern during the spring, when settler violence in the West Bank escalated. They said Milstein blocked reports pointing to inaction by the Israeli government, while the embassy instead sent a cable praising Israel’s handling of the attacks, titled: “Government takes firm action against escalating violence in the West Bank”.
Officials also pointed to another report on an Israeli measure to facilitate land purchases. The measure was framed in the document as intended to meet settlers’ humanitarian needs, without specifying the nature of those needs. Officials viewed the wording as part of broader interventions that affected how developments were conveyed from the embassy to US policy-making circles.
Restrictions on correspondence from the Palestinian affairs section
According to officials, after arriving in Jerusalem in April 2025, Milstein began requiring his approval before correspondence from the Palestinian affairs section could be sent. As a result, the number of cables fell from several a week to a few a month, while some staff stopped preparing new reports for fear they would be withheld or rewritten before reaching Washington.
The interventions also covered investigations into the deaths of Palestinian Americans. Officials said the embassy prepared a detailed report in March on investigations into the deaths of nine of them at the hands of settlers or Israeli forces, after 30 members of Congress, led by Senator Chris Van Hollen, sent a letter on the matter.
The embassy report concluded, according to the sources, that most investigations had made little progress and that some cases had been closed without anyone being charged. Officials said Milstein proposed replacing it with a message stating that Israel was handling the cases appropriately. On 4 May, the official response referred to working with Israel to ensure accountability. Van Hollen said the lack of accountability was putting more US citizens at risk.
His position came as members of Congress sought information on the progress of the investigations and the steps taken in the cases involving the deaths of the nine Americans, while the original document prepared by embassy staff showed that most investigations had stalled or that some had been closed.
Rewriting reports on investigations and Gaza operations
In summer 2025, Milstein rewrote, according to officials who had seen the cable, a diplomatic report that warned of chaos and risks linked to the operations of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Officials said the revised version declared the foundation’s operations a success, while ignoring the large numbers of casualties during them. Four officials also said Milstein asked colleagues whether they supported Israel or Hamas.
They considered directing the question at diplomatic staff inappropriate and said it left some employees worried about freely expressing their assessments or discussing information on developments on the ground and Israeli policies.
Criticism of reporting procedures within the US administration
Dan Kurtzer, the former US ambassador to Israel during George W Bush’s presidency, said the embassy’s duty was to report everything to Washington, and that failing to do so harmed the policy-making process and could undermine policies set by the president. Four officials said senior officials in Washington, including White House officials, had expressed frustration with some of Milstein’s actions.
The officials added that Washington officials had bypassed normal diplomatic channels at least twice and contacted embassy staff directly to obtain information. This reflected, according to their accounts, concern within the administration about the effect of the changes and omissions on the flow of field reports from Jerusalem to US agencies involved in policy-making.
Officials said Huckabee signed most cables issued by the embassy and had stopped Milstein in cases where he believed he had overstepped, but had worked with him at other times to rewrite information. Huckabee had previously declared his “absolute confidence” in his aide after a critical article reported that Milstein had invited wedding guests to give him money as a gift. The ambassador described the published account as lacking facts.
Milstein previously worked as an aide to Senator Ted Cruz, then to former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman during the Trump administration, and later to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He is also the stepson of right-wing broadcaster Mark Levin, known for his close ties to Trump and Netanyahu.
