Joshua Namm, May 23, 2023
"My editor is on vacation, so my apologies in advance for any typos.
"When
I heard about the murders of the two young Israeli embassy staffers
last night in Washington D.C., like everyone else, I was upset, very
sad, and angry. I wanted to write something but decided to wait until I
calmed down a little.
"That never happened.
"I
also don’t want to contribute yet another article to the countless
others that have appeared since that night - unless I had something
original to say.
"I hope that this will be that.
"My
initial reaction, after the burning anger, was that this should make it
obvious that terrorism/pogroms/jihad have come to the United States,
and that this shooting could have been prevented if the political
climate had been different.
"I was furious at the
completely predicable flurry of virtue signaling “statements” and social
media posts by politicians who obviously feel like they have to pretend
to be outraged (no one believes that Israel hating Alexandia Ocasio
Cortez was “devastated” as she absurdly claimed), or who exploit the
murders of two Jews by using them as an opportunity to campaign.
"I
am furious that the obvious danger of allowing almost two years of
“protests” in which it is acceptable to call for the murder of Jews,
genocide of the Jewish people (G-d forbid), and threats against us, was
allowed to continue for this long.
"Officials of the indoctrination centers
educational institutions where many of the demonstrations were/are held
did absolutely nothing to stop them. In fact many joined faculty, and
thousands of people off the street, and participated in these festivals
of Jew hate.
"At the same time, there was what was
deemed a “pogrom” in Los Angeles, two other Jews were murdered for being
Jewish (Paul Kessler in Los Angeles and Samantha Woll in Detroit),
again in Los Angeles the home of the head of AIPAC was attacked on
Thanksgiving, and the home of Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro was
firebombed a few weeks ago as his family was sleeping upstairs.
"Not the America I grew up in, and I can go on, and on, and on….and on.
"The
murders of the young people murdered Wednesday night came weeks after
the murder of an Israeli woman, Tzeela Gez, who was on her way to give
birth with her husband, who was also shot.
"At what point is this more like the 1930s than not like that period?
"In
almost every case there were no serious consequences for the actions of
the perpetrators, and in some cases they didn’t even bother to arrest
anyone.
"In the case of Samantha Woll’s murder, her
blood was found on the jacket of the suspect. The jury still didn’t
convict him of first-degree murder, and charges of felony murder and
home invasion were dropped. He was eventually only convicted of “lying
to police.” Apparently, lying to police is worse in America than
murdering two Jews.
"In the case of Paul Kessler, his murderer plead not guilty and still hasn’t been tried. He was murdered in November… of 2023.
"You
can murder Jews, harass Jews, and target Jews in the United States and
there will be no marches, no hand-wringing by the media and….no justice.
"I (“for some reason”) doubt that Muriel Bowser, the Mayor of Washington D.C., will have “Jewish Lives Matter” painted down 16th street, culminating in “Jewish Lives Matter Plaza,” as she did with “Black Lives Matter.”
"The names of the two young people murdered on Wednesday were Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Lischinsky’s last social media post condemned the ridiculous United Nations lie that 14,000 babies would starve to death in Gaza during the next 48 hours.
"As Melanie Phillips points out in her recent article “Blood On Their Hands,” that claim is exactly the kind of thing that encourages Jew haters to murder. It IS also what they mean “Globalize the Intifada” means. She goes on to blame the same list of suspects that I would blame:
“The
politicians who have allowed the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Iranian
extremists to spread their influence throughout western civil society;
the media and all those who relentlessly demonize Israel with blood
libels and murderous lies, including the British, French and Canadian
governments that this week threatened to punish Israel for defending
itself—these all bear responsibility for what happened in Washington.”
"The
claim about the babies in Gaza was just the most recent in a very long
line of blood libels that have spread globally, nearly unopposed, for
years. This did not start on 10/8, it just became socially acceptable to
be this open about hating Jews since 10/8.
"It is
even amazing that we are using words like “pogrom” and “blood libel” in
the modern era. When I was growing up, these were words that applied to
the distant past.
"Milgrim was born in Kansas. She
encountered antisemitism in high school. That experience only
strengthened her Jewish identity. She eventually went to the University
of Kansas, where she was active in Jewish life. She lived in Israel for a
time, then moved back to the United States. She got a job at the
Israeli embassy just before 10/7. Her story is heartbreaking for a
reason I haven’t heard a lot of people site: she was clearly proud of
her Jewishness, cared about the Jewish community, and wanted to make it
better.
"I have no words for how the loss of a young Jewish life makes me feel.
"Politically,
both sides share blame, although the left has been fanning the flames
of Jew hatred harder, longer, and more efficiently than the right. But I
want to be clear, by “blame” I mean for not doing enough to quell the
situation; the only people responsible for the murders of Jews are the
murderers.
"However, while his supporters loves to
minimize it, this is exactly why I was horrified that Dondald Trump
would accept a plane from Qatar – a country that is one of the chief
funders of Hamas. The $400 million dollar value of the plane is the part
that bothered me least. Quatar is the single most onerous
foreign entity in terms of its influence on multiple important aspects
of American society. It buys politicians both right and left. Yet many
conservatives (of which I am one, and have been for many years)
immediately began the excuse making as soon as Trump said that he would
accept the gift. It is unfathomable to me that a Jewish conservative
would defend such an action, just as it is unfathomable that liberal
Jews so often bend over backwards to support anti-Jewish policies and
the politicians who create them.
