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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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Israel Says It Would Reduce Troops in Lebanon if Beirut Takes Steps to Disarm Hezbollah
An Israeli tank is positioned on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, March 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
Israel on Monday signaled it would scale back its military presence in southern Lebanon if the Lebanese armed forces took action to disarm Iran-backed Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah.
The announcement from the Israeli prime minister’s office came a day after Benjamin Netanyahu met with US envoy Tom Barrack, who has been heavily involved in a plan that would disarm Hezbollah and withdraw Israeli forces from Lebanon.
“If the Lebanese Armed Forces take the necessary steps to implement the disarmament of Hezbollah, Israel will engage in reciprocal measures, including a phased reduction” by the Israeli military, the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
The statement did not explicitly say if Israeli forces would fully withdraw from the five positions they hold in Lebanon.
The Israeli military has maintained a presence in southern Lebanon near the border since agreeing to a United States-backed ceasefire with Hezbollah in November.
Israel was to withdraw its forces within two months and Lebanon‘s armed forces were to take control of the country’s south, territory that has long been a stronghold for Hezbollah.
This month, Lebanon‘s cabinet tasked the army with drawing up a plan to establish state control over arms by December, a challenge to Hezbollah, which has rejected calls to disarm.
The prime minister’s office described the Lebanese cabinet’s decision to back the move as a momentous decision. Israel stood “ready to support Lebanon in its efforts to disarm Hezbollah,” the statement said without saying what support it could provide.
Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, has said Israel should comply with the plan for Hezbollah disarmament, which would mean the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
The Israeli military continues to carry out periodic air strikes in Lebanon that it said targeted Hezbollah terrorists and facilities used by the Islamist group to store weapons.
Palestinian factions in Lebanon surrendered some weapons to the armed forces last week as part of the disarmament plan.
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Syria Says Israel Takes Some Territory Around Mount Hermon Despite Talks
Israeli forces operate at a location given as Mount Hermon region, Syria, in this handout image released Dec. 9, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
Syria said on Monday that Israel had sent 60 soldiers to take control of an area inside the Syrian border around Mount Hermon, saying the operation violated its sovereignty and posed a further threat to regional security.
Israel did not immediately comment on the accusation by Syria‘s foreign ministry, which comes as the two countries engage in US-mediated talks on de-escalating their conflict in southern Syria. Damascus hopes to reach a security arrangement that could eventually pave the way for broader political talks.
Monday’s incident took place near a strategic hilltop that overlooks Beit Jinn, an area of southern Syria close to the border with Lebanon, the ministry said. Israel also arrested six Syrians there, according to residents in the area.
The area is known for arms smuggling by Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group and by Palestinian jihadist factions. Previous Israeli incursions have mostly been in the southern Quneitra governorate.
The Israeli military on Sunday shared footage of what it said were troops locating weapons storage facilities last week in southern Syria.
“This dangerous escalation is considered a direct threat to regional peace and security,” the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Israel has cited its own security concerns for its military interventions inside Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad last December, including what it sees as its obligation to protect members of the Druze minority in southern Syria.
Hundreds of people were reported killed in clashes last month in the southern province of Sweida between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes and government forces. Israel intervened with airstrikes to prevent what it said was mass killings of Druze by the Syrian government forces.
In January, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israeli troops would remain on the summit of Mount Hermon indefinitely.
Israel has since then formed a de facto security zone, where it regularly patrols, sets up checkpoints, and carries out searches and raids in villages.
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Widespread Anti-Israel Protests Held in Australia
Demonstrators hold a placard as they take part in the ‘Nationwide March for Palestine’ protest in Sydney, Australia, Aug. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Thousands of Australians joined anti-Israel rallies on Sunday, organizers said, amid strained relations between Israel and Australia following the center-left government’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state.
More than 40 protests took place across Australia on Sunday, Palestine Action Group said, including large turnouts in state capitals Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. The group said around 350,000 attended the rallies nationwide, including around 50,000 in Brisbane, though police estimated the numbers there at closer to 10,000. Police did not have estimates for crowd sizes in Sydney and Melbourne.
In Sydney, organizer Josh Lees said Australians were out in force to “demand an end to this genocide in Gaza and to demand that our government sanction Israel” as rallygoers, many with Palestinian flags, chanted “free, free Palestine.”
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for more than 200 Jewish organizations, told Sky News television that the rallies created “an unsafe environment and shouldn’t be happening.”
The protests follow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week stepping up his personal attacks on his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese over his government’s decision this month to recognize a Palestinian state.
Diplomatic ties between Australia and Israel soured after Albanese’s Labor government said it would conditionally recognize Palestinian statehood, following similar moves by France, Britain, and Canada.
The Aug. 11 announcement came days after tens of thousands of people marched across Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge, calling for peace and aid deliveries to Gaza, where Israel began an offensive nearly two years ago after the Hamas terrorist group launched a deadly cross-border attack.