Media Report 2025.05.24
FPM Media Report Saturday may 24 2025
Israeli leaders blame Europe after embassy staff shot dead in Washington DC
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-23/israeli-leaders-blame-europe-after-embassy-staff-shot-dead-in-us/105326602
Suspected gunman restrained by security after fatal attack
In short:
A man has been charged with first degree murder after two Israeli embassy staff were killed in Washington DC by a gunman who shouted “free Palestine” as he was arrested.
But US authorities say his actions are being investigated as a hate crime and an act of terrorism and further charges will be pressed as warranted.
Israel is blaming world leaders who have spoken out against the country’s ongoing bombardment and food blockade of Gaza.
International tensions over antisemitism have erupted after two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead at a Jewish museum in Washington DC.
The FBI is investigating the background of the alleged gunman, who shouted “free Palestine” as he was arrested.
FBI director Kash Patel called the attack an “act of terror”.
Police detained the alleged shooter, 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, at the scene. He has been charged with two counts of first degree murder, which could attract the death penalty.
“We’re going to continue to investigate this as a hate crime and a crime of terrorism,” interim US attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro said.
“And we will add additional charges as the evidence warrants.”
North America correspondent Carrington Clarke reports from the scene of the shooting in Washington DC.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar blamed European criticism of his country’s stepped-up Gaza offensive for the attack, claiming “a direct line connecting antisemitic and anti-Israeli incitement to this murder”.
“This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and international organisations, especially from Europe,” he said.
French foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine called the accusation “completely outrageous and completely unjustified”.
The killings took place just outside the Capital Jewish Museum late on Wednesday, local time. The venue, 1.6 kilometres from the White House, was hosting a social event for young professionals and diplomatic staff.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited “the terrible price of antisemitism” and decried “wild incitement against the State of Israel”.
Soon after the shooting, US President Donald Trump — who spoke with Mr Netanyahu on Thursday — posted on social media that the attack was clearly antisemitic and such killings had to stop.
Israel identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, a US employee of the embassy, and said they were a couple.
Mr Lischinksy had just bought an engagement ring and was preparing to propose.
After the shooting, Israeli embassies around the world immediately stepped up security.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino posted on social media that investigators were “aware of certain writings allegedly authored by the suspect” and he hoped to soon have updates regarding their authenticity.
Mr Bongino’s statement appeared to refer to a manifesto signed with the suspect’s name that was posted to an anonymous X account shortly before the shooting.
The manifesto condemned Israel’s killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians since the October 2023 Hamas attacks and discussed the morality of “armed” action.
Video from the crime scene on social media showed a bearded man in a jacket and white shirt shouting “free, free Palestine” as he was led away.
The attack came days after the museum was awarded a grant to boost security, as antisemitism surges worldwide in the wake of Israel’s devastating invasion of Gaza.
Tensions have risen in the United States and many other countries over the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, with pro-Palestinian activists decrying what they say is the intolerable human cost of the military offensive.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the Australian government was shocked and appalled by the killings.
“There is no place for antisemitism in the world,” she wrote on X.
“It must be denounced and condemned.”
Britain, France and Canada — who have stepped up their criticism of Israel’s actions — were also among nations to condemn the shootings.
But Mr Netanyahu accused those three countries of emboldening militants, saying “they want Israel to stand down and accept that Hamas’s army of mass murderers will survive, rebuild and repeat the October 7 massacre”.
In a video message, he said the countries “think that they’re advancing peace. They’re not”.
The day after the shootings, mourners gathered at the museum in Washington to sing and pray.
“We have to find a better way to a better future for Israelis, for Palestinians, for American Jews, for Muslims, for all of us,” said Hadar Susskind, head of the progressive New Jewish Narrative group.
“Obviously the war is awful,” mourner Gil Livni said.
“[But] antisemitism, I feel it every day … people that I thought were my friends showing that they are antisemitic. It’s become the norm.”
Two plastic cups arranged on a plate with the words ‘Sarah’ and ‘Yaron’ written on them.
Tributes like this one were placed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. (Reuters: Ken Cedeno)
Israeli ambassador Yechiel Leiter told reporters at the scene that he rejected any “insinuation that antisemitism is rising because of Israel’s defence of its country”.
“Hamas declared war, Israel is responding,” he said.
The targeted event was an annual reception hosted by the American Jewish Committee for young Jewish professionals and the Washington diplomatic community.
Mr Lischinsky was a researcher at the Israeli embassy, while Ms Milgrim worked for its public diplomacy department, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
Mr Lischinsky was Christian, according to The Times of Israel newspaper, where he had previously worked as a blogger. He also held a German passport.
ABC/wires
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Israel allows trucks into Gaza, but supplies still low
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8973899/israel-allows-trucks-into-gaza-but-supplies-still-low/
The head of the Palestinian Red Crescent says its operations in Gaza may stop within days in the absence of fresh supplies and its ambulance fleet was running at only one-third of capacity due to fuel shortages.
Flour and other aid began reaching some of Gaza’s most vulnerable areas on Thursday after Israel let some trucks through, but nowhere near enough to make up for shortages caused by an 11-week Israeli blockade, Palestinian officials said.
Israel said it let in 100 trucks carrying baby food and medical equipment on Wednesday, two days after announcing its first relaxation of the blockade under mounting international pressure amid warnings of starvation in Gaza.
Asked how long his organisation could continue operating in Gaza, Palestine Red Crescent Society President Younis Al-Khatib told reporters in Geneva: “It’s a matter of time. It could be days.
