RSS
‘Globalize the Intifada’: Scholars Link DC Murder of Israeli Embassy Aides to Campus Antisemitism, Incitement
Members of the group Misaskim clean blood off the ground where two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, May 22, 2025. Photo: Evelyn Hockstein via Reuters Connect.
Rampant antisemitism and anti-Israel activism on university campuses helped lay the groundwork for Wednesday night’s fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers leaving a Jewish event in Washington, DC, according to experts who spoke with The Algemeiner.
Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, a couple about to become engaged, were murdered as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum for young professionals and diplomatic staff hosted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC).
Elias Rodriguez, a 30-year-old left-wing and anti-Israel activist from Chicago, was charged on Thursday in US federal court with murdering the Israeli embassy aides. According to witnesses and federal agents, he chanted, “Free, Free Palestine” — a war cry that has been a staple of the pro-Hamas movement on campuses across the US. An affidavit filed by federal authorities in support of the criminal complaint charging Rodriguez revealed that he also said at the scene of the shooting, “I did it for Palestine; I did it for Gaza.”
On Thursday, a Middle East scholar and the executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Asaf Romirowsky, who is Jewish, told The Algemeiner that Rodriguez’s alleged crimes can be linked to higher education’s normalizing of antisemitism.
“Last night’s heinous acts by Elias Rodriguez once again show how normalized antisemitism has become, being tolerated and institutionalized in our universities and media for decades,” Romirowsky explained. “Words have meaning and consequences and there is a reason why slogans used on campus calling for ‘resistance,’ ‘globalize the intifada,’ and ‘Free Palestine,’ are actionable Islamist terroristic commands synonymous to how the perpetrators of 10/7 [Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel] acted.”
He added, “There is no surprise that within hours after the murders he received praise from Moustafa Bayram, a member of Hezbollah.”
Esteemed Jewish scholar Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, founder and executive director of antisemitism watchdog AMCHA Initiative, noted that in the days leading up to the shooting, pro-Hamas campus groups called on their supporters to “escalate” their conduct.
“They give us no choice,” a campus group which calls itself Columbia University Apartheid Divesthttps://www.algemeiner.com/2025/04/01/meta-boots-anti-zionist-columbia-university-group-instagram/ wrote in a Substack email blast shared on Wednesday morning, some 12 hours before the murders. “We will continue to disrupt the imperialist system that thrives on bloodshed and exploitation … We can disrupt and bring these rotten institutions to their graves.”
CUAD was preceded by other activists whose rhetoric portrayed Israel and the Jews who live there as evil.
On Saturday, a graduating George Washington University senior, Cecilia Culver, accused Israel of targeting Palestinians “simply for [their] remaining in the country of their ancestors” and said that GW students are passive contributors to the “imperialist system.” An economics and statistics major, Culver went on to charge that the university has “blood on its hands.”
Similar remarks were uttered during New York University’s commencement ceremony for the Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
“I want to say that the genocide currently occurring is supported politically and militarily by the United States, is paid for by our tax dollars, and has been live streamed to our phones for the past 18 months,” said Logan Rozos, who presented administrators with a false draft of his speech, leaving them unaware of his intention to promote notions frequently trafficked by neo-Nazis and jihadist terror groups. “I want to say that I condemn this genocide and complicity in this genocide.”
The connection between the incidents is undeniable, Rossman-Benjamin told The Algemeiner.
“The missing link between the commencement speeches and the shooter’s action is the CUAD bulletin, and its call to ‘escalate,’ which the commencement speakers and shooter each did in their own way,” she said. “What we also understand is that the shooter apparently claimed, ‘The action [killing] would have been morally justified taken 11 years ago.’” Around 11 years ago is when he would be 19 years old, around the time he was at UIC [the University of Illinois Chicago]. It could be where he became radicalized.”
Domestic terrorism may be the end game for the over 150 pro-Hamas groups operating on colleges campuses and elsewhere across the US to foster anti-Israel demonstrations, according to a September 2024 report published by the Capital Research Center (CRC) think tank.
“The movement contains militant elements pushing it toward a wider, more severe campaign focused on property destruction and violence properly described as domestic terrorism,” researcher Ryan Mauro wrote in the report, titled “Marching Toward Violence: The Domestic Anti-Israeli Protest Movement.” “It demands the ‘dismantlement’ of America’s ‘colonialist,’ ‘imperialist,’ or ‘capitalist,’ system, often calling for the US to be abolished as a country.”
