Huckabee Aide Blocked and Rewrote Embassy Reports on Settler Violence, Gaza Deaths, NYT Investigation Finds

A cable warning that Israel's settlement expansion conflicted with President Trump's stated opposition to annexation never reached Washington, according to a New York Times investigation. Embassy staff had drafted it as urgent after Israel approved a major expansion of West Bank settlements in late March, in the middle of the war with Iran. Three US officials told the Times that David Milstein, a top aide to Ambassador Mike Huckabee, blocked it from going out.

The Times reported that this was not an isolated case. Citing interviews with 15 current US officials and nine former diplomats, all speaking anonymously out of fear of reprisal, along with a review of dozens of internal cables and memos, the paper described a pattern in which Milstein altered or suppressed embassy reporting critical of Israeli conduct in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

In one instance, embassy staff had prepared an assessment concluding that the Israeli government was failing to curb a rise in settler violence. According to three officials, the cable that was actually sent to Washington instead praised Israel for "cracking down" on that same violence.

Milstein is also alleged to have blocked a detailed report on Israeli investigations into the killings of nine Palestinian Americans by settlers or security forces in the West Bank over four years, a matter that had already drawn congressional scrutiny. In March, 30 members of Congress led by Senator Chris Van Hollen wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding accountability in those cases. The embassy report, completed the same month, found that most investigations had stalled, some cases had been closed, and no one had been charged. Rather than forward it, Milstein argued the embassy should instead tell Washington that Israel was handling the investigations properly, two officials said.

Gaza aid cable rewritten

The reported interventions extended to Gaza. American diplomats had warned in a cable that distribution operations run by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation were chaotic and deadly, and risked further "mass-casualty events." People familiar with the cable told the Times that Milstein rewrote it to describe the operation as a success, stripping out information about killings at the foundation's distribution sites.

Officials said Milstein's interventions surpassed those of any recent predecessor.

Officials also told the Times that Milstein began requiring personal approval of all communications from the embassy's Palestinian affairs section soon after arriving in Jerusalem, a move that cut the volume of cables from several per week to only a few per month, as staff grew reluctant to write reports they expected would be blocked or rewritten. On at least two occasions, the Times reported, officials in Washington bypassed normal channels to contact embassy staff directly after noticing gaps between news coverage and the reporting they were receiving.

Milstein, 36, previously worked for Senator Ted Cruz, former Ambassador David Friedman, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on pro-Israel outreach before returning to the embassy in April 2025.