“We are running out of fuel. The capacity of ambulances we work with now is one third,” he added, saying its gasoline-powered ambulances had already halted but it had some that were running on solar power provided by the United Nations.
The PRCS is part of the world’s largest humanitarian network, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and provides medical care in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Al-Khatib criticised the small amount of aid Israel has allowed into Gaza so far, warning of the risk of mob attacks.
“I think that is an invitation for killing. These people are starving,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late on Thursday the construction of a “distribution zone” would be completed in the coming days with US companies distributing food in areas controlled by the Israeli military.
“Ultimately, we intend to have large safe zones in the south of Gaza. The Palestinian population will move there for their own safety while we conduct combat in other zones, and receive humanitarian aid there without Hamas interference,” he said in a video statement released by his office.
Israel imposed the blockade on all supplies in March, saying Hamas was seizing deliveries for its fighters – a charge the group denies.
The United Nations has said one quarter of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people are at risk of famine.
The Palestinian health minister said 29 children and elderly people had died from starvation-related reasons in the enclave in recent days and many thousands more were at risk.
Israel has repeatedly defended its controls on aid in the Gaza Strip, saying reports from aid groups of famine-like conditions were exaggerated and denying accusations of causing starvation.
On Wednesday night, boys and young men gathered after one vehicle arrived in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis but kept back as men, some holding guns, watched over the unloading of sacks.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had got one truck of medical supplies through to replenish its field hospital in Rafah but more was needed.
Israel has stepped up its military operation in the Gaza Strip since early May, saying it is seeking to eliminate Hamas’ military and governing capabilities and bring back remaining hostages seized in October 2023.
Israel launched its campaign in the Gaza Strip in response to the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 which killed 1200 people by Israeli tallies and resulted in 251 hostages being abducted.
The campaign has since killed more than 53,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the coastal strip, where aid groups say signs of severe malnutrition are widespread.
Australian Associated Press
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Israeli strikes kill people guarding aid trucks: Hamas
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8974760/israeli-strikes-kill-people-guarding-aid-trucks-hamas/
By Nidal Al-Mughrabi and James Mackenzie
Israeli air strikes have killed at least six Palestinians guarding aid trucks against looters, Hamas officials say, underlining the problems hindering supplies from reaching hungry people in Gaza following Israel’s 11-week-long blockade.
The Israeli military said 107 trucks carrying flour and other foodstuffs as well as medical supplies entered the Gaza Strip from the Kerem Shalom crossing point on Thursday.
But getting the supplies to people sheltering in tents and other makeshift accommodation has been fitful.
Some 119 aid trucks have entered Gaza since Israel eased its blockade, Palestinian groups say. (AP
So far, an umbrella network of Palestinian aid groups said, 119 aid trucks have entered Gaza since Israel eased its blockade on Monday in the face of an international outcry.
But distribution had been hampered by looting by groups of men, some of them armed, near the city of Khan Younis, the network said.
“They stole food meant for children and families suffering from severe hunger,” the network said on Friday in a statement that also condemned Israeli air strikes on security teams protecting the trucks.
A Hamas official said six members of a security team tasked with guarding the shipments were killed.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
The aid groups network also said the amount of aid coming into Gaza was still inadequate and only included a narrow range of supplies.
It said Israel’s agreement to allow trucks to enter the war-shattered enclave was a “deceptive manoeuvre” to avoid international pressure calling for the lifting of the blockade.
So far, Israel says it has allowed about 300 trucks to enter Gaza but aid groups say many of the trucks have been held up at the Kerem Shalom crossing and not yet reached people in need.
The Israeli military said it had conducted more strikes in Gaza overnight, hitting 75 targets, including weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers.
Palestinian medical services said at least 25 people had been killed in the strikes.
Israel imposed its blockade on Gaza in early March, accusing Hamas of stealing aid intended for civilians, shortly before breaking a two-month-old ceasefire after the two sides deadlocked on terms for extending it.
Hamas has rejected the accusation and says many of its own fighters have been killed protecting the trucks from looters.
Israel launched an air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas militants’ cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, which killed some 1200 people by Israeli tallies and saw 251 hostages abducted into Gaza.
The Israeli campaign has since killed more than 53,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the coastal strip.
Aid groups say signs of severe malnutrition are widespread.
Australian Associated Press
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‘Wrong side of humanity’: Netanyahu slams UK, France and Canada
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/middle-east/wrong-side-of-humanity-netanyahu-slams-uk-france-and-canada/news-story/885bbd8d164cd14f89ea21abe417eb83
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken aim at the leaders of Britain, Canada and France, saying they “want Hamas in power” as Iran and the US hold new nuclear talks. Follow updates.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has launched a stunning attack on British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the leaders of France and Canada – saying that they had “effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power”.
He also accused Mr Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.
Mr Netanyahu was speaking after this week’s deadly attack on Israeli embassy staff in Washington where two people were shot dead.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has slammed Britain, Canada and France over comments surrounding Israel’s military action. Picture: AP
Earlier this week, Britain, France and Canada had condemned Israel’s greater offensive in Gaza as “disproportionate” and described the humanitarian situation as “intolerable”.
All three countries denounced the Washington killings with Sir Keir Starmer calling anti-Semitism “an evil we must stamp out”.
Britain, Canada and France – all close allies of Israel – supported the nation after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, which left more than 1200 people dead.
But their recent comments have been seen as their strongest criticism of Israel yet.
On Wednesday Sir Keir added that Israel’s decision to allow only a small amount of aid into Gaza was “utterly inadequate” and the UK suspended talks over a possible trade deal.
In his video, Netanyahu said Hamas wanted to destroy Israel and annihilate the Jewish people. He said the Palestinian armed group had welcomed the joint UK, French and Canadian criticism of Israel’s war conduct.
