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New Statesman
a day ago
- Politics
- New Statesman
Israel is at war with innocence
A bystander wearing an Israel flag with a cross in the middle, prays near the Capital Jewish Museum following the shooting of two Israeli Embassy staff members. Photo by Tom Brenner For The Washington Post via Getty Images How imponderable it is that people once believed history followed a moral or rational arc. Such antiquated optimism now seems obscene. Past atrocities become present pretexts; victims repeat, as perpetrators, the crimes once visited upon them. Virtue-signalling, in which social groups display their status as historical victims in order to morally overwhelm those they perceive as their oppressors, is but the sugary peacetime tip of that retributive spear. The Jews behind Benjamin Netanyahu – they are not my Jews – have, for the first time in modern Jewish history, completed the cyclical transformation into their persecutors. Pursued for millennia across continents; displaced, tortured, murdered, and then gassed and incinerated in the millions, the Jewish people are now being put in mortal danger by the current Israeli prime minister, who is presiding over the mass murder and mass starvation of the Palestinians. For every Palestinian innocent Netanyahu murders – including 16,000 dead Palestinian children so far, out of 50,000 Palestinians killed – he is passing a death sentence of revenge on innocent Jews everywhere in the world. Two of these Jewish innocents were murdered in Washington DC last week when a pro-Palestinian American travelled from Chicago and shot to death Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, both employed at the Israeli Embassy. Milgrim was involved in humanitarian efforts to bring Israelis and Palestinians together. Lischinsky, half-Jewish, was a devout Christian who had grown up in Israel and possessed a deep love for the country; the two young people were about to be engaged. It is indecent to categorise them as Jewish victims, as if on the opposite side of some ledger from the Palestinian victims. They are all, Palestinian and Jew, along with the Jews murdered on October 7, part of the same casualty count: the count of the innocent. After he shot Milgrim and Lischinsky, the assassin cried 'Free Palestine!' That putative motive was sickeningly absurd, just as much as the IDF's recent killing of a Palestinian paediatrician's nine children as part of a tactic – so Netanyahu's government says about its siege of Gaza – of compelling Hamas to free the remaining hostages. The present destruction of life on both sides is no more politically effective than were the demented attacks on 7 October and Israel's dementedly disproportionate response. A child who has spent one afternoon on the playground knows more about the cyclical nature of revenge than these hardened 'warriors' do. History's twisting and twisted path is endless. Just at the moment when Israeli policy toward the Palestinians can truly be called a deliberate plan to erase them, American liberals have struggled to respond forcefully and loudly, with a unified voice, to the horror in Gaza. Such a unified response can be found on the American far left, butin a way that discredits their cause, celebrating, for example, the murders of Milgrim and Lischinsky – along with Luigi Mangione's assassination of a healthcare executive last December in New York – as heroic blows for justice. These extremists are the same people who seemed to commandeer the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia after October 7. In the city where the 9/11 attacks happened, they took down an American flag and ran up a Palestinian flag in its place. As a result of such callous gestures, as well as anti-Semitic rhetoric, the far left's efforts on behalf of the Palestinians now have the moral status of the domestic terrorist group The Weather Underground in the 1970s. This, tragically, includes any and every Palestinian, and every person, who non-violently protests Netanyahu's mass murder in Gaza. There are, it seems, no people any more in American politics and society. Only pretexts. American liberals, Jewish and otherwise, find themselves in disorienting straits. Their preferred news sources, in particular the New York Times and CNN, have reported on the atrocities in Gaza with unsparing honesty and depth. But there are few, or no, prominent voices characterising the slow extermination in Gaza for what it is and calling for it to be stopped. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Part of the reason for liberals' helplessness is Trump's disingenuous manoeuvring. His phoney war on American universities in the name of anti-Semitism has infuriated them. At the same time, the actual surge in anti-Semitism in America, and throughout the world, has made them mute their criticisms of what Israel is doing. So they decry anti-Semitic acts, then denounce Trump's cynical claims that he is purging the universities of the same. But just as Trump's curbing of American democracy, under the pretext of anti-Semitism, is endangering the future of liberal America, Netanyahu's war on the Palestinian people is jeopardising Jewish lives. Faced with this twisted situation, American liberals are left spinning fantasies about what they would like to see happen rather than directly