Man tried to firebomb US Embassy office in Israel, prosecutors say
FBI: US citizen arrested for attempted firebombing
Joseph Neumayer, a dual U.S. and German citizen, was arrested for trying to firebomb the US Embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, Israel.
A dual U.S.-German citizen is accused of trying to firebomb the branch office of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, officials said Sunday.
The suspect reportedly arrived in Israel in late April after traveling from the U.S. to Canada in early February.
Who is the suspect?
What we know:
According to U.S. prosecutors in New York, the man, 28-year-old Joseph Neumeyer, walked up to the embassy building on May 19 with a backpack containing Molotov cocktails but got into a confrontation with a guard and eventually ran away, dropping his backpack as the guard tried to grab him.
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Law enforcement then tracked Neumeyer down to a hotel a few blocks away from the embassy and arrested him. He had made a series of threatening social media posts before attempting the attack, prosecutors said.
Israeli officials deported Neumeyer to New York on Saturday and he had an initial court appearance before a federal judge in Brooklyn on Sunday, the same day his criminal complaint was unsealed.
FILE - A picture shows the exterior of the US embassy in Tel Aviv on December 6, 2017, before it was moved to Jerusalem. (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
What we don't know:
Neumeyer’s court-appointed attorney Jeff Dahlberg declined to comment, and the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Big picture view:
The attempted attack happened as Israel’s war in Gaza enters its 19th month.
During his first term, President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital despite Palestinian objections and moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to the contested city.
The Source: This report includes information from The Associated Press.