Some of Israel’s closest allies wanted Israel to “stand down and accept that Hamas’s army of mass murderers will survive”, he said.
“I say to President Macron, Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Starmer, when mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you’re on the wrong side of justice,” he added.
“You’re on the wrong side of humanity, and you’re on the wrong side of history.
Netanyahu went on to blame a recent claim by UN’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher that thousands of babies would imminently die in Gaza if Israel did not immediately let in aid for the attack in Washington.
“A few days ago, a top UN official said that 14,000 Palestinian babies would die in 48 hours. You see many international institutions are complicit in spreading this lie,” he said.
“The press repeats it. The mob believed it. And a young couple is then brutally gunned down in Washington.”
France’s President Emmanuel Macron, left, and Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer were at the centre of a blistering attack from Benjamin Netanyahu. Picture: AP
France’s President Emmanuel Macron, left, and Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer were at the centre of a blistering attack from Benjamin Netanyahu. Picture: AP
When asked at the time for clarification on Fletcher’s statement, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) spokesman Jens Laerke said “there are babies who are in urgent lifesaving need of these supplements… and if they do not get those, they will be in mortal danger”.
Also on Thursday, an Israeli minister, Amichai Chikli, accused Sir Keir and other leaders of “emboldening the forces of terror”.
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Netanyahu’s hardline aid blockade and push for a new military offensive in Gaza divide both Israel’s allies and Israelis
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/netanyahus-hardline-aid-blockade-and-push-for-a-new-military-offensive-in-gaza-divide-both-israels-allies-and-israelis/news-story/542cb141ea9a29e727642ff6ae74018f
Cameron Stewart
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being wedged on one side between growing calls by Israel’s allies and ordinary Israelis to end the war and on the other by the right-wing nationalists in his coalition who want him to continue. Picture: AFP
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being wedged on one side between growing calls by Israel’s allies and ordinary Israelis to end the war and on the other by the right-wing nationalists in his coalition who want him to continue. Picture: AFP
After 19 months of war, the conflict in Gaza has entered a dramatic and dangerous new stage as Israel launches an intensified drive to eliminate Hamas at all costs. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new path forward is laden with strategic risk and humanitarian challenges.
It already has alienated Israel’s closest allies, divided Israelis and risks more pain and suffering for both Israel and the Palestinians.
The Israeli leader has ripped up his military playbook to commit to a new plan for a long-term ground invasion and prolonged Israeli occupation of Gaza. He has vowed not to stop until Hamas is defeated, disarmed and its remaining leaders exiled or killed. He also has insisted, as a condition of peace, that Donald Trump’s policy of voluntary emigration for Gazans be implemented.
This has unnerved and angered Israel’s European allies because it heralds another long-term military campaign in Gaza.
They say it inevitably will lead to more large civilian casualties and will forcibly displace much of the population when Gaza is in ruins and its people are starving after an 11-week blockade of humanitarian aid by Israel.
But Netanyahu argues that such a comprehensive campaign, called Operation Gideon’s Chariots, is needed if Israel is to fulfil its aim of completely destroying the murderous Hamas, responsible for the atrocities of October 7, 2023, that left 1200 Israelis dead.
Yet Netanyahu’s new plan is proving too hardline for many of Israel’s allies.
Western support for Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza has been gradually worn down by the huge death toll – now more than 53,000 according to Gazan health officials, who don’t separate civilians from combatants – and the near destruction of the Gaza Strip as a habitable home for its 2.3 million Palestinians.
This week some of Israel’s closest allies, Britain, France and Canada, not only condemned Israel’s new ground offensive and its handling of the humanitarian situation in Gaza but also threatened to take unspecified “further concrete” actions against Israel.
Australia is one of 23 countries that signed a statement this week demanding the full resumption of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Flour and other aid started reaching some of Gaza’s most vulnerable areas on Thursday after Israel let some trucks through, in…
Netanyahu’s plan for a prolonged ground offensive in Gaza also has divided Israelis. A new poll shows 70 per cent now support an end to the war in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages. Polls also show Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition would lose if an election were held today.
This growing anti-war sentiment has led to a surge in support for Yair Golan, the leader of the left-wing Democrats party, who infuriated Netanyahu this week by saying: “A sane country doesn’t wage war against civilians, doesn’t kill babies as a pastime and doesn’t engage in mass population displacement.”
Netanyahu has adopted these twin hardline policies of a ground offensive in Gaza and the aid blockade – which he reluctantly suspended under US pressure this week – because despite 19 months of fighting, Israel has been unable to fully defeat Hamas militarily or force it to surrender.
This does not mean that Israel’s war on Hamas has been a failure. After 19 months of conflict Israel has succeeded in destroying Hamas as a coherent military force.
All of the terror group’s most senior leaders have been killed, including Mohammed Sinwar this week. Hamas is now no more than a ragtag group capable of little more than small-scale spot attacks on Israeli troops inside Gaza. The terror group no longer poses an existential threat to Israel.
But the fact Israel has been unable to kill or arrest every last Hamas fighter is no surprise.
The group is finding new recruits easily among the disillusioned young men in Gaza and, although it is a shadow of its former self, Hamas’s ongoing survival and its refusal to surrender has increasingly
The Prime Minister is now being wedged on one side between growing calls by Israel’s allies and ordinary Israelis to end the war and on the other by the right-wing nationalists in his coalition who want him to continue to pursue what remains of Hamas regardless of the cost.
