NYT: Huckabee Aide David Milstein Suppressed Israel Reports
A senior adviser to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee spent more than a year suppressing, delaying, and rewriting diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem to shield the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from scrutiny in Washington, according to an investigation published by The New York Times on October 8, 2026. The adviser, David Milstein, allegedly blocked urgent reporting on West Bank settlement expansion, settler violence, the killings of nine American citizens, and Gaza's humanitarian crisis.
What the Times Investigation Found
The Times says it interviewed 15 U.S. officials who worked with Milstein and reviewed dozens of internal cables, memos, and communications. Since arriving in Jerusalem in April 2025, Milstein allegedly insisted on approving embassy communications relating to Palestinians, choking the flow of cables to Washington from several a week to a few a month. Several sources said they spoke out of concern that Washington was getting a distorted picture of Israeli actions through its core diplomatic channels.
Milstein, who holds a top-secret U.S. security clearance, is the stepson of Fox News host Mark Levin, a prominent Trump ally. He previously served as a special assistant to former ambassador David Friedman and as a legislative aide to Senator Ted Cruz. The Times also reported that some staffers stopped writing cables altogether, fearing Milstein would rewrite or quash them.
The Suppressed Reports
The investigation details several striking interventions. In late March 2026, during the war with Iran, Israel approved a record number of West Bank settlements. Embassy staff drafted an urgent cable warning the move risked breaching President Donald Trump's explicit red line against annexation. According to three U.S. officials, Milstein blocked it; the cable that went out framed the land acquisitions in a more favorable light.
When Israeli commanders warned that a spring surge in settler attacks could fuel a wider Palestinian uprising, Milstein reportedly blocked dispatches suggesting Israel was failing to act — and instead issued a cable praising Netanyahu's government for "cracking down" on the violence. He also suppressed a detailed embassy inquiry into the deaths of nine Palestinian Americans killed by Israeli forces or settlers. After 19-year-old Nasrallah Abu Siyam became the ninth victim in February, 30 members of Congress wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding updates; the embassy's report, completed by March, found Israeli investigations had gone nowhere, with no criminal charges — but Milstein allegedly pushed to send a brief letter instead of the detailed findings. Separately, in summer 2025, he replaced a cable warning of worsening Gaza conditions with one praising the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Huckabee's Denial and the Fallout
Huckabee fired back on X, calling the report a "hit piece" built on "cowardly anonymous sources" and warning the Times could face a defamation lawsuit — though the paper noted he declined its interview requests. Former ambassador David Friedman, whom Milstein served under, also defended him. The Times said it remains unclear how much Huckabee knew: officials said the ambassador sometimes worked with Milstein on recasting reporting, but at times reined him in for going too far. The State Department responded only that its team "remains focused on advancing President Trump's America First agenda."
The story raises a troubling question about what else may have been filtered out of Washington's view. Diplomatic cables are the eyes of American foreign policy; if the lens in Jerusalem was pointed away from settlement expansion, settler violence, and dead American citizens for over a year, decisions in Washington — including on Trump's own annexation red line — may have rested on a deliberately incomplete picture. The sourcing is anonymous and the denials categorical, but the documents deserve an independent reckoning.
Watch: latest news video coverage of the NYT investigation into David Milstein
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Sources: New York Times · The Jerusalem Post · The Times of Israel · Haaretz