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We are horrified, grieved, and angry at the murder last night of two Israeli embassy staffers outside an event for young diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC.

Sarah Lynn Milgrim, a 26-year-old Jewish American from Kansas, and Yaron Lischinsky, a 30-year-old German Israeli who was a practicing Christian, were gunned down in cold blood. Witnesses heard the man responsible for the shooting say, "Free Palestine. I did it for Gaza." He chanted, "Free, Free Palestine" as he was arrested.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter revealed that the victims were a couple who were about to be engaged. Yaron had recently purchased an engagement ring and planned to propose to Sarah next week in Jerusalem.

Sarah Milgrim was involved in humanitarian efforts and had spent summers in Israel working with "peace-building groups" to help unite Palestinians and Israelis, her father told the NY Post.

Yaron Lischinsky, whose father is Jewish and whose mother is Christian, was described by Israel's ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor as: "[A] Christian, a true lover of Israel, served in the IDF, and chose to dedicate his life to the State of Israel and the Zionist cause. He embodied the Judeo-Christian values and set an example for young people worldwide."

The RJC spoke out about the killing last night, as JNS reports:

Matt Brooks, the CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms."

"Those responsible for this heinous attack must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and we have full confidence in the Trump administration to deliver swift and righteous justice," Brooks said. "Since Oct. 7, we have seen a dramatic spike in lawlessness, violence, sickening antisemitism and anti-Americanism from coast to coast, on our college campuses and on our streets."

"This horrific attack requires complete, total and forceful condemnation from everyone. Silence is not an option. It is complicity," Brooks stated. "This a blaring warning to all Americans, across the political spectrum, that the world's oldest hatred continues to plague our society, and we must stand together to confront it wherever and whenever it appears."

Republicans responded by condemning the attack and expressing their solidarity with Israel and the American Jewish community in the fight against antisemitism. Matthew Foldi reports at the Washington Reporter that the Trump administration itself was on the scene almost immediately. Attorney General Pam Bondi and US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro were on site, and Dan Bongino, one of the FBI’s top officials, said that the “act of terror has the full attention of your FBI.” Foldi also reports on the strong statements from President Donald Trump, EPA Administration Lee Zeldin, Jewish Republican members of Congress Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) and Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN), and other Republican leaders.

International human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky writes at Canada's National Post:

The brutal reality is that such an act of utter violence was the logical and horrific consequence of a relentless campaign of demonization, disinformation and delegitimization against the Jewish state — led not by fringe extremists alone, but by western governments and institutions.

Although the blood of these two young diplomats is first and foremost on the hands of their killer, responsibility is also shared by every government that has, in recent months, legitimized hatred against Israel under the guise of international law, diplomacy and human rights.

… This relentless campaign to isolate, sanction and vilify Israel does not occur in a vacuum. It clearly sends a message. A message that Israeli lives are worth less, that Jewish self-defence is unacceptable and that terrorism against Israelis may not only be tolerated, but tacitly justified.

And this message is being received loud and clear — by violent extremists on the streets of London, Paris, Montreal and now Washington, D.C., by radicalized students chanting genocidal slogans to "free Palestine" and to "globalize the intifada" on western campuses, and yes, by the killer who walked up to Israeli diplomats in Washington and ended their lives in cold blood.

… This tragedy should be a wake-up call to every western leader. Appeasement of terror and appeasement of those who hate Israel does not bring peace. It brings more violence, more extremism and more death.

In his article, Ostrovsky is speaking specifically about the United Kingdom and Canada, but he is speaking directly to Democratic leaders in the US as well. They have tolerated and abetted the antisemitic and anti-American pro-Hamas "activism" that chants for Israel's destruction and the murder of Jews. Ostrovsky is correct when he says that last night's murders were exactly what "Globalize the Intifada" means – it means violence against Israelis and Jews anywhere, any time. It must be stopped.

President Donald Trump has pressed diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict with Iran, but he resolutely insist that Iran must not become a nuclear power. Iran must not have the means to menace the US or our allies in the Middle East, especially Israel, with nuclear weapons.