For now, Netanyahu is not taking a backward step regardless of the cost to Israel’s international reputation. He insists the war will end only with the release of the remaining hostages, the demilitarisation and overthrow of Hamas as the ruling power in Gaza, and the implementation of the US plan for voluntary emigration from the besieged enclave.
“Anyone who calls on us to stop the war before these goals are achieved is calling on us to leave Hamas in power,” Netanyahu said this week.
Hamas says it wants to end the war but it will release all of the remaining hostages only if Israel promises a permanent ceasefire and removes all of its troops from Gaza.
The US is trying to broker an interim deal in which 10 living hostages are released in exchange for a 45 to 60-day truce along with the release of an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners. But Hamas says it will agree to such a deal only if it leads to a permanent ceasefire. Israel says there can be no permanent ceasefire while Hamas remains in power in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s decision to order the new ground offensive and his 11-week blockade of aid into Gaza have been driven by the belief they will pressure Hamas to agree to Israel’s terms
These hardline policies are being pushed by the right-wing nationalists in Netanyahu’s coalition whose support he needs to stay in power.
This group, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, has advocated a scorched-earth policy whereby Gaza is all but razed to eradicate Hamas. For them, humanitarian considerations of the Palestinians in Gaza are irrelevant to the bigger aim of destroying Hamas.
But Netanyahu discovered this week that pleasing the extreme demands of these right-wing nationalists – thereby securing his ability to stay in power – comes at a huge cost to Israel’s international reputation and his own.
For the past 11 weeks, until it was forced by the US this week to abandon the policy, Israel blockaded humanitarian aid into Gaza on the grounds that too much of it was stolen by Hamas to feed its fighters and generate revenue.
It is true that Hamas does steal some of the aid entering Gaza, which is further proof of the terror group’s utter indifference towards the suffering of the Palestinians it purports to represent. Israel says it is working on a new food distribution system to prevent Hamas from stealing it in the future.
But the result of this ill-advised and cruel aid blockade across the past 11 weeks was to create famine-like conditions among ordinary Gazans rather than force any compromise from Hamas.
The footage beamed around the world of starving Gazans banging pots to jostle for morsels of food has triggered outrage from Israel’s allies when it badly needs friends. Even the recently anointed Pope Leo XIV joined the chorus calling for aid to be allowed into the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu eventually relented and agreed to allow just a “basic” amount of food into Gaza after a behind-the-scenes push from the US. But even then Netanyahu said he was doing so only to placate Israel’s allies, which were worried about mass starvation.
Netanyahu believes a new and more comprehensive military approach is required in Gaza to finally defeat what remains of Hamas. His plan is for Israeli troops to remain in the areas of Gaza that they secure.
Previously they would clear Hamas out of parts of the Strip and then move on to other targets, only to find later that Hamas fighters had moved back to the areas that the Israelis had previously cleared.
“We are entering a new stage in the fighting,” Israel Defence Forces spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin says.
“During the operation, we will increase and expand our operational control in Gaza while bisecting the Strip and moving the population for its safety in all the areas where we operate.”
But how Israel will achieve this remains unclear, with the IDF and the government being deliberately vague about the details of the plan.
There are also glaring contradictions in what has been stated publicly.
For example, the IDF says it will evacuate the population from the areas it secures and move them south. But, quite apart from the humanitarian and ethical questions raised by another large displacement of the population in Gaza, it is unclear where the “safe” zones are where people could be moved to.
Several days later Netanyahu declared that under his plan, “all of Gaza’s territory will be under Israeli security control and Hamas will be totally defeated”. Yet total Israeli control of Gaza means the population cannot be evacuated from all of the areas that Israel secures, contrary to the IDF’s claims.
For Israeli troops to take and hold all of Gaza could take months and would expose those troops to counter-attacks by Hamas when many Israelis are weary of the war and distressed by the loss of so many Israeli soldiers.
And if the campaign results in yet another large number of civilian deaths, the international outcry against Israel will only grow.
Even with this sweeping new plan, fundamental questions remain. For example, at what point could Netanyahu credibly claim that Hamas is completely destroyed if the group does not actually surrender?
And how does Israel pursue this military strategy without endangering the 20 living hostages still held by the militants?
It may be that this sweeping ground offensive is an elaborate bluff designed to force Hamas to capitulate rather than fight to the death. Either way, it seems unlikely that Hamas’s few remaining leaders in Gaza will voluntarily disarm and leave the Strip. A ceasefire deal of some sort is more likely, but as things now stand no such deal seems imminent.
Netanyahu has pointedly refused to engage in discussions about what entity might take over Gaza after Hamas. He has backed Trump’s plan for the US to take control and persuade neighbouring Arab countries to accept as refugees the Palestinians in Gaza.
But that is highly unlikely to become reality for a raft of reasons, not least because no Arab country has agreed to take any Palestinians from Gaza.
Egypt has proposed that an independent committee be established to take over Gaza for a limited time before it is transferred to the Palestinian Authority.
But Netanyahu understandably says this idea is a non-starter because the PA, which administers the West Bank, is corrupt, incompetent and fundamentally anti-Israel.
The greatest uncertainty now hovering over the conflict in Gaza is the Trump factor.
US media reports this week suggest Trump is frustrated by the ongoing war and the images of starving children, and wants Netanyahu to wrap the conflict up. This contradicts Trump’s public comments, which have been fully supportive of Israel’s war on Hamas and its regional confrontation with Hezbollah in Lebanon and with Iran.
Yet Trump has distanced himself from Netanyahu in recent weeks. He pointedly left Israel out of his tour of the Middle East last week and surprised Israel by opening direct talks with Hamas that led to the release of the last American hostage, Edan Alexander.
