Where’s the Coverage? Israel Foils Assassination Plot Targeting Netanyahu and Others

Israeli authorities uncovered and thwarted a terrorist cell that planned to murder top governmental officials, including the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat. However, many major U.S. news outlets have ignored the story.

On June 5, 2018, the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency that is akin to the FBI, announced that they had arrested three member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC), in connection with the case. The three men had been indicted two days prior.

Ynet reporter Yoav Zitun noted:

“One of the suspects is Muhammad Jamal Rashdeh, 30, from the Shuafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem, who holds an Israeli identity card and has served time in prison in the past for terrorist activity. The investigation revealed that he had planned the attacks with guidance from terrorist elements abroad, including a terror operative from Syria.”

The terror cell had also “planned terror attacks against buildings belonging to the American Consulate and against a delegation of Canadian representatives staying in Jerusalem in a bid to train the Palestinian Authority forces in the West Bank.” Rashdeh was arrested on April 24, 2018, according to a Times of Israel report (“Shin Bet says it thwarted plot to assassinate prime minister, Jerusalem mayor,” June 5, 2018).

The PFLP-GC is a U.S.-designated terrorist group that is based in Damascus, Syria and receives Iranian support. The group has carried out numerous attacks against Israelis and was active in the Syrian civil war, fighting on behalf of dictator Bashar al-Assad.

A foiled terror plot to murder Israel’s prime minister and other top Israeli officials, as well as Americans and Canadians, is certainly newsworthy. However, as of this writing, many major U.S. news outlets have failed to cover the story. The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, USA Today, The Baltimore Sun, Politico, and others have failed to cover the story. By contrast, The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, the U.K.-based Express, and The New York Post, provided coverage.

This is not the first time that the Western media ignored a story about a thwarted Palestinian plot to murder Israeli government officials. As CAMERA noted at the time, U.S. press outlets also ignored a foiled Feb. 2018 plot by Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives to murder Israeli defense minister Avigdor Liberman (“The Media Ignores Foiled Plot to Assassinate Israel’s Defense Minister,” Feb. 20, 2018).

By failing to cover advanced terror plots targeting the country’s leadership, the media effectively minimizes the security challenges facing the Jewish state.