The Short Vort by Rabbi Eisenman

Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, with police saying the suspect yelled, "Free, free Palestine" after he was arrested.

Yaron Lischinsky, 30, who grew up in Israel and Germany, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, who was from Kansas, were killed in the attack.

Last night, just before I was about to close my eyes, I was made aware of the horrific news.

A gunman calmly walked over to two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington and killed them for no reason except that he perceived they were Jews.

The couple were not at the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

They were not even attending an event which has anything to do with the war in Gaza.

The event they attended was sponsored by the AJC, the American Jewish Committee.

According to the AJC website, "The event was organized by AJC ACCESS, AJC's young professional division, which empowers Jewish leaders to advocate on behalf of critical domestic and global issues facing the Jewish community.

At this year's event, attendees heard from members of the Multifaith Alliance and IsraAID on humanitarian diplomacy and how a coalition of organizations - from the region and for the region - are working together in response to humanitarian crises throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region."

The event does not appear to have been billed as "A Show of Support for Israel."

 Indeed, the Multifaith Alliance and IsraAID are organizations that tout on their websites that their primary mission goal is to help people of all races and ethnicities all over the world.

IsraAid  states, "IsraAID has been at the forefront of international efforts to respond to this truly global crisis, working with refugees and displaced people in Colombia, Ukraine, Israel, Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda."

The Multifaith Alliance boasts of the help it provides to the refugees in Gaza.

Multifaith Alliance (MFA) has implemented healthcare projects, clean water projects, and delivered over $550 million worth of aid to Syria, northern Iraq, Lebanon, Ukraine, Türkiye, and Gaza.

"Powered by Multifaith Alliance, MENA Aid has brought together humanitarian organizations from across the region who are working together to securely deliver aid into Gaza.

Even the sponsoring organization, the American Jewish Committee, is hardly in the "right-wing" extremist camp of world Jewry.

As their website states, "The AJC ultimately supports a two-state solution, with an autonomous Palestinian entity alongside Israel, as the most viable path to peace.

However, none of that mattered.

What mattered was that they were coming from a Jewish event at a Jewish venue, and that made them a fair target to be killed.

In fact, if the initial news reports are accurate, Yaron Lischinsky was not even Jewish.

He was a devout Christian with a strong connection and dedication to the State of Israel.

The terrorist felt that these people were present at a Jewish venue, and therefore, in his convoluted and evil mind, they were deserving of death.

The murder of these two innocent people, regardless of their religion or political outlook, is horrifyingly scary.

However, it should not be surprising.

After all, when Congresswoman Elise Stefanik asked the three college presidents,

"Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your university's] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying and harassment? Yes or no?"

Each witness evaded a direct answer, saying, "it depends on the context".

Dr. Gay further added that Harvard only takes action when the speech "crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation."

Therefore, when the usage of phrases such as "Free Palestine" and the like are protected by free speech, we should not be surprised when the words make their almost inevitable leap from words to actions.  

How scary it was when Dr. Gay stated that Harvard only takes action when the speech crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation."

When you allow condemnation of the entire Jewish State of Israel as a genocidal country under the guise of free speech, you can never be surprised when such inflammatory speech leads to murder.

Equally shocking to me was the coverage in the "Legacy Media."

The top story in many of the major media outlets this morning was not the clearly racially motivated attack on two innocent people.

It was not even the second story.

The first major story was the GOP budget bill that passed the House, and the second story involved a case before the Supreme Court.

Only after scrolling down was there a mention of the killing.

In my mind, this should have been the top story of the day.

Alas, it wasn't.

This scares me.

This man was not a professional terrorist.

This man was not sent by Iran to infiltrate the United States.

The two people killed were not targeted because of their direct involvement with the war in Gaza; rather, they were two innocent people killed because of where they were and how the killer perceived them.

The media, for the most part, was quite blasé about the entire incident.

They did not condone the murder, and they were sympathetic to the victims.

However, in my naïve state of mind, I expected the headlines to blare, "Couple killed in Cold Blood in a horrific terrorist attack."

Unfortunately, this was not the reality.

 The media has chosen not to make this a cause célèbre.

There will be no "George Floyd Moment" as we saw in May 2020.

There will be no national or international outrage that will spark protests across the country to finally curb the pandemic-level surge in anti-Semitism in the world.

There will be no spontaneous shock reaction that once and for all, the world realizes that when you hate Israel, you hate Jews too.

No one will dare start a movement called "JLM"- Jewish Lives Matter.

Lawn signs identifying support for the JLM movement will never appear.

In short, the world will go on.

The budget will be passed; Trump will continue to do what he does and be constantly criticized in the mainstream media.

And ultimately, Israel will be somehow held accountable for the death of these two victims because of their genocidal actions in Gaza.

Somehow, the verbal attacks, the threats, and even the murder of Jews is different and never as universally revolting as other acts of terror.



Somehow, when we are talking about harassing, intimidating, and even killing Jews, Claudine Gay nailed it as she truthfully admitted regarding calling for the genocide of Jews: "It depends on the context."