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 7, 2025. The greatest uncertainty now hovering over the conflict in Gaza is the Trump factor. Picture: AFP
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 7, 2025. The greatest uncertainty now hovering over the conflict in Gaza is the Trump factor. Picture: AFP
Trump also unilaterally ended the US bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen when the group was still launching attacks on Israel.
There has been a deafening silence from the US President about whether he supports Netanyahu’s new ground offensive in Gaza.
Trump is probably the only person in the world outside of Israel who has the power to influence Netanyahu’s conduct of the war in Gaza.
But Israel is reaching a tipping point where it will need to weigh the cost of continuing to wage a large-scale war in Gaza against the cost of securing an imperfect peace and the release of the hostages.
Netanyahu is still pursuing the former, but he is losing allies along the way with his heavy-handed methods.
If he also loses the support of Trump, Israel’s options will shrink dramatically. Netanyahu is forging ahead but he holds fewer cards every day.
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‘Depraved’: Pro-Palestinian activists’ response to killings blasted
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/depraved-propalestinian-activists-response-to-murders-blasted/news-story/b82e12f1508c308505969426c45710d5
Mohammad Alfares
The assassination of two Israeli diplomats outside a Jewish museum in Washington has been met with a torrent of celebratory and incendiary responses from high-profile Australian pro-Palestinian activists – including former terrorism suspect Zaky Mallah, feminist Clementine Ford and 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame.
Palestine champions across the nation quickly flooded social media on Thursday to demonise the Jewish state after Yaron Lischinsky and his girlfriend Sarah Milgrim were shot dead by Elias Rodriguez outside the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington.
In one of the most obscene examples, Zaky Mallah commented on a post by the Australian Jewish Association which showed a clip of the terrorist yelling “free Palestine” and declared “good riddance. Palestine forever” before replying to comments with a bomb emoji.
Mallah was the first person charged under Australia’s anti-terrorism laws after creating a video in 2003 that allegedly threatened a suicide attack on federal government offices in Sydney.
Although he was acquitted of two terrorism charges in 2005, he admitted to a separate offence of threatening violence against Commonwealth officials.
AJA CEO Robert Gregory said he was concerned that the violent hatred seen overseas could soon spill onto the streets of Australia.
“Zaky Mallah’s vile comments are further evidence of the radicalisation that is growing within the anti-Israel movement,” Mr Gregory said. “Given Mr Mallah’s background, it is reasonable to hope that law enforcement is monitoring him closely.”
The suspected terrorist busted for fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy staffers has ties to a radical left-wing group that…
Outspoken feminist Clementine Ford also felt the need to share a post by independent Australian “journalist” Caitlin Johnstone that read: “Two Israeli embassy staff getting shot in Washington DC is less newsworthy than tens of thousands of Palestinians being killed in Israel’s genocidal land grab. It is less important. It deserves less attention. It is not the main story. Israel’s genocide in Gaza is the main story.”
Ms Ford, who failed to define a woman on Piers Morgan’s Uncensored show this week, later amplified a second post that said: “Yaron Lischinsky was not even Jewish. He was a crazed Christian Zionist freak who volunteered to serve the Israeli rape-army and then did propaganda for them at the embassy. This makes calling this an anti-Semitic attack doubly deranged and actually the height of anti-Semitism by conflating Israel and non-Jewish Israelis with all Jews.”
Responding to The Australian, she suggested the journalist writing this story should instead focus on how world leaders reacted to “Israel’s slaughter of over 50,000 Palestinians.”
“F–k Israel and f–k Zionism, for both would make the Nazis proud. Print your worst about me – for so long as The Australian considers me an ideological enemy, I can trust I’m on the right side of history.”
Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame was among those who criticised Israel on Thursday, sharing a post that accused the media of reframing the attack in Washington as anti-Semitic.
“It’s despicable, and nothing short of journalistic malpractice, that the media class is scrambling to reframe the shooting that targeted two Israeli state officials as a random anti-Semitic attack,” the post read.
Anti-Israel academic Randa Abdel-Fattah also shared a post on her X account from Mohammad Alsaafin – an Al Jazeera contributor – saying: “The names of 2 Israeli embassy staff are all over global media, where you won’t find the names of any of the 61 people and counting killed by the Israeli army today.”
“Anti-racism” activist Elsa Tuet-Rosenberg, who was connected to the mass doxxing of 600 Jewish creatives from a WhatsApp group, condemned a statement made by the estranged Jewish Council of Australia that said it was horrified at the Washington assassinations, saying: “You guys mourn more Zionists than martyrs and it’s weird as f–k”
Sydney-based activist Sarah Issa Shaweesh, who was a key organiser of a picket outside Anthony Albanese’s office, also responded to the Jewish Council’s social media post – saying: “Knowing Israelis this (is) probably a false flag too,” adding in a separate comment “His (Lischinsky) social media presence highlighted his loyalty to Israel and the Jewish cause, often posting messages in support of actions taken by the IDF.”
She later said “Yaron Lischinsky eliminated” and “he’s no victim”.
Australia’s peak Jewish body condemned the local activists who expressed sympathy for the gunman who murdered the two Israeli diplomats, describing their reactions as “depraved” and “reminiscent of Nazi propaganda”.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin told The Australian the online response to the targeted killing revealed a level of radicalisation and inhumanity that was “difficult to comprehend.”
“If a person can’t condemn the point-blank execution of a young couple outside a Jewish community gathering, they should say nothing at all,” Mr Ryvchin said.
“But to read the accounts of a young woman shot at close range and crawling for her life before being shot again multiple times and responding with barely concealed joy reveals a depravity that is difficult to comprehend.
