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Jewish Blood Is Spilled, and the Obamas Stay Silent
Secretary of State John Kerry with President Barack Obama. Photo: White House.
More than a week has passed since Israeli embassy employees Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were murdered in an antisemitic terror attack in America’s capital, Washington, D.C.
In the immediate aftermath of the heinous killing, which occurred at a May 21 event hosted by The American Jewish Committee (AJC), leaders from around the world and across the ideological spectrum offered words of support to the Jewish community, and expressed outrage at the brutal slaying.
Notably, one high-profile couple who preferred to stay quiet following last week’s murders is former US President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, who co-hosts the IMO Podcast with her brother Craig Robinson.
Nearly 10 years after leaving the White House, the Obamas remain pivotal and revered figures within the Democratic Party establishment. With almost 130 million followers, Barack Obama retains the second-largest following on the social media platform X.
Over the last decade, he has leveraged his influence to weigh in on a host of issues while campaigning alongside celebrities on behalf of Democratic candidates.
The choice of Obama to deliver the keynote address on the second night of last summer’s Democratic National Convention (DNC) illustrates how the former president is still setting the ideological tone of the Democratic Party and is considered the leader best suited to straddle the interests of progressives and centrists, as Democrats grapple with the direction of their coalition.
It is precisely this phenomenon that renders the Obamas’ actions since the October 7 massacre in Israel so troubling. Whether it’s feckless statements or marked silence, there is perhaps no couple that bears more responsibility for indulging the Democratic Party’s tolerance of the antisemitic and anti-Israel movement than the former first couple.
Pro-Israel Americans might very well conclude that their refusal to publicly condemn Lischinsky and Milgrim’s Jew-hating murderer is tied to a warped belief that placing sole blame on the gunman is to discount the geopolitical reasons behind his wicked rage. (Though it’s recently come out that besides hating Jews, he was also hoping for a genocide of white people).
The Obamas’ perverse silence and inversion of reality can be seen to convey that because they supported and worked on behalf of Israel, the murdered couple bear some culpability for their demise.
It was within this contextual framework that Obama implored Israel, in an October 23, 2023, column that was published in Medium, to exercise restraint in its war against Hamas.
That piece was followed by a November 2023 interview he gave on the Pod Save America podcast, an outlet whose hosts are, incidentally, both Obama administration alums and who, during a recent episode, shamelessly accused Israel of genocide.
During the 2023 discussion, as Israelis were still in the throes of memorials and fighting against Iranian proxy attacks, it was former President Obama who advanced a narrative popularized in progressive political orbits by claiming that “nobody’s hands are clean” — seemingly attempting to draw a moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
For her part, former first lady Michelle Obama, who has consistently tried to position herself as a paragon of feminist virtue, has yet to say a word about the October 7 brutal rape, torture, and mutilation of Israeli women at the hands of Palestinian terrorists.
Horrifying accounts by female captives of the sexual violence they were subjected to daily have failed to move the former first lady, who seems to devote most minutes of her new podcast to talking about herself and dispensing with any divorce rumors surrounding her marriage to “Barack.”
Michelle Obama’s stony silence in the face of Hamas’ assault against Israel stands in stark contrast to her expressed outrage back in 2014 over the ISIS-aligned foreign terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapping hundreds of Nigerian school girls. At the time, the former first lady appropriately and publicly joined the global “Bring Back Our Girls” campaign.
The Obamas’ refusal to acknowledge the murder of Sarah Milgrim, who was the same age as the former first couple’s eldest daughter at the time of her killing, and Yaron Lischinsky join their pattern of behaving with indifference and outright malice when it comes to confronting antisemitic violence.
The operational freedom that the “Free Palestine” movement enjoys across US cities and campuses, coupled with recent polling showing nearly half of younger Americans back Hamas over Israel, are crucial data points confirming that the grievance-driven playbook seemingly backed by the Obamas has inculcated a generation of Americans that is openly hostile to Israel and, by extension, Jews.
According to the Obamas’ intersectional worldview, Jewish victims are complicit in fomenting the antisemitic terror that now haunts them. Years after leaving the White House, they continue to permit this distorted thinking to enter the political consciousness of millions of Americans, and at least for the foreseeable future, the former president will be primarily tasked with shaping the Democrats’ discourse that, with rare exception, is turning against Israel. That is a very troubling sign for the future — both for Jews and all Americans.
Irit Tratt is an American and pro-Israel advocate residing in New York. Follow her on X @Irit_Tratt.
The post Jewish Blood Is Spilled, and the Obamas Stay Silent first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
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Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
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Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.