Benjamin Netanyahu continues to raise the risk of a Mideast regional war which could draw in the U.S. — and the mainstream media is hiding the danger from its audience. Israel’s provocative aerial assassination of a senior Iranian military leader in Damascus on April 1 is only Netanyahu’s latest effort to expand the fighting across the region, partly to put off his own painful day of reckoning. He knows that America has troops stationed all over the Mideast, and he hopes that Iran will retaliate against them, escalating conflict.

It is clear Netanyahu does not want an immediate end to the current conflict spreading throughout the Middle East. A permanent ceasefire in Gaza means Israeli voters would soon turn him out of office, end his shattered political career in disgrace — and re-start his corruption trial, which could send him to prison.

Netanyahu’s real motivation is widely understood among those who follow the Mideast. But the U.S. media totally ignored that angle. The New York Times report at least smuggled in a comment from a former CIA official, who called Israel’s airstrike “incredibly reckless.” But the Times did not examine Netanyahu’s selfish personal motivation. The Washington Post report said nothing about recklessness. National Public Radio also played dumb, as did the PBS NewsHour. A CNN on-air report did say Israel ordered the killing, but no Netanyahu angle there either…..more