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Straits Times
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Israeli embassy staffers killed in Washington aspired to Middle East bridge-building
Flowers are laid out near the site where two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum, in Washington, D.C., U.S. May 22, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein JERUSALEM - The two young Israeli embassy employees killed by a gunman at a Jewish museum in Washington had big dreams of building bridges and promoting dialogue in the conflict-ridden Middle East, according to people who knew them. Yaron Lischinsky, a research assistant in the embassy's political section, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, a member of the embassy's administrative staff, who were about to get engaged, were killed by a suspect identified by Washington police as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago. Police said the suspect then entered the museum and chanted "Free Palestine, Free Palestine" after being taken into custody by event security. Lischinsky and Milgrim were shot as they left an annual event for young Jewish diplomats, this year focusing on resolving humanitarian crises in the Middle East, at the Capital Jewish Museum, about 1.3 miles (2 km) from the White House. Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said a man fired at a group of four people with a handgun, hitting both the victims. He was seen pacing outside the museum prior to the shooting. Lischinsky always had clear career goals of becoming a diplomat, driven by his desire to "contribute to bridge-building with other places, with other countries", said his professor Nissim Otmazgin, Dean of Humanities at Hebrew University. He thought that his diverse background - a Christian who converted to Judaism after moving to Israel and said he called both Jerusalem and the southern German city of Nuremberg home - would help him as a diplomat. According to his LinkedIn page, he supported the so-called Abraham Accords that normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab countries, and believed that "expanding the circle of peace with our Arab neighbours and pursuing regional cooperation is in the best interest of the State of Israel and the Middle East as a whole". The German-Israeli Society said Lischinsky had grown up in the German state of Bavaria and spoke fluent German. BRIDGE-BUILDING CHALLENGING "He wanted to become a diplomat so he could actually use his knowledge, his background, to contribute," said Otmazgin, who remembered Lischinsky as a well-rounded individual invested in academics, and as a defender in soccer. Bridge-building has been an especially difficult challenge since Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Israel's response, an air and ground war that has killed over 53,000 people and reduced much of the small Gaza Strip to rubble, has drawn global condemnation, including pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. university campuses. The shootings are likely to aggravate polarisation in the United States over the war in Gaza between supporters of Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed criticism and vowed to keep bombarding Gaza until Hamas is eradicated, a position that has sharpened divisions over the Gaza war at home and abroad. Joshua Maxey, Executive Director of Bet Mishpachah, an LGBTQ+ synagogue in Washington that Milgrim attended, described her as a pleasant person who could cope with stress and was committed to helping LGBTQ+ Jews feel included. Milgrim, an American Jew originally from Kansas, like Lischinsky, harboured big ambitions despite entrenched hatred in the Middle East to make a difference to her Jewish community and beyond it. "What I admired about her the most is that she was so dedicated to the Jewish community, and not just the Jewish community, but to humanity as a whole," said Maxey. "And to advocate for peace and to advocate that we are all this one big human family, and we should care for one another, and you know, in all of our capacities, strive to make this world a better place." Milgrim was a member of Tech2peace, a joint Israeli-Palestinian organisation that promotes peace through innovation. "Her energy, thoughtfulness, and unwavering belief in dialogue, peace and equality inspired everyone who had the privilege to work alongside her," said Tech2peace. Sabrina Soffer, a student who volunteered at the Israeli Embassy in Washington and worked alongside Lischinsky to show support for Israel after Hamas' October 2023 attack through social media, told Reuters she was deeply saddened. "The bond that we created in those days was just completely unmatched. And I'm sure, you know, the vibrancy of his smile and just his warmth were also radiant in Sarah too," said Soffer. "It's just two people that the world shouldn't have lost - that's for sure." REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
World Central Kitchen halts work in Gaza as supplies run out
FILE PHOTO: A view shows humanitarian aid with the logo of World Central Kitchen (WCK) at the Kerem Shalom border crossing to Gaza, Israel, May 1, 2024. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/File Photo The U.S.-based World Central Kitchen charity has halted work in the Gaza Strip, saying it had run out of supplies and been prevented by Israel from bringing in aid. "After serving more than 130 million total meals and 26 million loaves of bread over the past 18 months, World Central Kitchen no longer has the supplies to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza," it said on Wednesday in a post on X. Israel has faced growing international pressure to lift an aid blockade that it imposed in March after the collapse of a U.S.-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for two months. Israel has accused agencies including the United Nations of allowing large quantities of aid to fall into the hands of Hamas militants it accuses of seizing supplies intended for civilians and using them for its own forces. World Central Kitchen was founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres. An April 2024 Israeli strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy killed seven aid workers. Another member was killed in an attack last November. Israel said he was a militant. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Star
01-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Trump says buying Iranian oil must stop, threatens secondary sanctions on purchasers
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on the National Day of Prayer, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 1, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
The Star
