OPINION:
The murders Wednesday night of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington surely brought home bad tidings: Jews and Israelis aren’t safe in Washington.
Yaron Lischinksy, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, were gunned down in cold blood outside the Capital Jewish Museum. The suspected shooter, Elias Rodriguez, 30, was taken into custody while reportedly chanting, “Free, free Palestine.” Police said he later informed them that he “did it for Gaza.”
Mr. Lichinsky was said to be planning to propose to Ms. Milgrim in Jerusalem this week. Now, instead of celebrating that union, their families and friends are mourning. They’re not alone.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, there has been a 344% surge in the number of assaults on U.S. Jews in the past five years. That’s chiefly a response to Israel’s defensive measures against Hamas, the terrorist organization that launched the Oct. 7, 2023, sneak attack that killed more than 1,200 Israelis.
The Jewish state is the size of New Jersey, and it’s surrounded by a largely hostile Arab world covering a combined area of more than 5 million square miles. The verbal and physical battery its citizens routinely experience abroad has spread to the United States. Jewish people are in danger in 2025, even, and perhaps especially, in the capital of the free world.
President Trump has signed executive orders to combat this rise in antisemitism. He has made moves to deport noncitizens who abuse this nation’s generous welcome by agitating on behalf of Hamas. The administration is also freezing huge sums in grant money to the famously anti-Israel Harvard University. These are all positive steps.
What might make a difference now is that Mr. Trump restored the federal death penalty. The Justice Department ought to press capital charges if the ongoing investigation justifies doing so. “We should be willing to recognize terrorism, call it by that name and punish it as such,” University of Detroit Mercy law professor J. Richard Broughton told The Washington Times. “That should include enforcement of the death penalty, at least as an option where the law permits.”
He has a point. Wednesday’s homicide wasn’t a run-of-the-mill gun crime in the District of Columbia. The alleged killer was an American from Chicago. Prosecutors said he lurked near the center, as if waiting for the chance to carry out a premeditated execution that would send a political message. If so, it would be an attempt to affect public policy through violence and qualify as a domestic terrorist incident. It must be handled as such.
“It is also notable that we have a history of using the federal death penalty successfully in terrorism cases. Even when President Biden commuted nearly all federal death sentences, he left in place those that arose in the broader terrorism context,” Mr. Broughton said.
Fortunately, the District’s days of being soft on crime are over. There’s a new sheriff in town, and she doesn’t sound inclined to go easy on the assassin. “The hate has got to stop, and it has to stop now. This person will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
It’s time to make America safe for Jews again.
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