Huckabee calls West Bank settlers ‘terrorists.’ What kind of game is he playing?

After Israeli settlers attacked three homes in the occupied West Bank, including one owned by a Palestinian American, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee referred to the settlers as “terrorists.”

U.S. officials have periodically criticized settler violence in general terms — but they have almost never labeled it “terror.” Huckabee’s language breaks with precedent and signals:

• A rare public rift — real or fake — between Washington and Netanyahu’s regime.

• Pressure on Netanyahu to condemn settler violence ahead of a tight election.

• A shift driven partly by the fact that a Palestinian‑American family was among those besieged.

Huckabee, an outspoken supporter of the Israeli genocide in Gaza and someone who consistently supports Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, despite them being illegal under international law, made the unusually critical comments on Thursday, as Israeli settlers besieged three Palestinian homes in the village of Qusra, including one belonging to a dual US citizen.

But before anyone mistakes Huckabee’s sudden and selective recognition of West Bank terror for a turning point in foreign policy, look at the second half of Huckabee’s sentence: the violence, he insists, comes from a “tiny minority.”

In a follow-up post on X, Huckabee stated,

“Settlers” are not the problem in Judea/Samaria (the biblical name for the West Bank). “Unsettlers” are. Very small minority who do great damage to Palestinian families & to Israel.”

But settler violence in the West Bank is not fringe. It is daily, organized, and structurally protected. Human‑rights groups have documented that more than 90 percent of cases are never investigated. Soldiers escort settlers into Palestinian villages; police decline complaints; outposts involved in attacks are retroactively legalized. There are hundreds of attacks per year, with spikes during harvest seasons and during military operations. Entire Palestinian communities face weekly raids, property destruction, arson, livestock theft, beatings, and expulsions. Settler outposts use violence as a strategic tool to seize land and push Palestinians off agricultural areas.

Back in February, Huckabee drew heavy international backlash during a Tucker Carlson Interview when discussing biblical land promises in Genesis, stating, regarding regional expansion, “It would be fine if they took it all,” referring to land from the Euphrates to the Nile. Remember, Huckabee speaks for the Trump administration, not just for himself.

So what was the purpose of Huckabee’s statement? Damage control. A Palestinian‑American family was assaulted for days — cut off from food, water, and electricity — while settlers erected tents around their home like a hostile campground.

Washington cannot credibly ignore an attack on its own citizens. Not with midterm elections coming up. Calling it “terror” signals seriousness. Calling it a “tiny minority” signals that nothing will change. It’s a controlled burn, not a shift in doctrine.

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