On this past Sunday's "The Week" show, US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff told ABC's Jonathan Karl:

"We have one very, very clear red line, and that is enrichment. We cannot allow even 1 percent of an enrichment capability. We've delivered a proposal to the Iranians that we think addresses some of this without disrespecting them. ... But everything begins for our -- from our standpoint, Jon, with a -- a deal that does not include enrichment. We cannot have that. Because enrichment enables weaponization. And we will not allow a bomb to -- to get here.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Kamala Harris' VP pick in the 2024 election, called officers of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Nazis during a commencement speech at the University of Minnesota Law School last weekend.

Walz told students: "Donald Trump's modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They are in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons, no chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans and disappeared."

JNS reports:

"Kamala Harris labeled President Trump a 'fascist,' now her former running mate Tim Walz calls ICE agents the 'Gestapo,'" Sam Markstein, spokesperson for the Republican Jewish Coalition, told JNS.

"ICE is part of the thin blue line protecting us every single day at great personal risk, and to compare them to Hitler's Germany is historically absurd and a vile smear that trivializes the Holocaust," said Markstein. "Tim Walz should know better, but this is what radical Democrats do when they don't like law enforcement enforcing the law."

RJC Political Director Sam Markstein appeared on the "Right for America" podcast with Cindy Grosz this week to talk about the recent RJC delegation trip to Poland and Israel, antisemitism, the news from Israel, and President Donald Trump. Watch here.

Tobin: Domestic terror is the inevitable next step for Hamas sympathizers

For the past 19 months, angry mobs have taken over college campuses and the streets of major American cities… Yet rather than being isolated and widely condemned, these pro-Hamas activists and demonstrators have been cheered by many in the media and even rationalized by former President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as their party's left-wing leaders… In doing so, they were ignoring the warning signs that the pro-Hamas movement was more than just mainstreaming Jew-hatred in discourse. As has been the case throughout history, those who speak of their support for terrorism elsewhere often wind up committing it at home.

… It has long been apparent that in the current atmosphere that "pro-Palestinian" has become indistinguishable from antisemitism. Regardless of the mental state of the D.C. shooter or the denials of responsibility of anti-Israel groups, violence against Israelis and Jews was always the inevitable next step. Those who chant for Jewish genocide cannot disavow their role in legitimizing violence against Jews. The response from the US government and decent people everywhere should be to isolate this movement and to take whatever measures are needed to ensure that such assassinations, coupled with the targeting of Jewish students on college campuses, come to an end.

Greenberg: The shameful campaign to downplay the Holocaust and keep Nazi-looted art

Joel Greenberg is the president of Art Ashes, a nonprofit dedicated to assisting families in the recovery of Nazi looted art. He writes at The Hill about the "absurd and shocking defenses by museums, art dealers, private owners and foreign governments that insist on holding on to art stolen by the Nazis... At best, these claims disregard the property rights of families and dishonor the memory of Holocaust victims. At worst, they are tantamount to Holocaust denial, denying the context, coercion and clear theft that occurred under a genocidal regime."

The Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act enables Holocaust survivors and heirs to access US courts and have their claims decided on the true facts and merits, but courts have continued to deny survivors' and heirs' claims. Greenberg writes: "With the act due to sunset in less than two years, time is quickly running out to extend the law, strengthen it, and clarify its intent so that survivors and their families have a fair chance of recovering what is rightfully theirs."

Leibsohn: America, the Middle East, and Donald Trump

President [Donald] Trump's direct outreach to the Arab world, and his efforts to bring in Arab states from the cold (with a strong set of reservations about Qatar), is not only a good thing, but will serve, especially in the case of Saudi Arabia, as a further bulwark against Iran. None of this is anti-Israel or an incipient distancing between the United States and Israel. Rather, it is the righting of a series of misconceptions and mistaken priorities where American concerns have been previously blurred, and Israel's security has been wrongly outsourced.

On the passing of Michael Ledeen, Reagan admin official who helped America defeat communism

Michael A. Ledeen, a major American historian and intellectual, died on Sunday at the age of 83. Fox News reports that Ledeen was a vigorous participant in contributing to the demise of the communist Soviet Union and its Iron Curtain allies in Eastern Europe.

Ledeen was a long-term member of the Jewish Policy Center Board of Fellows. JPC Chair Karen Tandy and CEO Matt Brooks said, "Michael was a tireless fighter for American defense and security, for the security of the State of Israel, for the people of Iran, and for the Kurdish and Yazidi people – the women, in particular. Our condolences go to his wife Barbara, his partner in all things, and to his children and grandchildren."