Culpability in a culture of hate

Elias Rodriguez may have pulled the trigger on the gun that killed Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim in Washington, DC last week, but he is not the only one with their blood on his hands.

Since and even before October 7, 2023, we have seen Israel, Israelis and Zionists demonised and dehumanised – even in death. We have witnessed Hamas propaganda amplified as fact by media outlets who should know better.

We have had members of our own community here in Australia harassed, doxxed and assaulted purely on the basis of being proud Jews who believe in the State of Israel’s right to exist. We’ve had a synagogue and the former home of a Jewish leader firebombed.

We have heard politicians who ought to give more thought to the power of their words employ at best, harmful and careless throwaway soundbites that exclude context and at worst, vile slanders about Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

And it all has been seemingly validated by a hapless United Nations, still looked to – erroneously – as a beacon of moral humanity, rather than the shambolic political weapon of dictatorships it has become.

Even a notion as ridiculous UN official Tom Fletcher’s claim last week that 14,000 Gazan babies could die from starvation in 48 hours is uncritically parroted.

What’s to say that reading that particular blood libel in the news wasn’t the final straw that set the killer off?

And as UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer tells The AJN this week, there is much more the UN has to answer for on this particular account. No, Secretary-General António Guterres, you were wrong that October 7 “didn’t happen in a vacuum”.

But it is entirely appropriate to observe that the ruthless executions of this beautiful young couple, absolutely, did not happen in a vacuum. And the UN is as complicit in fostering the toxic environment that inspired their killer as anyone.

Of course, there was the usual chorus of condemnation for these heinous killings. But anyone who condemned the act but still ignores or even amplifies the rhetoric that led to it needs to take a good, hard look at themselves.

Because it is not a matter of if what happened in Washington, DC happens here – it’s a matter of when.