By: Fern Sidman

In the wake of a devastating wave of Iranian missile attacks across Israel that killed at least ten civilians overnight Saturday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee issued a blunt and sobering reminder: Tehran’s aggression is not only targeting Israeli lives but also endangering hundreds of thousands of American citizens living in the Jewish state.

“If you hear ‘Israel is no concern to USA,’ remember 700,000 AMERICANS live in Israel. That is equivalent to a full House District,” Huckabee posted on X (formerly Twitter) Saturday. “More Americans here than in any other country except Mexico! Iran isn’t just attacking Israel but your fellow Americans who live here.”

Huckabee’s warning, highlighted in a report that appeared at The Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), calls attention to a growing concern in both Jerusalem and Washington: that Iran’s military escalation against Israel is increasingly an attack on the broader Western alliance, not a localized conflict.

According to Israeli emergency responders and the information provided in the JNS report, Saturday night’s missile barrage devastated multiple cities and towns, including Bat Yam, Rehovot, Haifa, and Tamra. In Bat Yam alone, a direct strike on a residential building killed six people, including two young children. In the Arab-Israeli town of Tamra, four members of the same family lost their lives when their home was hit. Dozens more were wounded across the country, many in serious condition.

Combined with Friday’s casualties—when three Israeli civilians were killed in an earlier wave of Iranian ballistic missile attacks—the overall civilian death toll now stands at thirteen, with hundreds more injured.

As JNS has reported, these missile strikes mark the most lethal direct attacks by Iran on Israeli soil in history and constitute a dangerous inflection point in the long-simmering confrontation between the Islamic Republic and the Jewish state. But Ambassador Huckabee’s message reframes the stakes even further, emphasizing the massive American footprint in Israel and the implications for U.S. national security.

The statistic—700,000 U.S. citizens currently living in Israel—has drawn renewed attention since Huckabee’s tweet. These Americans include dual citizens, students, businesspeople, religious volunteers, and families who have made Israel their home. Many live in cities and regions now within range of Iranian ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones, which have bypassed previous red lines and struck densely populated civilian areas.

“This is no longer a matter of foreign policy abstraction,” a senior Israeli official told JNS. “When Iranian missiles fall in Tel Aviv or Haifa, they are threatening American families. This is an act of international aggression.”

Former U.S. officials echoed similar concerns. Michael Doran, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former National Security Council official, told JNS that Iran’s attacks require a rethinking of American engagement.

“We are not talking about proxy warfare anymore,” Doran said. “We are talking about a sovereign state—an enemy of the West—launching direct attacks that endanger U.S. citizens.”

Huckabee, a former Republican governor and presidential candidate, has become a vocal presence in the U.S.-Israel alliance since his appointment as ambassador. His comments suggest a hardening U.S. diplomatic posture, particularly as Operation Rising Lion—the Israeli military’s ongoing counter-offensive against Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure—enters a more aggressive phase.

“It is one thing to call for restraint when two countries clash,” said a former Israeli defense official, speaking anonymously to JNS. “It is another thing entirely when one of those countries is threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of American citizens. The United States cannot afford to sit on the sidelines.”

As JNS reported, Iran’s missile strikes represent not just a tactical provocation but a deliberate strategic gambit. Tehran’s leadership, under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appears to be testing the limits of Israeli deterrence while also signaling its defiance of Western pressure.

Yet the price of this aggression may be steeper than Iran anticipated. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed a crushing response, while Defense Minister Israel Katz has warned that “Tehran will burn” if further attacks on Israeli civilians occur.

And now, with Americans in the line of fire, the potential for a broader international coalition—rallying not only behind Israel but also to protect its own citizens—has grown markedly stronger.

The growing perception among Israelis and Americans alike is that Iran has crossed a threshold. No longer perceived solely as an abstract nuclear threat or regional meddler, the Islamic Republic is now viewed as a clear and present danger to Western lives.

“Tehran is making a profound miscalculation,” said Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, in comments to JNS. “If they believe that targeting Israeli civilians—and now American civilians—will demoralize us, they are tragically mistaken. It will only harden resolve.”

Ambassador Huckabee’s message was a rallying cry, not only to his fellow Americans in Israel but to Washington and the international community: “Iran isn’t just attacking Israel,” he warned. “They’re attacking your fellow Americans who live here.”

As the missiles continue to fall and Israel’s military responds with unrelenting force, it is clear that Tehran has opened a front not just with Jerusalem—but with a global community that now sees its citizens in harm’s way. The question going forward is not whether Israel will respond. That is already underway.

The question now is: will the world recognize the threat before more Americans die on foreign soil under Iranian fire?