It’s difficult to convey the essence of this story in a headline. A U.S. citizen traveled halfway around the world in just under 80 days. Approximately four weeks after his arrival in Israel, the man — a tech CEO and apparently successful finance manager — set out to assault a U.S. embassy branch. His master plan was foiled by poor planning, his own lack of impulse control, and a single Israeli security guard.

On Sunday, FBI special agents arrested the man upon his arrival in the U.S., and he faces charges that bring “a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years in prison, and a maximum fine in the amount of $250,000,” according to a Department of Justice press release. Federal Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo, an Obama appointee in the Eastern District of New York, ordered Joseph Neumeyer to be held without bail.

On May 19, Neumeyer, a dual U.S. and German citizen, announced on Facebook, “Join me as I burn down the embassy in Tel Aviv, Death to America, death to Americans, and **** the West.”

At approximately 1:20 p.m. local time, he approached the U.S. Embassy to Israel’s branch office in Tel Aviv (President Trump moved the embassy’s headquarters to Jerusalem during his previous term in office). Neumeyer was wearing a dark-colored backpack, according to an unsealed affidavit. Inside the backpack were several Molotov cocktails, improvised incendiary devices which he planned to hurl at the diplomatic compound.

Fortunately, Neumeyer never got the chance. “Approximately two meters” from an employee entrance, Neumeyer passed an Israeli guard. This guard did not attempt to interfere with him until, unprovoked, Neumeyer “spat at” him. The guard then followed him across the street and tapped him on the shoulder, at which point Neumeyer cursed at the guard in English (the “f-word” seems to be his favorite). Neumeyer then turned to flee. When the guard grabbed his backpack, Neumeyer broke free, leaving behind the backpack filled with the incendiary means for his criminal plot.

Israeli law enforcement used video surveillance near the embassy to track Neumeyer to a hotel five blocks away, where the clerk recognized his photograph and provided the room number. When confronted, Neumeyer admitted to law enforcement that he had assaulted an embassy guard and had a backpack filled with Molotov cocktails. Israel promptly deported him, and he was arrested when his flight touched down at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

There’s normal news (“dog bites man”). There’s bizarre news (“man bites dog”). And then whatever this is (to continue the parallel, something akin to “man bites himself, but in the most difficult way”). U.S. embassies have been attacked before. Israeli embassies have been attacked before (including two explosions last October and a minor incident this April). Pro-Hamas American radicals have targeted Israeli diplomats for violence (as recently as last week). One pro-Hamas American radical even set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C.

Yet this might be the first instance in which an American citizen traveled from the U.S. to another country to attack an American embassy. It might also be the first instance in which an American citizen attacked his own country’s embassy out of hatred for another country.

Fortunately for the staff inside the Tel Aviv branch, Joseph Neumeyer was no Antifa street thug, inured to violence and seared in conscience. He was a tech entrepreneur and finance manager, more accustomed to an air-conditioned office environment. What he had was hatred for Israel and a plausible reason — international business — to visit. But these assets did not translate into tactical aptitude, ready improvisation, or the nerve to follow his plan through to the end. When conspiracy turned to action, Neumeyer’s hate-fueled crime of contemplation collapsed catastrophically.

Neumeyer was likely led astray by the scandalous impunity of left-wing activists in the United States. For instance, he once studied at the University of Denver, according to NDTV’s reporting on his now-inaccessible LinkedIn. In a telling portrait of that campus’s culture, the far-left National Lawyers’ Guild student chapter arrogantly demanded in 2023 that the administration cancel a speaking appearance at the law school by conservative Jewish scholar Ilya Shapiro, and they self-righteously complained when their impudence won nothing more than the right to protest outside.

Matters went from bad to worse in 2024 when pro-Hamas student rabbles faced next to no consequences when they essentially held once-mighty universities hostage over policies obliquely related to Israel. Perhaps Neumeyer observed these activities from afar and dreamed that he could strike a blow for his beloved cause of hate, much closer to the source. Needless to say, his plot did not unfold as he intended.

Nearly four months after Neumeyer departed the U.S., he returned to face charges of “attempting to destroy, by means of fire or explosive, the Branch Office of the United States Embassy located in Tel Aviv, Israel.” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi declared that “The Department [of Justice] will not tolerate such violence and will prosecute this defendant to the fullest extent of the law.”