US Embassy Aide Suppressed Report on Israeli Killings of Americans in West Bank

Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a quick donation . A Senate request for information on the Israeli killings of Americans in the occupied West Bank was recently blocked by a top aide to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, David Milstein — a pro-Israel extremist who has quietly taken over a huge breadth of U.S. policy decisions on the genocidal state. In March, a group of more than 30 senators, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) , requested that Huckabee and the State Department release information about nine Palestinian Americans killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank since January 2022. According to bombshell reporting by The New York Times , who interviewed 15 officials in the embassy and in Washington, Milstein in response “suppressed a detailed report that the embassy staff had written, effectively stonewalling lawmakers’ efforts to gain information” on the killings. In that report, diplomats found that U.S. officials had made little progress in the investigations of the Americans’ deaths, and had closed some cases. They further found that nobody had been charged. Milstein blocked that report from being sent back to Congress, arguing that the embassy should instead say that Israel was handling the investigations well. The State Department responded to Van Hollen on May 4, saying that the embassy was focused on security cooperation with Israel in the U.S.’s war on Iran, despite the ongoing ceasefire at the time, and that the U.S. was working with Israel on investigations into the killings. Last month, Van Hollen forced a vote on the killings, but that vote failed 47 to 51, with Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) voting with Republicans to block it. Related Story News | Politics & Elections Huckabee Welcomed Man Imprisoned for 30 Years for Spying for Israel Into Embassy “I wholeheartedly embrace an ‘Israel first’ doctrine,” the spy, Jonathan Pollard, recently said in an interview. By Sharon Zhang , T ruthout November 20, 2025 Truthout “The American people deserve answers about what’s happening in the West Bank, especially when it comes to the killing of American citizens,” Van Hollen said in a statement to Truthout . “It’s unacceptable that Amb. Huckabee’s point person is participating in a cover-up and blocking access to essential information about these killings.” “Both Republicans and Democrats alike should be outraged about the obstruction of information to Congress, and I will be demanding answers here,” the senator went on. The suppression of that report was just one of many actions that Milstein has taken in recent months to tilt U.S. policy toward Israel and shield it from accountability, the report finds — wielding a strange amount of power within the embassy for someone with his rank, and even ruffling feathers among openly pro-Israel officials for his efforts to back its government. Milstein, who has been in his role since April 2025, has “repeatedly suppressed or significantly revised embassy reporting on Israeli activities to present the Netanyahu government in a favorable light,” the sources said. He frequently goes to “unusual lengths to frame Israel in a positive light,” officials said, and “has blocked reporting from being sent, rewritten cables to deliver a different — sometimes opposite — message from the original, and delayed approving drafts until the topic was no longer relevant.” He has insisted that all reports from the section of the embassy that handles Palestinian affairs go through him, which had a major chilling effect on the flow of such reports, going “from several a week to a few a month, as some staffers refrained from writing reports for fear that Mr. Milstein would block or rewrite them.” Among the other reports he’s suppressed is one on the massive surge of settler violence in the occupied West Bank this spring, during which Israelis rampaged across Palestinian communities on a daily basis, leaving death and destruction in their wake. In that report, the embassy reportedly suggested that the Israeli government was not taking sufficient action to stop settler violence. The Israeli government fully backs Israeli settlers and is known to be providing them with the weapons they use to siege Palestinian villages and homes. Milstein, who is known by officials for intervening in efforts to prevent the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank, blocked the report from being sent. Instead, the embassy sent a cable, with Milstein as its first author, to Washington, D.C. officials entitled “Government Cracks Down on Escalating West Bank Violence.” Last year, Milstein also reportedly intervened on a cable on the work done by the U.S.-sponsored Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in Gaza. The cable, written by U.S. diplomats, noted that Palestinians were being killed at these sites, where Israel unleashed so much violence that the head of GHF resigned just weeks after its launch. Milstein apparently disagreed, and instead rewrote the cable to say that GHF’s operation was a success. The reporting is in line with other accounts of Milstein’s outsized role in the embassy. Last month, Reuters reported that Milstein attempted to issue a statement that would be attributed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemning recently issued sanctions against Israeli settlements by the U.K. , France, and Canada. “These tactics unacceptably draw from the playbook of the antisemitic boycotts, divestments and sanctions movement,” the draft statement said. Ultimately, that statement wasn’t released because it wasn’t supported by the White House or top State Department officials. Last year, Huckabee and Milstein controversially welcomed Israeli spy Jonathan J. Pollard to the U.S. embassy for a “friendly meeting” in June. Pollard is infamous for having sold U.S. military secrets to Israel in the 1980s, and was imprisoned for 30 years for the deed. The meeting alarmed the Trump administration, as the White House was reportedly