Newsweek reporter calls Mossad, Chabad American journalism’s ‘third rail’

A national politics correspondent for Newsweek, Nina Burleigh, tweets that Israeli- and Jewish-linked organizations — along with Israel itself — are on “the third rail of American journalism.”

The tweet is in response to a thread by author Sarah Kendzior listing several stories she said were “undercovered.” A few of the stories involved US President Donald Trump and Chabad, the Hasidic outreach movement; Black Cube, a private intelligence firm that employs former agents of Israel’s Mossad spy agency; and Jeffrey Epstein, a Jewish financier and registered sex offender.

Kendzior asked why “officials also seem reluctant to investigate or prosecute obvious crimes.”

“Interesting thread,” Burleigh replies. “To answer your final question, Israel, mossad, Chabad and black cube … you’re hitting the third rail of American journalism, Sarah.”

The phrase “third rail” refers to the untouchable rail on mass transit systems that electrocutes upon contact. Burleigh did not respond to an inquiry from JTA asking her to elaborate on the tweet.

Yair Rosenberg, a Tablet magazine writer who tweets about anti-Semitism, wrote that Burleigh was suggesting that “the Jews are behind Trump.”

“A person who works for Newsweek just said the Jews are behind Trump. That is all,” he tweeted.

— JTA