| THE LIE During Ambassador Huckabee’s September 5, 2026 visit to Turmus Ayya, an armed and dangerous settler confronted and threatened his delegation. |
| THE TRUTH Amishav Melet is an IDF-approved civilian security responder who received a legitimate threat alert, notified the IDF per protocol, and moved on when he confirmed the visit was coordinated. He is not a ‘dangerous settler’ – he is a protocol-following first responder doing exactly what the IDF trained him to do. |
| BACKGROUND ➔ On September 5, 2026, Ambassador Mike Huckabee visited Turmus Ayya in Judea and Samaria, met with Palestinian-Americans, and filmed a security vehicle – a ‘Ranger’ – passing near his delegation. Media outlets framed the encounter as a threatening confrontation with an armed ‘settler.’ ➔ Huckabee’s statement following the visit called for ‘severe consequences’ for “West Bank” violence and invoked the principle ‘crime is crime, terror is terror’. Even Israel’s friends owe it the full record before they call an incident terror. ➔ Turmus Ayya and the surrounding Shiloh-area communities have a documented history of Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians – the security environment Melet cited as context for his response. |
| TRUTH EXPLAINED Amishav Melet came forward publicly to explain the encounter on his X Account. He identified himself as the driver of the security Ranger in Huckabee’s video. He explained that 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, and so he drove out to check it. His security check had nothing to do with Ambassador Huckabee’s visit to the area. Israel National News Melet 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. Amishav Melet 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.” Israel National News During Huckabee’s visit, Melet says ambulance drivers from the village of Turmus Ayya played Huckabee 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 (the jeep) 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. Amishav Melet Melet says Israeli residents in the 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 was murdered just last month. That is the environment a report of ‘massing vehicles’ lands in. Israel National News Former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman warned Huckabee directly that labeling Jews who defend themselves as “terrorists” hands a victory to the anti-Israel PR machine, which uses the label to manufacture moral equivalency between terrorists and their victims. Friedman noted that the Jewish residents who commit acts of violence are a tiny fraction of the population of Judea and Samaria, a distinction the media discards because it has a false narrative to uphold. David Friedman |
| QUOTES “Well, that was me. I was the driver of the Ranger you filmed. And I want you to hear directly from me what actually happened today.”-Amishav Melet |
| TAKEAWAY Applying the ‘terrorist’ label to every Jewish resident of Judea and Samaria does two things: 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 is dangerous to 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. |
