Lachlan Murdoch travels to Israel to meet with Netanyahu

Lachlan Murdoch, the billionaire media mogul who took over as chief executive of both Fox and News Corp. last fall, will travel to Israel and meet with top leaders in the country amid its ongoing war with Hamas.

Murdoch is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu and a number of other leaders, including National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz, during the previously unannounced visit.

News of Murdoch’s trip was first reported by the Times of Israel.

Murdoch, who took over for his father running the two media conglomerates in November, now presides over some of the largest and most influential media companies in the world, including the Wall Street Journal and Fox News in the United States.

His visit to Israel this week comes as Fox News, which has long been the preferred cable news channel among conservative audiences, has made inroads with Jewish viewers over its coverage of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack carried out by Hamas and ensuing war in Gaza.

Netanyahu has had a relationship with the Murdoch family for years, the Times of Israel reported, noting a 2016 effort by a former top Netanyahu aide to get the family to invest in a right-wing television channel in Israel modeled after Fox.

Murdoch made a similar trip to Ukraine in November, during which he and Fox reporter Benjamin Hall, who was severely injured covering the conflict in Ukraine, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.