United States Ambassador to Israel Michael Huckabee, a Baptist minister, former governor of Arkansas, talk show host, and someone who sought his party’s nomination for president of the United States, is no stranger to the realities of Judea and Samaria. He has visited the area many dozens of times over several decades.
It would be an understatement to say that he is knowledgeable about the region in a political, diplomatic, historical, and even archaeological sense. Moreover, it would be no exaggeration to say that he is most favorably inclined to not only acknowledge historic Jewish rights therein, including its resettlement by Jews, but to identify with them.
He has visited Jewish communities throughout the area. He has been present at all the important excavations of biblical sites. He feels “at home” there, and the Jewish residents feel that and are privileged to call him a friend. I think that the vast majority of the more than half a million Jewish residents also accept his criticism of anti-Arab violence we witness by so-called “hilltop youth.”
And yet, seemingly, he has – twice – stumbled in the field of public diplomacy, allowing Arabs very undeserved victories. Additionally, claims that Huckabee’s approach emphasizes truth over slogans would be worthy of a second critical review.
First there was Taybeh. And now, Turmus Aiya.
After a July 19, 2025 visit to the Christian-populated town of Taybeh, known for its beer, after an incident close to the fifth-century Monastery and Church of Saint George in Al-Khader involving Jewish youth, Huckabee called the desecration of any holy place an “act of terror” and a “crime” that required “harsh consequences.”
He also noted that Taybeh is a “quiet Palestinian village” with “a lot of American citizens.”
Huckabee’s visit followed that of an earlier visit by the patriarchs and heads of churches of Jerusalem that included Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, and 28 foreign diplomats.
The only problem was that the church was not vandalized or damaged. It is mostly a broken-down stone structure and unused. The fire never crossed the line of stones the villagers encircled the relic. There was nothing there that could have been destroyed by the fire.
Jewish and non-Jewish activists, with cameras, came to the village and filmed the remains of that day’s field fire, proving the Arab lies. More importantly, the actual event concerned Arabs setting the fire in the first place, and Jewish youths, pasturing their flocks nearby, were the ones who rushed to extinguish the flames even while being pelted with stones by Arabs.
In essence, an accusatory tale of radical Israelis who deliberately set fire to a 1,500-year-old church in Taybeh was false.
The wild assertion of Theophilos III that Israelis engaged in not only “a violation of property, but a targeted attack on a community that has long been a symbol of coexistence and peace,” was wrong and defamatory.
Huckabee was fooled not only by pro-Palestine activists but by leading church figures and rushed to judgment. Follow-up videos issued by the Christian Israel Guys YouTube channel confirmed this on July 21, 2025, and another, on March 26, 2026, even pointed to a Christian community fearful of their Arab neighbors.
Has Huckabee concerned himself with these matters?
Work to be informed, not fooled
The second occasion when Huckabee was fooled was this past Saturday, September 5, when he visited Turmus Aiya, across the valley from Shiloh.
A short clip of a terrain vehicle being driven on a dirt road was accompanied by a caption that Huckabee posted on Twitter/X that read, in part, “criminal & terrorist actions by a band of trespassers who brazenly roam through property of lawful property owners like these guys.”
Again, he was fooled.
As Amishav Melet posted after Shabbat (the greatest advantage pro-Palestine agitators benefit from), all he was doing was investigating what at first seemed a security matter.
He wrote that a Jewish shepherd noticed unusual vehicular traffic and he checked it out, after first informing the IDF. When he observed “respectable people and media crews,” they said hello and left.
He also took the opportunity to inform the ambassador that, until recently, the head of the Turmus Aiya municipality was Lafi Shalabi, who was imprisoned for assisting in the murder of the teenager Yehuda Guett, and a member of the Turmus Aiya municipal council Huckabee met was Abu Samra, another released terrorist.
He informed Huckabee that Turmus Aiya residents have caused hundreds of attack incidents in the past years, including stone throwing and arson.
One former resident of Turmus Aiya he did not mention was Ahmed Abu al-Sukkar. Now deceased, al-Sukkar executed the 1975 Zion Square refrigerator bombing. He was released in 2003 after serving 27 years in prison as part of a prisoner release.
That Zion Square terror attack in Jerusalem, which occurred three years before Shiloh was established, happened on July 4, 1975. A booby-trapped refrigerator with about 5 kilograms of explosives inside killed 15 civilians and wounded 77. Among the dead were American citizens Rivka (née Soifer) Ben-Yitzhak, 35, and her husband, Michael, who left behind two small children.
Huckabee has a staff. Part of that staff is a security detail that works out all the necessary requirements for safe travel and a secure visit. One would think that part of the staff would review the background of the intended locations and those the ambassador meets and with whom he shares photo opportunities.
No one doubts Huckabee’s sympathies nor his commitment to both the Jewish and the Arab residents of Judea and Samaria, as well as his genuine desire for peace and coexistence here.
Nevertheless, these two visits to Taybeh and Turmus Aiya, and his remarks at both places, should surely indicate to him that he is being fooled by interested actors on the ground who do not assist his efforts.
He must demand that his staff pay more attention to the facts and, if need be, consult with those on the ground who are in the know.
The writer is a researcher, analyst, and commentator on political, cultural, and media issues.