speaking out against what is happening. The idea that Trump's warning off Netanyahu from striking Iran has signified a break between America and Israel is delusional. And should Trump leave Israel to its own devices, it will only signify to Netanyahu that he is free to inflict whatever agonies on the Palestinians he desires, as he is now doing. Capable of self-annulling acts of love and sacrifice, the human ego is also a suppurating agent of monstrous vanity. Having experienced terror for millennia, experiencing it once again in their very own historical sanctuary, on 7 October, a substantial number of Jews in Israel refuse to relinquish their status as victims – even as, or perhaps because, they are haunted by the trauma of being victims once again. This simultaneous return of the repressed and restoration of victim-power now provides the moral basis – the moral, ego-flattering permission for the ego to act amorally – for Israel's erasure of Gaza. Israel's policy in Gaza currently seems to reflect this notorious remark by American Air Force general Curtis Le May during the Second World War: 'There are no innocent civilians. It is their government and you are fighting a people, you are not trying to fight an armed force anymore.' But if there were no innocent civilians, then Israeli outrage at the slaughter on October 7 would be unjustified. If there were no innocent civilians, there would be no moral purpose in recording the deaths of murdered Palestinian children. It is governments, or entities claiming to function as a government, that have the blood on their hands. It is the innocents, ordinary children, women and men, who have history wreaked on their heads by governments, for the sake of justice they never called for, and of revenge they would gladly live without. [See also: Sanction Netanyahu's cabinet ultras now] Related
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Capital Jewish Museum reopens in an ‘act of resilience'
May 29 (UPI) -- The Capital Jewish Museum reopened Thursday morning with an invitation-only tribute to the Israeli Embassy staffers who were killed outside its entrance last week. "Today's reopening is not simply a return to normal," museum president Chris Wolf told visitors, WNBW reported. "It is an act of resilience," Wolf said. "It is a declaration that we will not allow hate to silence our voices or diminish our commitment to building a better future." Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser was among those invited and who attended the reopening of the museum that is located near the intersection of 3rd Street and F Street in the capital's downtown district. "Part of my charge to my team in every difficult circumstance is that we have to get open [and] we have to get back to normal," Bowser said during the reopening event. "Thank you for getting open," she told museum officials and staff. Bowser also encouraged city residents and visitors to: "Keep showing up for the Jewish community." A 'most heinous form of anti-Semitism' Museum officials called the attack the "most heinous form of anti-Semitism" in a statement posted on the museum's website. "They are a stark and tragic reminder of the hatred that, regrettably, still exists in our world," the statement says. "In the face of such darkness, we are called upon to respond not with despair, but with resilience." The museum had closed for a week following the May 21 double homicide of Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, after they left a museum event and were waiting to cross the street outside while on foot. Both were employed by the Israeli Embassy in the nation's capital and were a couple who many said likely were about to become engaged. Lischinsky was an Israeli-German citizen and had purchased an engagement ring ahead of a trip to Jerusalem, where he planned to propose marriage. Milgrim was born in Kansas and was a U.S. citizen. A history of anti-Israel activity Chicago resident Elias Rodriguez, 31, is a U.S. citizen and is charged with two counts of murder and other related crimes after traveling from Illinois to Washington, D.C., before the shooting. He did not enter a plea during his arraignment hearing. Rodriguez has a history of involvement in far-left and pro-Palestinian events and is recorded shouting, "free, free, free Palestine," as he was being arrested, according to an FBI affidavit. He had entered the museum that Lischinsky and Milgrim had just exited immediately after the shooting, the affidavit and witnesses say. Witnesses said he yelled, "I did it for Gaza," while admitting to the attack when police arrived and arrested him. Video footage from surveillance cameras in the area shows a man who looks and was dressed the same as Rodriguez walking past a group of four people, including Lischinsky and Milgrim. The man in the video then turned to face their backs, drew a firearm and shot Lischinsky and Milgrim in their backs. Video footage shows the man reloading the firearm and shooting each victim several more times. The FBI affidavit says law enforcement recovered a 9mm pistol from the scene that records show Rodriguez purchased in Illinois in 2020 and declared in his checked baggage when he flew to the capital. Spent casings from 21 cartridges were found at the scene, suggesting the shooter used two 10-round magazines and a chambered bullet during the attack.
Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
The eternal light of the woman gunned down at the Jewish Museum
Milgrim's mission, personally and as an aide at the Israeli Embassy, was peace. For that cause, she strove valiantly, constantly, and in the service of that cause, her life was taken. A force of goodness and grace met the embodiment of evil. Milgrim did not go gentle into that good night. Advertisement Young children can remark that perhaps God is crying when it pours like it did on that stormy night. The rain pelting Washington may have saved lives, as attendees at the American Jewish Committee event waited inside and ran to cars in the moments before the shooting. The suspected gunman fumbled with his weapon. It jammed. The AJC had held another event the night before, where centenarian Advertisement Shortly before Hitler came to power, antisemitic thugs had murdered Frank's uncle when they discovered he was Jewish as he walked down the street. As a child in Nazi Germany, Cohn saw the antisemitic evil that rang out in gunfire in Washington last week. After the suspect allegedly fired 21 rounds of bullets into Sarah and Yaron, he entered the building to taunt the other Jewish attendees at the event, proud of his heinous crime: His chants echoed slogans from demonstrations on college campuses last year. Jewish students were regarded by some as being too sensitive to these protests, as their classmates, much like Frank's nanny, embraced carelessness with their lives, screaming 'Globalize the Intifada,' a call for worldwide violence against Jews. While it is true that many of the college demonstrators display an uncommon ignorance about the subject matter, the Jewish students on their campuses, like the small Jewish boy on the streets of Nazi Germany, knew that they had been betrayed. A CNN anchor Advertisement To use language common to the campus culture, I would ask that anchor if she believes Forgive me if I seem enraged. I am. It was a righteous fury to defy the Nazis that sustained Frank in his noble mission in World War II, and a righteous fury that fueled the soul of Sarah Lynn Milgrim, who never gave up for the cause of peace, who sought justice for sexual assault victims of Oct. 7, and who brightened the world with her magnificent fire. May her drive light our way, pushing toward goodness, against the hatred in the heart of her suspected killer, and toward the peace she furiously sought.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Senators condemn fatal shooting of Israeli embassy employees as families mourn
A community in Kansas gathered to celebrate the life of Israeli Embassy employee Sarah Milgrim Tuesday after she was fatally shot alongside her boyfriend, fellow Israeli Embassy employee Yaron Lischinsky, leaving the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington last week. Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring and was planning to propose to Milgrim before they were both killed, those close to the couple said. The suspect, Elias Rodriguez, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder; murder of foreign officials, a federal capital offense; and multiple gun-related counts. He could face the death penalty if convicted. The suspect shouted "Free Palestine" while in police custody, and the fatal shooting is being investigated as a hate crime, according to the FBI. Lawmakers have condemned the violence as an act of antisemitism. Speaking with Fox News Digital on Capitol Hill, both Republican and Democratic senators condemned the fatal shooting. Israeli Ambassador Connects Embassy Staffers' Slaying To 'Very Important' Bigger Picture White House Decries 'Evil Of Antisemitism,' Vows Justice After Fatal Shooting Of Israeli Embassy Staffers Read On The Fox News App "These two young people died senselessly. Israel's engaging in a war for its very survival. My heart breaks for these two young people in the prime of their lives," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said. Lischinsky was 30, and Milgrim was 26. "There's no room for violence in America," Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., told Fox News Digital. "I appreciate my colleague, Sen. Rosen, moving a resolution today that no colleagues objected to, bringing attention to antisemitism in America. Anytime anyone is targeted, we need to speak up, not just here, but around the world." Senators Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., last week on the Senate Floor condemned what they described as an "antisemitic attack" and celebrated the passage of their bipartisan resolution that recognizes May as Jewish Heritage American Month. "This is everybody's worst nightmare that people would not only engage in antisemitic rhetoric, but act on it," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said it "reminds us all how festering hate and prejudice leads to violence. We have to redouble our efforts to stop any form of prejudice or bigotry." "Obviously, there's been a rise in antisemitism over the last several years," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., told Fox News Digital. Gillibrand is one of two Democratic senators representing New York, which is home to the largest Jewish population in the United States and also includes Columbia University, the elite Ivy League school in Manhattan that has been accused of allowing antisemitism to fester on campus. President Donald Trump has condemned the anti-Israel protests at elite universities, threatening to cut federal funding to institutions that do not condemn antisemitism and threatening to revoke international students' visas. "It is disgraceful that two young people with their whole lives in front of them can't go to a reception in a public building in Washington, D.C., and be safe. It is criminal. It is disgraceful. It is intolerable, and we have to do everything we can to stop antisemitism in its tracks and protect people," Gillibrand added. In an unusual move for active federal court judges, four of them said in a Dispatch opinion piece Wednesday, "Societies that persecute Jews are societies that are sick and dying. Societies that allow the moral rot of Jew hatred to proliferate are societies on their way out of the pages of history." The Associated Press contributed to this story. Original article source: Senators condemn fatal shooting of Israeli embassy employees as families mourn
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Capital Jewish Museum to reopen one week after deadly double shooting
WASHINGTON () — A week after a of the Israeli embassy, the Capital Jewish Museum announced it would be reopening its doors. Last Wednesday, — a couple about to be engaged — were fatally shot while leaving an event at the museum. According to court documents, the event was hosted by the American Jewish Committee to 'bring together Jewish young professionals and the D.C. diplomatic community' and was attended by several members of the U.S.-based Israeli diplomatic mission. Authorities said the suspect, , opened fire on a group of four people at around 9 p.m., striking and killing the couple. The State Department said Lischinsky was an Israeli citizen and an 'official guest' of the U.S. government. 'Death penalty eligible case': Suspect charged in shooting that killed two Israeli Embassy staff members, officials say Since then, the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum has been closed as the community continues to mourn the loss of Lischinsky and Milgrim. Museum officials said the museum was founded to share Jewish stories, build understanding and encourage community dialogue. 'Recognizing how essential this work is, the Museum will reopen to the public tomorrow, Thursday, May 29, at noon,' officials said. 'We are committed to ensuring that our museum is a welcoming space for everyone. We look forward to making our exhibitions and programming available, including our new and highly anticipated exhibition , which celebrates the vibrant and diverse tapestry of Jewish identity.' Enhanced security measures will be in place upon reopening, the museum noted. This includes a multi-tiered security presence inside and outside of the museum. All bags will also be searched and no large bags or luggage over 18″x12″x8″ will be allowed inside. To reserve tickets to the museum, click . Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
