In October 2004, Behar left Fortune to pursue book writing and various independent projects, including the launch of Project Klebnikov, a global media alliance investigating the July, 2004, murder of Paul Klebnikov, who was then the editor-in-chief of "Forbes Russia". Behar also served on the advisory committee of New York University's business journalism Master's program (BER), and has long been reporting and writing a book about Bernard Madoff, to be published by Simon & Schuster. The book was initially purchased by Random House. In 2015, Behar co-wrote an article for the "New York Observer" that accused the Associated Press of improperly reporting civilian deaths in the 2015 Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.