The subject line in Monday’s Politico Playbook newsletter blasted “Huckabee’s ‘walking counterintel red flag’” — which one would expect to be accompanied by some shocking revelation. Instead, what followed was a wedding invitation sent out by David Milstein, a senior adviser to Ambassador Mike Huckabee in Jerusalem. The invite went out to friends and family with a QR code to make cash donations.
Because of this, Politico tracked down a hostile source quoted as an anonymous “member of the intelligence community” who said, “He’s a giant walking counterintelligence red flag.” Ostensibly because some guests were Israeli. That’s it. That is the whole basis for the story.
In reality, it is customary in Israel for people to give cash wedding gifts, which they view as more practical than, say, purchasing china or a waffle iron for newlyweds. So what Milstein was doing was essentially no more ominous than alerting guests to a wedding gift registry. In a follow-up message, Milstein said that the note had gone out to the full guest list, rather than just family and close friends, by mistake.
So what exactly is the big scandal here? Other than the scandal that Politico would publish this dreck?
An innocent wedding invite was used to push an ongoing narrative of Jewish-American disloyalty and untrustworthiness. The reader is supposed to come away believing that Israel has a mole inside the U.S. Embassy who blatantly accepts bribes from Israeli officials. It’s hard to believe it’s a coincidence that the story landed on Yom Kippur morning, when Israel was closed and even casually observant Jews who might be in a position to offer context and defend him were offline. I didn’t see the story myself until last night because I hadn’t touched my phone throughout the day.
Here is some more context from Milstein’s former boss, Senator Ted Cruz, and his stepfather, Mark Levin.
Disclosure: I know David Milstein, but not well enough to be invited to his wedding. Either way, mazel tov to David!