Israel Enforces the Law in Qusra, Ambassador Huckabee Says

JERUSALEM — Claims spread online in August 2026 that Israel and the United States were standing by while Jewish extremists targeted a Palestinian American family’s home in Qusra, Judea and Samaria. U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee called that “another lie.”

“This is another lie. @usembassyjlm has been VERY involved & the IDF & Israel Police have gone at our request to remove the Israeli terrorists doing this. The actions of those doing this to this family’s home is criminal,” Huckabee posted on X on August 13, 2026. Israeli security forces had already moved in at the embassy’s request to remove the attackers.

Huckabee is among Israel’s strongest defenders and a committed supporter of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, which makes his condemnation carry particular weight. His Qusra statement was not ambivalence from Washington. It was Israel’s closest ally demanding action against criminals, and Israeli security forces delivering.

The perpetrators in Qusra were connected to a fringe element within the Hilltop Youth, a movement of young Israelis who establish outpost communities across Judea and Samaria. The Hilltop Youth are pioneers motivated by faith and love of the land, young men and women who believe Jewish life in the heart of the homeland matters. The vast majority are peaceful and non violent violent. A small subset has carried out criminal acts that Israel condemns and prosecutes. That distinction matters: critics who use incidents like Qusra to tar an entire movement ignore both who the Hilltop Youth actually are and how Israel responds when individuals cross the line. Those communities have played a strategic role as well. October 7, 2023 vindicated the conviction that Jewish presence across Judea and Samaria is not abstract. The communities spread through the territory formed a living buffer that prevented the south’s nightmare from sweeping into the Israeli heartland.

The scale of criminal activity from fringe Israelis to Palestinians who carry out terrorist attacks is not comparable. Since October 7, 2023, Palestinian terrorist attacks have tripled in frequency and killed more than 45 Israelis in two years, not counting the 1,400 murdered on October 7 itself. Palestinian terrorism has produced mass-casualty attacks: suicide bombings, rocket barrages targeting Israeli cities, execution-style murders of entire families.

The moral contrast sharpens further when you look at policy. While Israel criminalizes and prosecutes violent acts by its citizens, the Palestinian Authority officially budgets to reward terrorism. In 2026, watchdog research found the PA budgeted $315 million to pay 23,500 terrorists and their families, a figure the U.S. State Department has acknowledged. Payments are indexed to severity: a terrorist sentenced to 30 or more years can receive $3,400 per month. Mahmoud Abbas announced an end to “pay-for-slay” in February 2025, then kept paying. By March 27, 2025, another full round of payments went out. PA officials were unequivocal: “There is no end to the payments. We reject ending the subsidies to the prisoners and families of martyrs. We will not apologize for it.”

In Qusra, Israeli forces acted at the embassy’s request and removed the attackers. Israel has prosecuted similar acts through its courts, and applied administrative detention where warranted. The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, continues to budget hundreds of millions of dollars annually for payments to terrorists and their families, with stipends indexed to the severity of their sentences.