He continued, “These revolutionary goals are held by the two different factions of the anti-Israel extremist groups. The first faction combines Islamists, communists/Marxists, and anarchists. The second faction consists of groups with white supremacist/nationalist ideologies. They share Jew-hatred, anti-Americanism, and the goal of sparking a revolutionary uprising.”
The group most responsible for the anti-Israel protest movement is Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), according to the report.
Drawing on statements issued and actions taken by SJP and their collaborators, Mauro made the case that toolkits published by SJP herald Hamas for perpetrating mass casualties of civilians; SJP has endorsed Iran’s attacks on Israel as well as its stated intention to overturn the US-led world order; and other groups under its umbrella have called on followers to “Bring the Intifada Home.” Such activities, the report explained, accelerated after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, which pro-Hamas groups perceived as an inflection point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an opportunity. By flooding the internet and college campuses with agitprop and staging activities — protests or vandalisms — they hoped to manufacture a critical mass of youth support for their ideas, thus creating an army of revolutionaries willing to adopt Hamas’s aims as their own.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Globalize the Intifada’: Scholars Link DC Murder of Israeli Embassy Aides to Campus Antisemitism, Incitement first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Trump Says Israel Will Have to Decide on Next Steps in Gaza, Pledges More Aid
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday Israel would have to make a decision on next steps in Gaza, adding that he did not know what would happen after the collapse of ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations with the Hamas terrorist group.
Trump underscored the importance of securing the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, saying they had suddenly “hardened” up on the issue, and said the US would provide more aid to the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
“They don’t want to give them back, and so Israel is going to have to make a decision,” Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at his golf property in Turnberry, Scotland.
“I know what I’d do, but I don’t think it’s appropriate that I say it. But Israel is going to have to make a decision,” he said, while also claiming, without evidence, that Hamas members were stealing food coming into Gaza and selling it.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both appeared on Friday to abandon Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, saying it had become clear that the Palestinian group did not want a deal.
Netanyahu said Israel was now mulling “alternative” options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending Hamas rule in the enclave.
Trump said he believed Hamas leaders would now be “hunted down,” telling reporters: “Hamas really didn’t want to make a deal. I think they want to die. And it’s very bad. And it got to be to a point where you’re going to have to finish the job.”
US TO PROVIDE MORE AID, TRUMP SAYS
Trump on Sunday said the US would provide more humanitarian aid to Gaza, where concerns are mounting about the worsening hunger, but wanted other countries to participate as well. He said he would discuss the issue with von der Leyen.
“We’re giving a lot of money, a lot of food, a lot of everything,” he said. “If we weren’t there, I think people would have starved, frankly. They would have starved, and it’s not like they’re eating well.”
He said he had spoken with Netanyahu and discussed a number of issues, including Iran. He said and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer would also discuss Israel when they meet at Trump’s golf property in Turnberry on Monday.
Trump also noted said the United States was not acknowledged for earlier food aid for Gaza.
“No other country gave anything,” he said, calling out European countries in particular. “It makes you feel a little bad when you do that and, you know, you have other countries not giving anything… Nobody gave but us. And nobody said, Gee, thank you very much. And it would be nice to have at least a thank you.”
The post Trump Says Israel Will Have to Decide on Next Steps in Gaza, Pledges More Aid first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Announces Daily Pauses in Gaza Fighting as Aid Airdrops Begin
Palestinians carry aid supplies that entered Gaza through Israel, in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, July 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Israel on Sunday announced a halt in military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and new aid corridors as Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped supplies into the enclave, where images of starving Palestinians have alarmed the world.
Israel has been facing growing international criticism, which the government rejects, over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and indirect ceasefire talks in Doha between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have broken off with no deal in sight.
US President Donald Trump, on a visit to Scotland, said Israel would have to make a decision on its next steps in Gaza, and he did not know what would happen after the collapse of ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations with Hamas.
Military activity will stop from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (0700-1700 GMT) until further notice in Al-Mawasi, a designated humanitarian area along the coast, in central Deir al-Balah and in Gaza City, to the north.
