The liberal New York Times has a habit of instantly fretting about Islamophobia whenever there’s an attack by radical Muslims, so it was inevitable that the paper responded to the murder by a pro-Palestinian activist of two young Jews, staffers at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., by fretting about how this will affect the larger “pro-Palestinian” movement.
The front page of Saturday’s New York Times featured this headline "Attack Tangles Pro-Palestinian Movement’s Path.” The online headline: “Attack Complicates Pro-Palestinian Movement -- Nonviolent Groups May Face More Pushback After D.C. Killings.” Because that’s the important thing about this story: not the globalization of the intifada after the October 7 massacre, but how left-wing “pro-Palestinian” activists feel.
Sharon Otterman’s story began strongly enough.
The suspect in the killings of two Israeli Embassy workers in Washington on Wednesday shouted “Free, free Palestine” as he was arrested, chanting the same slogan, in the same cadence, that has rung out in pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses and on American streets for years.
But the ties of Elias Rodriguez, the suspect, to the wider pro-Palestinian movement remain unclear. Was he a vigilante, upset at the deaths of civilians in Gaza, who decided on his own that violence was the only way forward? Or was he influenced by more extreme pro-Palestinian organizations that reach Americans online and that glorify the actions of Hamas and other armed resistance groups?
In either case, the killings of the Israeli embassy workers, Yaron Lischinsky, 30, who grew up in Israel and Germany, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, who was from Kansas, cast a harsh spotlight on the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States and the impact even peaceful protests might be having on attitudes against people connected to Israel.
Otterman then got to the real problem, from the New York Times’ standpoint: How badly will this murder reflect on pro-Palestinian activists?
The killings also risked painting all pro-Palestinian activists, the vast majority of whom do not engage in violence, with the same brush, which could lead to further repression of their movement. The tragedy occurred just as the movement has been trying to sustain attention in the United States on a blockade by Israel that has put Gaza residents at risk of widespread starvation.
It’s the grim reality behind the joke the late, great Norm McDonald posted on Twitter (now X) in 2016: “What terrifies me is if ISIS were to detonate a nuclear device and kill 50 million Americans. Imagine the backlash against peaceful Muslims?"
But the pro-Palestinian movement has asserted that it can criticize Israel and the war in Gaza without being antisemitic, and multiple organizations rushed to condemn the killings on Thursday.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, called the violence “completely unacceptable” and said that it does not represent the millions of Americans peacefully supporting an end to U.S. support for the Israel’s war in Gaza.
(CAIR, a long-time Times favorite, is hardly in a moral position to claim regret for the death of Jews, given its executive director said in a speech that Palestinians in Gaza “have the right to self-defense” but that Israel “as an occupying power” does not.)
Otterman tried her best to downplay the often violent pro-Hamas protests on college campuses and in front of synagogues.
In the United States, protesters who chant “Free, free Palestine” are almost always using tactics of nonviolent resistance. But the groups that organize behind Free Palestine banners also vary in their philosophies. Some advocate complete nonviolence in their broader approach, akin to antiwar protesters....
Otterman doesn’t ignore the far-left anti-Jewish groups, but her tone is hushed, hesitant.
Among at least some of those hard-line groups, there was some hint of acceptance about the killing of the embassy workers on Thursday, even as Mr. Rodriguez was being charged with first-degree murder and other crimes.