not informed of the meeting. Milstein is the stepson of Fox News host Mark Levin, and reportedly frequently name-drops Levin , leading staff to fear confrontation with him. That relationship plays “a factor in how [Milstein] is treated,” the Times reported, even as he has uncomfortably needled staff about whether they’re “pro-Israel” or “pro-Hamas.” Milstein was instrumental in the firing of Shahed Ghoreishi, who formerly was the lead press officer for Israeli-Palestinian affairs in the State Department, last year. Ghoreishi, in response to the Times report on Thursday, said that such reports on Milstein are “overdue” and that “the White House and State Department appear to be done with Milstein as well.” “Unclear if Mark Levin, Milstein’s Fox News step father and friend of POTUS who spends much of his time raging about the need to bomb Iran, will continue to be able to protect Milstein’s job,” Ghoreishi said on social media. Milstein's actions violate the duty of American diplomats to serve our nation – not a foreign interest. But despite the NY Times' narrative, they're far from unprecedented: diplomat Mike Casey quit in '24 over similar acts by Biden Admin US Ambassador Lew. https://t.co/FNW0kHWInl https://t.co/FnMwh3i4DF — A New Policy (@anewpolicyorg) October 8, 2026 Huckabee has mounted passionate defenses of Milstein in several cases. Last month, Politico reported that Milstein had solicited monetary donations from Israeli citizens for his upcoming wedding in a mass Paperless Post mailing, raising concerns of impropriety. Milstein later claimed that that message was accidentally sent to the “broader guest list” and was meant for family and close friends. In response to Politico ’s reporting, Huckabee issued a lengthy statement defending Milstein and attacking Politico . “Just when you didn’t think some DC muckraking ‘journalist’ could fill a column with more manure than the elephant barn at the zoo, along comes ‘Politicrap’ (Politico) with an attempted hit job on an Embassy Jerusalem staffer,” Huckabee wrote. Huckabee similarly attacked The New York Times as “fake news” in a post on Thursday in defense of Milstein. “The elements of the story the New York Times is trying to assemble are so lacking in fact that it ranks up with other Times farcical endeavors like the embarrassing ‘dog rape’ story , or the totally debunked story about a small boy being shot in the face by IDF in Gaza ,” Huckabee wrote. Press freedom is under attack As Trump cracks down on political speech, independent media is increasingly necessary. Truthout produces reporting you won’t see in the mainstream: journalism from the frontlines of global conflict, interviews with grassroots movement leaders, high-quality legal analysis and more. Our work is possible thanks to reader support. Help Truthout catalyze change and social justice — make a tax-deductible monthly or one-time donation today. 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Prohibited: You cannot use this work for commercial purposes. Article HTML Republish HTML code for copying <h1>US Embassy Aide Suppressed Report on Israeli Killings of Americans in West Bank</h1> By Sharon Zhang This article was originally published by <a href src="https://truthout.org/articles/us-embassy-aide-suppressed-report-on-israeli-killings-of-americans-in-west-bank/">Truthout</a> David Milstein, top aide to Ambassador Mike Huckabee, has wielded enormous power in US-Israel policy decisions. A Senate request for information on the Israeli killings of Americans in the occupied West Bank was recently blocked by a top aide to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, David Milstein — a pro-Israel extremist who has quietly taken over a huge breadth of U.S. policy decisions on the genocidal state. In March, a group of more than 30 senators, led <a href="https://www.vanhollen.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_sec_rubio_on_accountability_for_uscitizendeathsinthewestbank.pdf">by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland)</a>, requested that Huckabee and the State Department release information about nine Palestinian Americans killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank since January 2022. According <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/08/world/middleeast/israel-embassy-milstein-huckabee.html">to bombshell reporting</a> by The New York Times, who interviewed 15 officials in the embassy and in Washington, Milstein in response “suppressed a detailed report that the embassy staff had written, effectively stonewalling lawmakers’ efforts to gain information” on the killings. In that report, diplomats found that U.S. officials had made little progress in the investigations of the Americans’ deaths, and had closed some cases. They further found that nobody had been charged. Milstein blocked that report from being sent back to Congress, arguing that the embassy should instead say that Israel was handling the investigations well. The State Department responded to Van Hollen on May 4, saying that the embassy was focused on security cooperation with Israel in the U.S.’s war on Iran, despite the ongoing ceasefire at the time, and that the U.S. was working with Israel on investigations into the killings. Last month, Van Hollen <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/29/senate-resolution-west-bank-israel-violence">forced a vote</a> on the killings, but that vote failed 47 to 51, with Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) voting with Republicans to block it. “The American people deserve answers about what’s happening in the West Bank, especially when it comes to the killing of American citizens,” Van Hollen said in a statement to Truthout. “It’s unacceptable that Amb. Huckabee’s point person is participating in a cover-up and blocking access to essential information about these killings.” “Both Republicans and Democrats alike should be outraged about the obstruction of information to Congress, and I will be demanding answers here,” the senator went on. The suppression of that report was just

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