“It shows how completely these people have been radicalised into the belief that anyone associated with Israel or the mainstream Jewish community is subhuman and no suffering is too great for them.
“It is a fanaticism reminiscent of Nazi propaganda. That it should come from self-styled anti-racists and feminists is beyond parody.”
President of the Zionist Federation of Australia Jeremy Leibler said the gleeful glorification of cold-blooded murder has exposed a chilling double standard.
“To those who have used the senseless murder of two young people to spew hatred: you are not the voice of justice, you are the voice of extremism. And we know the Australian public sees through your hypocrisy,” Mr Leibler said.
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Man suspected of shooting Israeli embassy staffers in Washington charged with murder
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/the-wall-street-journal/man-suspected-of-shooting-israeli-embassy-staffers-in-washington-charged-with-murder/news-story/680a762add0301702657293e9d869474
A man suspected of fatally shooting two Israeli embassy staff members told investigators “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza”, according to court records unsealed on Thursday (local time) charging him with murder and other federal crimes that carry the possibility of the death penalty.
Elias Rodriguez, 31, appeared in federal court in Washington on charges including murder, murder of foreign officials and several felony gun crimes. He had flown in from Chicago, where he lives, on Tuesday, according to court filings.
“It is not the act of a hero. Anti-Semitism will not be tolerated, especially in the nation’s capital,” said Jeanine Pirro, the newly installed interim US attorney in Washington. “This is the kind of case that picks at old sores and old scars, because these kinds of cases remind us of what happened in the past that we cannot and must never forget.”
Investigators are continuing to probe the attack as a hate crime and terrorism, and could file additional charges, Ms Pirro said.
A Chicago-born man arrested as the lone suspect in the fatal shooting of a pair of Israel embassy workers outside the Capital…
The victims, identified as Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, and Yaron Lischinsky, 30, were a couple about to be engaged. They were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum – in the heart of Washington, steps from an FBI field office – about 9pm on Wednesday when Rodriguez, who had been pacing outside the building, opened fire at close range, killing them both, officials said.
Police recovered 21 spent shell casings, and evidence showed he had emptied his handgun, continuing to fire even after the couple had fallen to the ground. When Ms Milgrim tried to crawl away, Rodriguez followed her from behind and fired again, reloading his gun, the complaint said.
When police entered the museum, Rodriguez asked to speak to an officer and told him that “he did it”, and that he was unarmed, the complaint said. Witnesses said he was wearing a red scarf known as a keffiyeh and, as officers escorted him from the museum, he shouted, “Free Palestine”.
The brazen shooting sent shockwaves through Washington and prompted increased security at religious institutions.
“These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!” President Donald Trump said on Truth Social. “Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”
The museum was one of the district’s first synagogues and has long been a cornerstone of Washington’s Jewish community.
Steven Jensen, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s field office, called the attack “both an act of terror and directed violence against the Jewish community”.
Rodriguez legally purchased the 9mm handgun he used in the attack, and travelled with it from Chicago on a Tuesday flight after declaring a firearm and packing it in his checked baggage, the criminal complaint said.
He was in Washington for a conference related to his job, Mr Jensen said Rodriguez had been working as an administrative specialist at the American Osteopathic Information Association. Rodriguez told investigators he bought a ticket to the museum event about three hours before it started.
He added that he admired a US airman who set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy last year to protest against the war in Gaza, calling him courageous and a martyr.
Sky News US analyst Michael Ware discusses the recent shooting in the US that killed two Israeli embassy staff.
Investigators were working to piece together what led Rodriguez to violence, reviewing social media, his electronics and poring over online postings, and probing Rodriguez’s past for clues into his motive, including a possible manifesto. Investigators were still working to verify whether it was actually written by Rodriguez and when, Mr Jensen said.
During his court appearance before Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh, Rodriguez wore eyeglasses and a hooded white jail jumpsuit. Represented by a federal public defender, he listened calmly as Judge Sharbaugh read the several charges against him. He did not contest his detention.
Friends of two Israeli embassy staffers killed in a shooting attack in Washington, D.C., mourned their loss on Thursday (May…
On Thursday, mourners gathered at the museum to sing and pray. “Obviously the war is awful,” mourner Gil Livni said. “(But) anti-Semitism, I feel it every day … people that I thought were my friends showing that they are anti-Semitic. It’s become the norm.”
Hadar Susskind, president and CEO of New Jewish Narrative, described the moment as “unbelievably painful … this cannot be the answer”.
The Wall Street Journal
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Calls for Intifada fan flames of hatred
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/the-wall-street-journal/calls-for-intifada-fan-flames-of-hatred/news-story/a748ef9df5443cdec827627534125fb0
WSJ Editorial Board
Since the October 7 massacre, the chant has rung out on campuses and at protests: “Globalise the intifada.” Perhaps some people at those rallies didn’t know what the phrase meant, but the leaders must have. What happened late on Wednesday in Washington is a terrible warning.
At about 9pm a gunman opened fire outside the Capital Jewish Museum as people exited an event for young Jews working in foreign policy. He murdered two of them Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, employees of the Israeli embassy. Friends say Lischinsky had bought a ring and planned to propose to Milgrim next week in Jerusalem.
“Free Palestine. I did it for Gaza,” said the suspect, Elias Rodriguez, who pulled out a red keffiyah, according to a witness. We don’t know if he had identified his victims or would have shot at anyone leaving the Jewish museum.
As it happens, Lischinsky was an Israeli Christian who called Israel “the only place in the (Middle East) where Christians can thrive”.