21-04-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Venezuelan migrants were set for deportation without judicial review, lawyers tell US Supreme Court
FILE PHOTO: The United States Supreme Court building is seen in Washington, U.S., February 29, 2024. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/ File Photo WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration was prepared to carry out deportations of dozens of Venezuelan migrants detained in Texas under a 1798 law historically used only during wartime without judicial review and contrary to the U.S. Supreme Court's prior orders, lawyers told the justices Monday. American Civil Liberties Union attorneys representing the migrants urged the Supreme Court in a written filing to maintain its block on the deportations to a prison in El Salvador. The ACLU filing said that administration officials had not provided the migrants the required notice or opportunity to contest the removals before many were loaded on buses headed to the airport. The filing is the latest development in a high-profile legal battle involving the Republican president's immigration crackdown that has raised questions about his administration's willingness to comply with limits set by the top U.S. judicial body. "Whatever due process may require in this context, it does not allow removing a person to a possible life sentence without trial, in a prison known for torture and other abuse, a mere 24 hours after providing an English-only notice form (not provided to any attorney) that gives no information about the person's right to seek judicial review, much less the process or timeline for doing so," the ACLU's filing stated. The U.S. government has accused the migrants of being members of Tren de Aragua, a criminal gang originating in Venezuelan prisons that he Trump administration has designated as a foreign terrorist group. Trump has invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act in a bid to swiftly deport them. The law authorizes the president to deport, detain or place restrictions on individuals whose primary allegiance is to a foreign power and who might pose a national security risk in wartime. The nine-member Supreme Court early on Saturday temporarily barred the administration from deporting the migrants, acting swiftly in a case in which the lawyers for the migrants had warned of imminent removals. Two conservative justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, publicly dissented from that decision. ACLU lawyers filed urgent requests on Friday in multiple courts, including the Supreme Court, after reporting that migrants held at the Bluebonnet immigration detention facility were at imminent risk of removal. The Supreme Court on April 7 placed limits on how deportations under the Alien Enemies Act may occur even as the legality of that law's use for this purpose is being contested. The justices required that detainees receive notice "within a reasonable time and in such a manner" to challenge the legality of their removal. Trump's Justice Department told the justices that the bid by the migrants for relief was premature because "they improperly skipped over the lower courts before asking this one for relief." In a written filing, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer said detainees are receiving advance notice of their removals and have had adequate time to file claims for judicial review. ACLU lawyers pushed back on this assertion, saying that a lower court judge had not acted despite evidence that the migrants were being readied for imminent removal and "would almost certainly have been removed" had the Supreme Court not intervened. The migrants were loaded on to buses that left the Bluebonnet facility, only later to be turned around "presumably because of applicants' filing" to the Supreme Court, the lawyers said. The administration has already deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador more than 200 Venezuelan and Salvadoran men it claims are gang members. In Monday's filing, the ACLU lawyers said that as the justices weigh whether to maintain the temporary block on deportations should also clarify that the administration's actions are contrary to the April 7 ruling, and provide guidance to the measures required to provide the migrants' adequate notice. Transferring "large numbers of individuals it intends to remove under the AEA (Alien Enemies Act) between judicial districts and providing English-only AEA notices less than 24 hours before removal and without any explanation as to how the individual may seek judicial review - cannot by any stretch be said to comply with this court's order that notice must be sufficient to permit individuals actually to seek habeas review," the filing said. The lawyers also suggested the court take up and hear arguments in the case to resolve "whether the AEA can be invoked outside of wartime against a criminal organization and for only the fourth time in U.S. history." (Reporting by Andrew Chung in Washington; Editing by Amy Stevens and Will Dunham)
New York Times
07-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
A Vast Sea of Protests Against Trump
'Hang Tough'? Our Veterans' Plight Image Credit... Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters To the Editor: Re 'Coast to Coast, 'Hands Off!' Protesters Rally Against Trump's Agenda' (news article, April 6): For the first time since my college days, I joined a protest and marched in the streets. As a 76-year-old, I never thought I'd be protesting again, but I was heartened to see hundreds of people — every age, gender and race — join me in my relatively small upscale, normally quiet community. It was a peaceful demonstration that overtook the main street of the town. Signs were varied in their fury, but the common thread was disgust over the current administration's policies and actions. I only wish members of Congress had as much courage as my fellow protesters. I came home, turned on the television news and saw the man who occupies the Oval Office on his way to play golf. What could be more tragically telling than that? Barry Silverstein Walnut Creek, Calif. To the Editor: The story of the protests on Saturday belonged on the front page (more than a photo below the fold directing readers to an inside page). This was one of the most tumultuous weeks of Donald Trump's presidency, culminating in the tariffs, which have been condemned by a broader cross section than had been seen since his second term began, with many reacting with alarm, if not horror. We have shocked and alienated our most friendly long-term allies, who say they can no longer trust us. The citizens of this country are seeing the value of their retirement accounts plummeting and prices at the store already rising. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
