Epstein Files: Analysts question muted 'mainstream media' response to Israel ties

Among the latest revelations from the release of the Epstein files is a new tranche of evidence linking the influential sex offender to Israel. 

Epstein had a close association with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak over many years, with an FBI source in the files saying that Barak had trained Epstein as a spy.

Despite this, media analysts have pointed out that major news outlets have been reluctant to report on these links, with some news organisations preferring instead to speculate on the relationship between Epstein and Russia. 

Analysis of articles published after the US Department of Justice released over three million documents from the Epstein files on 30 January found that elements of the western media either underplayed, ignored, or diverted attention from links to Israel, according to Nima Akram, founder of NewsCord, a media accountability and analysis platform. 

Among the major media outlets, Akram cited CNN, Fox News and the New York Post in the US, along with the BBC and The Guardian in the UK. 

She noted at the time the report was published on 5 February that “one of the starkest findings was The Guardian, which published 27 articles… and did not mention Israel once,” while other outlets, “pushed a narrative suggesting Epstein was connected to Russia”.

NewsCord's analysis, as of 11 February, shows that nine percent of 46 Guardian articles related to Epstein have mentioned links to Israel, while seven percent mention links to Russia. At the BBC, seven percent of 47 articles mention ties to Israel.

'In the rare event that the western mainstream does mention Ehud Barak’s close relationship with Epstein, it is often buried under vague headlines'

- Nima Akram, NewsCord

Besides direct mentions within articles, Akram also described the use of headlines that did not fully convey the extent of ties to Israel and Israeli individuals.

"The mentions of Israel’s ties with Epstein in articles is only part of the story," she said.

"In the rare event that the western mainstream does mention Ehud Barak’s close relationship with Epstein, it is often buried under vague headlines."

She gave the example of three headlines; one by the Guardian, which read: "The Epstein files reveal that a vast global conspiracy actually exists – sort of”.

Another by the same paper read, "Jeffrey Epstein messaged with former CIA director Bill Burns, files show”.

One by the BBC, reads "Who is in the Epstein files?”

In contrast, a Guardian article reporting on an Epstein-related document about Peter Mandelson's lobbying firm reads: "Mandelson lobbying firm sought work with Russia and China state companies, Epstein emails show."

In the first article Akram mentions, Israel and its former prime minister, Barak, is mentioned once but does not feature until the ninth paragraph. In the second, Barak alone is mentioned in the tenth paragraph.

“Overall, the data shows a consistent suppression of Epstein’s Israel links, alongside a growing emphasis on Russia” which was “mentioned more frequently than Israel, despite the files showing far clearer and more substantiated ties to Israel,” Akram told Middle East Eye.

One headline from The Telegraph on Saturday read “One thing we know: Epstein was no Mossad agent”, while LBC’s Andrew Marr ran a deep-dive last Monday into whether Epstein ran a “honeytrap” for the KGB. 

Of the 1,545 articles collated by NewsCord, as of the time of publication, more than 80 percent contain no mention of Israel ties.

The Guardian did not comment and a BBC spokesperson said: "The BBC reports without fear or favour and no subject is off-limits. The latest release of Epstein files contained more than three million pages. 

"We are continuing to cover the content of the files as we work through the huge volume of new information available.”

Was Epstein a Mossad agent?

Mounting evidence from the Epstein files which ties the convicted paedophile to Israel included a 2020 FBI document which alleges he “trained as a spy” for Mossad, Israel's most prominent intelligence service, under former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. 

The report also details how a confidential informant “became convinced that Epstein was a co-opted Mossad Agent”. 

Documents provide further indication of a close personal friendship between Epstein and the former prime minister of Israel lasting over a decade, which Israel’s current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu counter-intuitively claimed was proof Epstein didn’t work for Israel.

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In one email exchange with Barak, Epstein wrote “you should make clear that i dont work for mossad. :)”, and Barak replied with a winking emoji. 

An audio recording between the two men from 2013 also shows that Epstein advised Barak to “look at” the tech firm Palantir, which currently supports Israel’s genocide in Gaza by providing it with AI-powered military and surveillance technology. 

Peter Thiel, the founder of Palantir, is shown to have corresponded with Epstein in the documents, with evidence suggesting they took calls and went for lunch together. 

Thiel's representatives have not responded to MEE's request for comment.

