NYT: Reports at the US Embassy were changed in favor of Netanyahu

According to NYT's news, based on sources close to the subject and various documents, 36-year-old US diplomat Milstein recently made changes to the information in the reports sent to the US administration.

According to officials speaking to the newspaper, at the end of March, Israel approved the plan to establish more settlements on the lands it seized in the occupied West Bank.

Staff working at the US Embassy in Israel evaluated this step as a step that had the potential to violate the principle of "non-annexation of the West Bank", one of the red lines clearly determined by US President Donald Trump towards Israel, and prepared an urgent report for policy makers in Washington.

However, this report never reached Washington because Ambassador Huckabee's Chief Advisor Milstein blocked it.

Authorities also stated that this incident was not the first. Accordingly, since he took office in April 2025, Milstein has repeatedly censored or significantly altered embassy reports on Israeli activities in order to portray the Netanyahu government favorably.

As Jewish settler violence escalated in the West Bank in the spring, the embassy wanted to send a report to Washington that Israel was not taking sufficient steps, but instead, with Milstein's intervention, a report went to Washington that Israel was "responding" to the attacks.

When members of Congress demanded accountability for the murders of 9 Palestinian Americans killed by Israeli settlers and security forces, Milstein suppressed the detailed report prepared by the Embassy staff, effectively obstructing the efforts of members of the US Congress to obtain information.

HIS FIRST ACTION WAS TO REQUEST THE CORRESPONDENCE

Immediately after his arrival in Jerusalem, Milstein began insistently demanding that correspondence from the embassy dealing with Palestinian affairs be approved by him, and the flow of telegrams dropped from a few a week to a few a month, as some staff began to avoid writing reports out of concern that Milstein would block or rewrite them.

Officials stated that Milstein's intervention prevented the Trump administration's negative reactions to certain Israeli steps.

In addition, officials stated that the most serious consequence of Milstein's interventions was to enable Israel to expand the lands it usurped in the West Bank.

On the other hand, it remains unclear how aware Ambassador Huckabee, who is known for his pro-Israeli views, is about these actions of his chief advisor.

Huckabee must approve many communications documents, but Milstein often acts alone.

Some officials also noted that Huckabee sometimes worked with Milstein to portray Israel positively.

Milstein, the stepson of US far-right radio personality Mark Levin, is known both in the US and Israel as the person who organized high-level meetings between the US and Israel.

To prepare the news in question, NYT interviewed 15 US officials and examined dozens of documents, telegrams, notes and internal correspondence.