Milgrim, an American Jew, worked to build friendships between Israelis and Palestinians as a path to peace. The event they attended was a panel on multi-faith humanitarian efforts to aid Gaza and other Arab war zones.
A Chicago-born man arrested as the lone suspect in the fatal shooting of a pair of Israel embassy workers outside the Capital…
Many Americans don’t realise it, but Jewish schools, synagogues and the like in the US have long required serious security. It’s only getting worse. A study of 63 Orthodox Jewish schools found that the average security cost in 2022-23 was $US184,000 a year. That has risen to $US339,000 ($527,000) in 2024-25.
Police arrested 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez in connection with the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington,…
A purported manifesto from the suspect recites the usual slanders about Israel, though new ones are popping up all the time. This week a United Nations humanitarian chief claimed 14,000 Gazan babies could starve to death in the next 48 hours. All now concede that’s bogus, but not before it went viral.
In 2017, the newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation identified the suspected gunman as a member, though it now disavows him and says he’s been out of contact since. The PSL, a communist group with links to China, has been a major organiser of anti-Israel rallies, including one in Times Square on October 8, 2023, in solidarity with the Hamas death squads.
If that sounds far out, consider what the campus fixture Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) did on October 8. “Today, we witness a historic win for the Palestinian resistance,” it told its chapters, and provided them materials for a “Day of Resistance” at colleges. A pamphlet depicted a Hamas paraglider alongside student protesters, all waging one struggle.
We don’t know to whom the shooter listened or whether he had a history of mental illness. But the rise of Soviet-style anti-Zionism, including enthusiasm for the total destruction of Israel and efforts to ostracise its domestic supporters, is corrosive to America and is stirring up old dangers for Jews. People of all faiths and political views have a share of the responsibility to push back.
The Wall Street Journal
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ‘VIOLATED STUDENTS’ CIVIL RIGHTS’
https://todayspaper.theaustralian.com.au/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=27c7a2ca-7bcf-4817-9386-4a8bc48016c7&share=true
Liz Essley Whyte – Douglas Belkin
Columbia University violated US federal civil rights law by ignoring the harassment of Jewish students by classmates, a government investigation has found.
Columbia acted with “deliberate indifference towards student-on-student harassment of Jewish students” since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, the Department of Health and Human Services’ civil rights office said on Thursday (local time).
The office said the university didn’t investigate or punish vandalism, including repeated drawing of swastikas, didn’t enforce rules for protests, didn’t abide by its own policies when handling Jewish students’ complaints, and didn’t establish ways to combat anti-Semitism until last summer.
“The findings carefully document the hostile environment Jewish students at Columbia University have had to endure for over 19 months,” said Anthony Archeval, acting director of the civil rights office. “We encourage Columbia University to work with us to come to an agreement that reflects meaningful changes that will truly protect Jewish students.”
A Columbia spokesperson said the school took these issues seriously and would work with the government to address them, adding: “We understand this finding is part of our ongoing discussions with the government.”
The finding comes as the school is engaged in high-stakes negotiations with the Trump administration over the future of its federal funding and its autonomy.
Back in March, the administration cancelled $US400m ($621m) in federal grants and contracts over what it said were anti-Semitism concerns, and said the university needed to meet demands to regain access to federal funds.
The Trump administration has been pressing to put Columbia under a consent decree, a form of federal oversight that would put a judge in charge of ensuring Columbia complies with government demands.
On Thursday, the HHS civil-rights office issued the school a “notice of violation” – a step that comes before either a lawsuit from the Justice Department seeking a consent decree or a voluntary resolution agreement with the school.
In past administrations, civil rights investigations at universities usually ended with voluntary resolution agreements. The civil rights office said its findings were based on witness interviews, media reports of anti-Semitic incidents and reports from the school’s own anti-Semitism task force.
Government civil rights lawyers interviewed faculty at Columbia as part of the investigation.
Trump administration leaders are pursuing the consent decree because they believe investigators have strong evidence against Columbia and that the school isn’t a good-faith actor, The Wall Street Journal has reported.
At Columbia’s commencement ceremony on Wednesday, the school’s acting president defended higher education and acknowledged the absence of Mahmoud Khalil, as pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested outside the school’s main gates.
Acting president Claire Shipman briefly mentioned Mr Khalil, who was arrested by immigration authorities in March while still a graduate student. Mr Khalil, who remains detained at an ICE facility in Louisiana, finished his credit requirements and had planned to walk in the graduation ceremony, according to his lawyer.
Ms Shipman told graduates that academic institutions are pillars of a healthy democracy and must be protected. “We firmly believe that our international students have the same rights to freedom of speech as everyone else and they should not be targeted by the government for exercising that right,” Ms Shipman said.
Also on Thursday, the Trump administration rescinded Harvard University’s authorisation to enrol foreign students. “It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enrol foreign students,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The Wall Street Journal
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SINWAR STRIKE KILLED HAMAS LEADERS
https://todayspaper.theaustralian.com.au/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=5b35d62b-b0e2-4e43-9356-d91bb26d8c43&share=true
Summer Said
The Israeli air strike that targeted Hamas’s Gaza chief this month hit him as he attended a meeting of the group’s highest-ranking militants, killing several important operatives and leaving a void in the top leadership of the US-designated terrorist group, Hamas and Arab officials said.
The strike killed Mohammed Sinwar, who was quietly buried days later, along with other top militants including Mohammad Shabana, the commander of the Rafah brigade, the officials said.
The Hamas leaders had gathered in a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis to discuss matters including their approach to ceasefire talks with Israel when they were hit, the officials said. The meeting went against Hamas’s wartime security protocols and created an opening for Israel to hit several high-value targets at once.