The military said designated secure routes for convoys delivering food and medicine will also be in place between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. starting from Sunday.
U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher said staff would step up efforts to feed the hungry during the pauses in the fighting.
“Our teams on the ground … will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window,” he said on X.
In their first airdrop in months, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates parachuted 25 tons of aid into Gaza on Sunday, a Jordanian official said, adding that those were not a substitute for delivery by land.
Palestinian health officials in Gaza City said at least 10 people were injured by falling aid boxes.
Work on a UAE project to run a new pipeline that will supply water from a desalination facility in neighboring Egypt to around 600,000 Gazans along the coast would also begin in a few days, the Israeli military said.
On Saturday, a five-month-old baby, Zainab Abu Haleeb, died of malnutrition at Nasser Hospital, health workers said.
“Three months inside the hospital and this is what I get in return, that she is dead,” said her mother, Israa Abu Haleeb, as the baby’s father held their daughter’s body wrapped in a white shroud.
The Egyptian Red Crescent said it was sending more than 100 trucks carrying over 1,200 metric tons of food to southern Gaza on Sunday. Some had been looted in the area of Khan Younis after entering Gaza, residents said.
A group of 25 states including Britain, France and Canada last week said Israel’s denial of aid was unacceptable.
The military’s spokesperson said Israel was committed to international law and monitors the humanitarian situation daily. Brigadier General Effie Defrin said there was no starvation in Gaza, but appeared to acknowledge conditions were critical.
“When we start approaching a problematic line (threshold) then the IDF works to let in humanitarian aid,” he said. “That’s what happened over the weekend.”
Israel cut off aid to Gaza from the start of March to pressure Hamas into giving up dozens of hostages it still holds and reopened it with new restrictions in May.
It says it has been allowing in aid but must prevent it from being diverted by terrorists and blames Hamas for the suffering of Gaza’s people.
HOPE, UNCERTAINTY
Many Gazans expressed some relief at Sunday’s announcement, but said fighting must end.
“People are happy that large amounts of food aid will come into Gaza,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a business owner. “We hope today marks a first step in ending this war that burned everything up.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue to allow the entry of humanitarian supplies whether it is fighting or negotiating a ceasefire and vowed to press on with the campaign until “complete victory.”
Hamas said Israel was continuing its military offensive.
“What is happening isn’t a humanitarian truce,” said Hamas official Ali Baraka.
The post Israel Announces Daily Pauses in Gaza Fighting as Aid Airdrops Begin first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
‘Israel Is Doing More for Gaza’s Civilians than Hamas,’ Says IDF Spokesperson
IDF Spokesperson Effie Deffrin. Photo: IDF
i24 News – In a press briefing held Sunday morning, IDF Spokesperson Effie Defrin addressed the latest developments in the Gaza conflict, including the implementation of a tactical humanitarian pause and the delivery of aid into the enclave.
Defrin sharply criticized Hamas, accusing the organization of spreading false claims about widespread famine in Gaza while actively obstructing humanitarian efforts.
“Israel initiated the creation of food distribution centers to prevent famine,” he said. “We are securing four aid centers, facilitating convoys, and permitting international airdrops. These humanitarian pauses are designed to allow civilians access to essential supplies.”
He went on to condemn Hamas for its handling of humanitarian aid. “While Hamas steals aid meant for civilians and hides it in tunnels, it runs a deceitful campaign claiming there’s famine in Gaza. Let’s be clear: there is no famine, and Israel is operating fully within international law.”
Defrin argued that Israel is showing greater concern for the welfare of Gaza’s residents than Hamas itself. “Hamas is deliberately worsening the situation and disrupting the delivery of aid. They’re not just fighting us, they’re fighting their own people.”
In closing, he stated: “Hamas is no longer a point of reference for many in Gaza. The IDF has established aid centers, and civilians are turning to them daily. No country confronted with such a brutal terrorist organization has done more to support the civilian population in enemy territory.”
The remarks come amid intensified international scrutiny of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, with Israel seeking to reinforce its narrative of compliance with international law and contrast its actions with those of Hamas.
The post ‘Israel Is Doing More for Gaza’s Civilians than Hamas,’ Says IDF Spokesperson first appeared on Algemeiner.com.