JUDEA AND SAMARIA – When Ambassador Mike Huckabee visited Turmus Ayya on September 5, 2026, media outlets framed what happened next as a threatening confrontation: an armed and dangerous settler had approached his delegation. Huckabee pulled out his phone, filmed a security Ranger passing nearby, and posted the video. His caption described “criminal and terrorist actions by band of trespassers who brazenly roam through property of lawful property owners like these guys.”
Within hours, the man in the Ranger identified himself. His name was Amishav Melet. He was not a trespasser. He was an IDF-approved civilian security responder who had received a legitimate threat alert, notified the IDF per protocol, and moved on when he confirmed the visit was coordinated.
What Actually Happened
Melet came forward publicly on X to explain the encounter.
“Well, that was me,” he wrote to Huckabee directly. “I was the driver of the Ranger you filmed. And I want you to hear directly from me what actually happened today.”
According to Melet, a local shepherd had reported dozens of vehicles massing at the edge of Turmus Ayya – in an area where residents have faced repeated attacks and arson. Melet drove out to check. His security check had nothing to do with Huckabee’s visit.
He notified the IDF the moment he went out on patrol, exactly as his community’s security procedures require. A man who reports his movements to the army in real time is operating inside the system, not outside it.
“When we arrived and saw respectable people and media crews, we said hello and continued on our way,” Melet wrote. “Shortly afterward, the army informed us that this was a proper, coordinated visit.”
The IDF confirmed the visit was proper and coordinated. By Melet’s account, he greeted the group, said hello, and drove on. Within minutes, he was described in the media as a “dangerous settler.”
“That is the entire story,” he added.
Israeli reporting suggested Palestinian residents had brought Huckabee to the location and presented a routine security patrol as settlers entering Palestinian-owned property – a staged impression the ambassador filmed and posted before the full record was available.
The Context Huckabee Was Not Shown
Huckabee’s statement following the visit called for “severe consequences” for West Bank violence and invoked the principle that “crime is crime, terror is terror.” Even Israel’s friends owe it the full record before they use that word.
Melet says Israeli residents in the Shiloh area have absorbed hundreds of attacks over the past year, including stone-throwing, arson, shootings, and assaults – and that the village holds monuments glorifying terrorists. His own brother Benayahu was murdered just last month during a violent assault on Jewish hikers. That is the environment a report of massing vehicles lands in.
During Huckabee’s visit, Melet says ambulance drivers from Turmus Ayya played him footage of a separate incident, edited to cut out how it actually began. By Melet’s account, the Palestinian ambulance deliberately blocked an IDF army jeep while a crowd pelted it with stones, and the soldiers clipped the edge of the ambulance as they pulled out to protect themselves. He asked Huckabee to watch the full footage rather than the edited clips.
“When you cut out the beginning of an incident,” Melet wrote, “you can make almost any story look completely different.”
Turmus Ayya and the surrounding Shiloh-area communities have a documented history of Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians. The security environment Melet cited was not invented for the camera. It is the reason a security Ranger exists in the first place.
A Warning From a Former Ambassador
Former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman addressed Huckabee directly in an open post on X, opening with praise for the ambassador’s heart and historic support for Israel – then drawing a sharp distinction.
“Unfortunately, labeling the Jews who fight back as ‘terrorists’ is a win for the anti-Israel PR machine who then create a moral equivalency between both sides,” Friedman wrote. “Your correct observation that the Jews committing acts of violence are a tiny fraction of the total Jewish population is a distinction entirely lost on the media, who have a false narrative to uphold.”
Friedman argued the “settler violence” framing is being used as part of a coordinated PR effort by the same forces that falsely accuse Israel of genocide – and that applying the terrorist label to every Jewish resident of Judea and Samaria smears protocol-following civilians like Melet while diluting the word at the moment it needs to carry weight.
The Record Before the Label
Applying the “terrorist” label to every Jewish resident of Judea and Samaria does two things at once. It smears people like Amishav Melet – a protocol-following, IDF-reporting civilian first responder – and it dilutes the word “terrorism” at the precise moment it needs to carry weight.
An edited clip and missing context turned a reported security alert into a terror accusation against a named civilian, carried with the authority of the United States government. That is dangerous for Israel.
Israel’s friends are not exempt from checking the record before they use that word. They are the ones who can least afford to get it wrong.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/432764, https://worldisraelnews.com/huckabee-accuses-israeli-farmers-of-trespassing-after-apparent-palestinian-setup/, https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/430700, https://x.com/DavidM_Friedman, https://x.com/amishav_/status/2096314176972939360?s=20