Sinwar became the de facto head of Hamas in Gaza after Israel in October killed his brother Yahya Sinwar, who was the mastermind behind the October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war. Israel has also killed the leader of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif, his deputy Marwan Issa, and many other top militants.
The precision and timing of the latest attack demonstrated Israel’s significant intelligence capability, the officials said. Sinwar was known to be particular about keeping a low profile, and only a handful of people usually knew about his movements or how to contact him, they said. He operated behind the scenes, earning him the nickname “Shadow”.
Hamas found Sinwar’s body a day after the strike and buried it in a temporary grave in another tunnel after his family was informed, the officials said, confirming Israeli claims that he was probably dead. Hamas plans to move Sinwar’s body to a proper burial site once the fighting stops.
Earlier this week, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz told a parliamentary meeting that Sinwar was probably killed in a strike carried out on the grounds of a hospital in Khan Younis, according to an official familiar with the meeting. Israel targeted underground infrastructure it said Hamas uses below the hospital.
Hamas hasn’t confirmed Sinwar’s death, in part because the group’s leadership is figuring out who takes over in the war-torn strip, the officials said. Among the frontrunners is Izz al-Din Haddad, Hamas’s military head in northern Gaza, the officials said.
A power struggle or void at the top would come just as Hamas faces a renewed and extensive Israeli military offensive, as well as protests from Gaza’s war-weary Palestinians eager for an end to more than a year and a half of violence and deprivation.
Residents have taken to the streets to denounce Hamas and urge an end to the war. Hamas has historically been a decentralised organisation, helping the group recover from targeted killings over the years. But Yahya Sinwar took steps to centralise power under himself and towards the military wing and away from Hamas’s exiled leadership in Doha.
With the Sinwar brothers dead, Hamas’s leadership in Doha could try to regain influence in Gaza through a more pliable leader there, the officials said.
The Wall Street Journal
Israeli settlers force about 150 Palestinians to leave their West Bank village
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/23/israeli-settlers-force-palestinians-leave-west-bank-village
Two settlers under UK sanctions among those who carried out intimidation campaign under Israeli authorities’ watch
Sat 24 May 2025 01.16 AEST
Violent Israeli settlers including two under UK sanctions have forced about 150 Palestinians to leave their village in the occupied West Bank, through a five-day intimidation campaign carried out under the watch of the Israeli police and army.
On Sunday morning, settlers established an illegal outpost, consisting of a basic shelter and a sheep pen, 100 metres from a Palestinian home in Mughayyir al-Deir, east of Ramallah. By Friday, dozens of villagers had already moved their flocks away, packed up their belongings and were dismantling the wooden and metal frames of their houses.
Settlers stalked between Palestinian men who worked fast and largely in silence, grappling with the grim reality of leaving the place where most were born and grew up. A child cried as he was driven away on a truck loaded with the family’s red sofas.
Neria Ben Pazi driving a pickup truck with two other men inside
Violent Israeli settlers under UK sanctions join illegal West Bank outpost
“We are all leaving,” said one villager, who asked not to be named. Settlers threw stones at some trucks as they left, and celebrated on social media.
Elisha Yered, an unofficial spokesperson for the extremist group Hilltop Youth, wrote: “This is what redemption looks like! This is a relatively large outpost that contained about 150 people from the enemy population, but it was broken.”
Yered is subject to sanctions from the UK and the EU, which said he was “part of a group of armed settlers” involved in an attack in 2023 that led to the death of a 19-year-old Palestinian, Qusai Jammal Mi’tan.
Two other settlers under UK sanctions, Neria Ben Pazi and Zohar Sabah, spent time at the illegal outpost this week, and Ben Pazi also worked on building a fence around Palestinian land.
Other Bedouin came to help villagers pack up and leave, including some who understood their fear and pain intimately because violent Israeli settlers had also driven them off the land.
The tactics used by the settlers this week were not new. The nearby hills are dotted with the ruins of abandoned villages, at least one, Wadi as-Seeq, also targeted by the UK-sanctioned Ben Pazi.
Settlers had never before built an outpost so close to Palestinian homes and the speed and intensity of the campaign in Mughayyir al-Deir was a sign of their growing confidence, activists said.
Police patrolled through the village on Friday and Israeli soldiers stood nearby. None intervened, although a “stop work” order had been issued for the illegal outpost after it was thrown up, and several settlers who spent time at it were also known to Israeli authorities for extreme violence.
A previous Israeli commander for the central region, Maj Gen Yehuda Fuchs, tried in 2023 to bar Ben Pazi from the West Bank over violent attacks on Palestinians.
The only other official Israeli visitor during the week was a far-right member of the Knesset, Zvi Sukkot, who came to back the settlers. Last week, Sukkot said in a TV debate that Israel “can kill 100 Gazans in one night during a war and nobody in the world cares”.
One Palestinian family filed a petition with Israel’s supreme court on Thursday demanding an injunction and urgent hearing into why the military, police and local authorities did not act to prevent the forced evictions and protect Palestinians.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military said troops operated “to ensure the security of the state of Israel and Judea and Samaria [Israel’s name for the occupied West Bank]”, and the government directs how the military should enforce orders about illegal construction.
Palestinians dismantle a structure in Mughayyir al-Deir.
Palestinians dismantle a structure in Mughayyir al-Deir. Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian
The military would respond to the legal petition in court, the spokesperson said. A hearing is scheduled for next week, although by the time judges hear it the village will be empty.
For many of the families forced out, their move on Friday was a second displacement at the hands of Israelis, as their parents and grandparents had been forced from land near the Israeli city of Be’er Sheva when the state was formed in 1948.
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