NYPD detective removed from Israel post but will be replaced, police confirm

The NYPD detective who has been stationed in Israel for nearly two decades as part of the department’s international liaison program has been removed from the post, The Post has learned. Veteran detective Charlie Benaim was the department’s eyes and ears in Israel as a member of the International Liaison Program, formed after 9/11, as part of a department initiative to create a worldwide security network. It is unclear when Benaim left Israel but he is already back in the U.S. after 18 years at the post in the Holy Land, according to police sources. “The liaison post is going to be filled,” an NYPD spokesperson said in a statement. “The process is ongoing.” The spokesperson refused to explain why the change was being made. The liaison program, funded by the nonprofit New York City Police Foundation, had 18 officers operating in 14 locations around the globe as of late last year. It was not clear if there had been any shakeups at other bureaus. The Post reported last year that some of the officers in the program were having tax trouble in foreign lands, and the NYPD was closing the Toronto bureau and others. Benaim has been in charge of gathering intelligence, investigating events and sharing information with the NYPD to keep the city safe since 2007, he told The Post last year. When the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks happened, he was working with local authorities in Israel and sharing information with the NYPD, he said. “Whenever there’s a terror attack in Israel, I respond to the scene,” Banaim said after the terror attacks by Hamas in southern Israel. He then sends his assessment back to the department. The priority is to “identify these trends and stop them before they have the potential to come to our city,” he said. NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner said last year that she learned about the 2023 surprise attacks in Israel during a phone call from Benaim while she was on a trip to Colombia with Mayor Eric Adams to discuss migration. Weiner and Adams in 2024 announced that the NYPD was expanding the liaison program and sending officers to Tucson, Ariz., and Bogota, Colombia, to help address the migrant crisis and the flow of drugs and guns pouring through the southern US border. “We’re not going to wait for the problem to come to us,” Weiner said at the time. “We’re not going to say this is someone else’s responsibility. It’s our job to protect our city.” City Hall refused to comment.