"The “it’s just a
plane” excuse makers, which include prominent conservatives who should
know better (respected historian Victor Davis Hanson is a great example)
would never tolerate a democrat president taking a car, or even a set
of golf clubs from Qatar. Trump claimed that “it would be stupid not to
take a free gift.” Somehow the denialists miss the fact that all gifts
are transactional, and you don’t accept gifts from our enemies. You know
why? Because that would be stupid.
"Moreover,
while Trump has done far more than Biden to quash the seemingly endless
Jew-hating demonstrations on campus, he has not applied the same
enthusiasm for deporting campus agitators as he has illegal alien
criminals. It is often pointed out to me that left-wing judges have
blocked some of these deportations. That is not the point - at all. The
point is that the demonstrations are clearly not significantly
decreasing in number or intensity. So whatever Trump is doing isn’t
effective. But after Wednesday, if there isn’t an immediate, and
massive, crackdown, it ought to be clear that the administration’s
actions thus far have been more for show than a genuine attempt to
permanently end the problem.
"I’m definitely not holding my breath though after the Obama-like tour of the Middle East, and Marco Rubio’s recent statements
that Israel isn’t giving the Gazans enough aid (poor babies), and that
Israel’s obviously necessary military blockade of Gaza is “hurting
Israel’s security.”
"Rubio was supposed to be one of
the staunchest Israel supporters in the administration. When
conservatives sound identical to liberals, and I know that this is hard
for some people to understand - they are not actually conservatives. In
fact, his rhetoric is identical to that of anyone in the Obama or Biden
administrations. Add to that the fact that Trump is trying to reach a
“nuclear deal” with the Middle East’s other most antisemitic regime,
Iran, and had nothing but compliments for the former Al Qaeda member
Syrian president – you have to be willfully blind to not see that things
are not going well.
"Then there are the
circumstances of the shooting itself. The event was at something called
“The Capital Jewish Museum.” I had never heard of it either. You can see
that it is a typical, left-wing institution by taking even a quick look
at their website (the mention of the “Freedom Seder” and the multiple uses of “LGTBQ+” tell the story).
"It
should have been obvious a very long time ago that the left’s agenda
and Judaism are two completely separate ideologies, and what the left
demands, and what is good for our people, are always diametrically
opposed. (I am referring here to the left in terms of the far left, not
liberals, who are increasingly a tiny minority in contemporary left-wing
politics.)
"Wednesday’s event was hosted by the
American Jewish Committee. It was not specifically Israeli. That didn’t
stop the from press immediately and predictably going into “the Jews had
it coming” mode by repeatedly referring to the victims as “staffers in
the Israeli embassy.” Obviously, absurdly implying that the motivation
for the murders was political, and that his motivation wasn’t to murder
as many Jews as possible.
"While they did work at
the embassy, they were murdered outside, on the street, by a leftist
scumbag with a history of everything that entails. He had no way of
knowing that they worked at the Israeli embassy.
"He
brought along his Nazi armband, I mean Klan hood, I mean keffiyeh, and
pulled it out while shouting that little annoying, smug “free Palestine”
chant so beloved by these people.
"He was targeting Jews. Any Jews. It could easily have been any one of us.
"Where
was the security? How were there no security guards outside? How does a
Jewish organization that takes in hundreds of millions of dollars a
year not provide the best, most effective security possible? I’ve worked
for Jewish organizations and have been at many of their events. I’ve
been on the inside and I know that there is usually security everywhere
(and I mean, everywhere).
"I’ve written about it before,
and I am going to say it here: we deserve better leadership. Every
secular Jewish organization is a total joke. Ironically, while rejecting
most of our 3,500-year-old culture, values, and religion, they still
tend to be incredibly old fashioned.
"They are also cowardly and naïve.
"At
the AJC event they discussed “humanitarian diplomacy,” multi-faith
responses to crises, and included a discussion about aid to Gaza.
Because the poor, poor Arabs who animalistically attacked us on 10/7
should be our focus. Clearly, the billions in aid that they’ve received
leading up to that day, and even more ridiculously since then, aren’t
enough for the sad little terrorists. And yes, very few of them (VERY
FEW) are “innocent civilians.”
"I get that it’s all very nice and idealistic. But NONE OF THAT is what we need right now.
"The
majority of the Jews murdered on 10/7 were also left-wing, and strove
to actively accept, and “celebrate” having Palestinians as their
neighbors, and actually brought many of them into their lives and their
homes.
"Again: sounds nice (I guess). But this is
the real world. What will it take to get people to realize that it is
adult time, and that the people who hate us will never “like us” because
we are nice to them? Or humane. Or fair. Or whatever. The “world”
actually likes us, and more importantly, respects us, a lot more when we
act as proud Jews.
"How many wakeup calls do we need?
"Perfectly
illustrating this kind of naïve, childish stupidity (and I am being
kind here), is the ”Jewish” publication “The Forward.” They had a headline asking “Was the D.C. Jewish museum shooting antisemitic?”
"Really “The Forward”? Were the Nazis antisemitic, or no?
"Could
you imagine a left-wing, black publication in 1957, in Mississippi,
after two blacks were murdered by white Klan members having a headline
that read: “The Klan Attack, Racist or Not?”
"Even if our lives weren’t at stake, this would not be funny.
"We always said “never again.” Then we said after 10/7 that “never again is now.” That was 17 months ago.
"It is time to grow up. We should not tolerate this any longer, no matter what it takes.
"As
long as there are no consequences for our attackers, they will keep
attacking us. That has been true in Israel since 1948, and it is true in
America right now. If the government and law enforcement will not make
that happen, we will need to figure something else out.
"This can’t continue.
"Shabbat Shalom.
"Never be afraid. Never give up.
"Am Yisrael chai, all day – every single day."
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