At the close of his visit to Washington this week, Netanyahu declared: “Antisemitism is intensifying, first and foremost due to the organized, well-funded campaign of hate online. We will fight it just as we’ve fought on other fronts.”
He spoke these words at a memorial ceremony at Israel’s embassy in Washington, held for Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgram, two embassy staffers who were murdered nearby 50 days earlier. Throughout his visit, Netanyahu reiterated this message.
Elias Rodriguez, a young man of Puerto Rican descent who murdered the couple in downtown Washington, is seen as a clear product of the rampant antisemitic incitement on social media. But it doesn’t stop there. The hatred reverberates in mainstream media, is reinforced by pseudo-academic content, and bolstered by what appear to be factual UN reports.
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgram. Photo: AFP
Rodriguez is part of the “woke” or far-left fringe. He absorbed the conspiracies he saw and read, and translated them into bullets. He legally purchased the gun in Chicago. He found out about the American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) event – “Young Diplomats” – online, and after it ended, he shot the couple.
There is no evidence that he was sent by any foreign state, though he has refused to cooperate with investigators. But it’s important to note that bullets don’t only come from the far-left. The deadliest antisemitic attack in the US in recent years, in which 11 Jews were murdered in 2018, was carried out by a neo-Nazi.
More recently, Tucker Carlson conducted a soft-ball interview with Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. It was akin to CBS giving a platform to Joseph Goebbels right after World War II.
Iranian President in Interview with Tucker Carlson
That didn’t happen then, but it is happening now. And it’s only the beginning of what Israel and the Jewish people are facing. While Netanyahu paid tribute to the slain couple, loudspeakers were blaring antisemitic slogans just outside the embassy. The same slogans that dominate X, TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms, accusing Israel alone of genocide, running concentration camps, causing starvation, committing war crimes, and other modern blood libels.
Outside Sudan’s embassy, just a 10-minute walk from Israel’s, there are no such protests. In Sudan, millions have been displaced, starved, and tens of thousands killed in a senseless war. But since Jews aren’t involved, it’s of no interest. When Jews aren’t part of the story, there’s no outrage. The warring factions in Sudan can kill each other undisturbed. Neither global media nor social media influencers care.
That’s why only Israel’s representatives, in Washington and around the world, are treated this way. Only Jewish communities, in the US and across the West, are forced to live under tight security. It’s no accident. There is direction and funding behind this. Iran and Qatar are certainly contributing financially and technologically to the campaign. Likely others are too. Exposing who they are and how they operate will be central to Israel’s looming battle – a battle for survival.
Without Western legitimacy, especially from the US, Israel faces serious trouble. That’s why this must be the next fight. And the first battlefield is TikTok. President Donald Trump is expected to soon announce the future of the Chinese-owned platform, which serves as a top carrier of antisemitic content.
Before he makes that decision, Israeli representatives attending the embassy memorial should urge him to demand the removal of algorithms that fuel hatred against Israel as a condition for any sale of the platform.
To Trump’s credit, he is already waging a fierce battle against rising antisemitism in the US. Based on the many understandings he and Netanyahu reached during the Washington visit, he is likely to answer this call too.
