Comes a Chill Wind
Intifada is in the streets
It surely will not be long before we’re admonished to view the assassination by a pro-Palestinian terrorist of two employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC “in context.” And that context will be presented in the form of disinformation, fake news and plain lies about Israel’s campaign of “genocide” in Gaza. Context really, really matters when a heinous act of violence is connected to some cause dear to the hearts of American progressives and radical leftists.
The victims of this terrorist attack were Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, a young couple who’d been planning to travel to Jerusalem, where their engagement would be formalized. Their killer, Elias Rodriguez, is a member of The Party of Socialism and Liberation, a radical leftist group. Both victims were shot several times, Milgrim as she tried to crawl to safety after taking a bullet in the back. “Free, free Palestine!” Rodriguez shouted as police took him into custody. Well, his bloody deed shows exactly what kind of country “free Palestine” would be.
So don’t talk to me about context. And shut up about “Islamophobia.” Phobias are irrational. To fear and fight radical Islam and its support system around the world is the acme of rationality.
In the United States, that support system is provided by the Democratic Party’s progressive base, backed up by a large number of left-wing organizations, such as the Democratic Socialists of America. And why not? What Hamas did to Jews in Israel aligns with the American Left’s master narrative: the valorization of revolutionary violence. And it’s not just talk.
Item: In June of 2017, a left-wing activist shot four people, including the GOP’s majority House whip, Steve Scalise, during a practice session for the annual Democratic/Republican Congressional Baseball Game. Though no one was killed, Scalise and one other victim were severely wounded.
Item: In 2020, the death of George Floyd was seized upon to justify widespread revolutionary violence across America—”mostly peaceful,” of course!
Item: In the summer of 2022, after the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, an assassin was caught stalking Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Item: Beginning in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas pogrom of October 7, 2023, “anti-Zionist” activists launched an organized campaign of harassment, intimidation, and outright violence targeting Jews on university campuses across America that continues to this day.
Item: Two attempts were made to assassinate Donald Trump last year when he was running for president.
Item: Earlier this year, a radical leftist assassinated the CEO of a health insurance company, gunning him down on a New York street. The killer, Luigi Mangione, was instantly hailed as a hero by progressives and leftists. Health insurance companies are evil, you know!
Item: Protests over Elon Musk’s work for the Trump Administration included a wave of arson and vandalism targeting Tesla dealerships and EVs.
Item: On April 13, during Passover, a pro-Palestinian terrorist set fire to the home of Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro while he and his family slept. Though they were safely evacuated by police and firefighters, their home was badly damaged.
It may seem strange that secular Western leftists have discovered common ground with the devotees of a bloodthirsty, fundamentalist religious cult. But no less than Hamas, Western leftists revile the Jews. And no less that Western leftists, Hamas reviles the West. And though opposed in doctrine, the two movements share a dark, destructive addiction to violence.
The barbarism and nihilism of fundamentalist Islamists is right out there in the open; their rhetoric is as bloody as their deeds. Less obvious is the barbarism and nihilism of the postmodern progressive Left. The comrades pose as lofty intellectuals. They spout the jargon of postmodernism, a species of Newspeak. They claim monopoly ownership of logic, reason and “the Science.” Then they turn around and embrace gender ideology, critical race theory…and Hamas.
Prominent among the slogans of campus antisemitism is Globalize the Intifada! The murderer of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky heeded that call. And he didn’t act alone; he had the backing of “anti-Zionist” leftists who demand precisely what his evil deed symbolized: the destruction of Israel and the eradication of the Jews. Why would people who cheered the slaughter perpetrated by Hamas on 10/7/2023 balk at what Elias Rodriguez did? It thrilled them. They too have innocent blood on their hands.
Apologists for “anti-Zionist” activists appeal to the First Amendment. They say that even the most vicious antisemitic rhetoric—support for terrorism, calls for genocide— is mere speech. No doubt they’ll insist that those masked, keffiyeh-wearing activists with their hateful signage and their Palestinian flags bear no responsibility for the heinous crime committed last Wednesday in the name of the cause those activists espouse. Well-meaning such apologists may be, but they’re also useful idiots.
America, in its unwisdom, carelessness and good nature, opened its gates to the enemy. God knows, we have an oversupply of homegrown bigots, Right and Left. Why import more? Why should American citizens who happen to be Jews have to put up with the harassment, intimidation, and violent assaults that have been going on since 10/7/2023—especially when the perpetrators are foreigners, guests of this country? The useful idiots are loud in their condemnation of the Trump Administration for trying to do something about that by kicking such undesirable foreigners out of the country. But American Jews? They should just quit complaining, already!
I greatly fear that things are going to get much worse before they get better. Intifada is in the streets. By indulging as it has the antisemitic passions of activists both homegrown and foreign, America brought this trouble on itself. And as Proverbs 11:29 warns, “He who troubles his own house shall inherit the wind.”
The first chill gust of that wind blew over the bodies of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky.
All that may be true, but it’s entirely beside the point. American Jews are our fellow citizens, and their political opinions don’t deprive them of their civil rights. I’ve gathered the impression, Ms. Murray, that you’re an intelligent person. If so, you must realize this. I’m not criticizing you for making an observation that I myself have made. But you should not let it harden your heart against American Jews.
Well said.
Thinking people should be angry.