The files also document the close relationship between Epstein and former British ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, whose lobbying company, Global Counsel, may have been instrumental in securing UK contracts for its client Palantir in Britain’s National Health Service and Ministry of Defence. 

An FBI memo disclosed in the Epstein files contained allegations that US President Donald Trump, who is named in the files nearly 5,000 times, is “compromised by Israel”. 

The memo formed part of a 2020 FBI investigation into domestic and foreign influence over US elections. 

Few of its claims have been reported in any mainstream media outlets but they are widespread on social media.

Epstein’s girlfriend and the only person currently detained for the litany of crimes related to his child sex trafficking operation, Ghislane Maxwell, is the daughter of the media mogul Robert Maxwell, who is widely believed to have had ties to Mossad.

The convicted sex offender was also shown to have funded the group Friends of Israel Defence Forces and the settlement-building organisation the Jewish National Fund (JNF).

Focus on a ‘KGB honey trap’

Des Freedman, professor of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths University, told MEE that “the UK media love to talk about a potential ‘KGB honey trap’ but they won’t investigate the same possibility in relation to Israel”. 

Freedman pointed to the results from a Nexis database search analysis showing “there are three times as many stories in the UK media that have focused on Epstein’s connections to Russia than on known links between Epstein and Israel including his close relationship with… Ehud Barak.

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“The BBC has barely touched the story at all,” Freedman said, despite their security correspondent Frank Gardner mentioning on BBC World that “if [Epstein] was going to be spying for any other country’s intelligence agency, it’s probably more likely that he was doing stuff for Mossad” and saying “there is no evidence that Epstein was a Russian spy”.

“Israel… needs to be investigated with the same rigour as other countries,” Freedman stated, highlighting that “given the genocide in Gaza, you might think that journalists would be particularly keen to put some resources into finding out the financial and political connections between US/Europe and Israel.”

Dr Mike Berry, director of Political Communication at Cardiff University, said his understanding from talking to journalists in the mainstream media was that Israeli perspectives tend to get promoted more because of “superior public relations”.

He also said there was a fear journalists will be attacked by Israel’s supporters, making it “controversial and difficult” to present anything which might counter Israel’s narrative. 

Berry quoted an instance referred to in his book, More Bad News from Israel, which recalled a meeting with a senior editor from a major BBC news programme where he revealed that “we wait in fear for the phone call from the Israelis”.

The Israeli ‘honey trap’

Establishing a formal paper trail connecting Epstein to Israeli intelligence agencies is near impossible due to the secretive nature of spycraft.

Intelligence agencies go to great lengths to protect their sources and agents and destroy evidence when information could become compromised.

It is also possible that classified information likely to be detrimental to US-Israel ties were either redacted or withheld from release.

However, it is known that Epstein had extensive ties to high-level Israeli officials and kept details of the incriminating activities of powerful people. 

Ex-CIA agent John Kiriakou says Jeffrey Epstein's a “textbook example of an access agent.”

“The problem here is that the accusation is that he was an access agent for the Israelis, and that’s something that the intelligence community really doesn’t like to talk about,” he added. pic.twitter.com/3s7CpMKUYc

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) July 9, 2025

One email which was saved as a draft and addressed from Epstein to himself contained allegations that he facilitated the billionaire Bill Gates “to get drugs, in order to deal with the consequences of sex with russian girls”, among other accusations, presumably as blackmail material. 

Gates has nevertheless vehemently denied ever visiting Epstein on his home on Little Saint James in the US Virgin Islands.

In a statement sent to Middle East Eye, a representative for Gates said, “These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false.

"The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame.

"Mr. Gates never visited Epstein's island, never attended parties with him, and had no involvement in any illegal activities associated with Epstein.”

Installing cameras

A separate email shows correspondence between Epstein and an associate discussing the purchase and installation of hidden cameras.

“Its amazing how small they are,” the associate wrote. “I’m installing them into Kleenex boxes now. I’ll bring them by later today.”

Martin Williams, chief investigator at Declassified UK, who has written extensively on Israel’s influence in Westminster, told MEE that “the exact nature of the relationship [between Epstein and Israel] remains unclear”, but there are “lots of unanswered questions”.

Williams said that “the British government should be launching an independent inquiry to find out if the likes of Peter Mandelson and Prince Andrew were passing information to an Israeli intelligence agent.” 

However, such an investigation seems a distant possibility when the country’s most popular media outlets stay clear of the issue.