Lies, left unchallenged, have consequences
'They were targeted not for anything they had done, but for who they were—young Jews, visibly affiliated with the Israeli state'
On the night of May 21, 2025, a young couple—Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim—were murdered outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.
Both worked at the Israeli Embassy and had just attended an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee. According to eyewitness reports, their alleged killer shouted “Free, free Palestine” as he was arrested. The motive appears disturbingly clear: they were targeted not for anything they had done, but for who they were—young Jews, visibly affiliated with the Israeli state.
Their deaths are not isolated tragedies. They are the latest and most visible warning of a deeper moral rot spreading throughout the West—a rot legitimised by lies, fuelled by ignorance, and tolerated, even enabled, by far too many. We are now reaping the harvest of ideological indulgence and cowardice. And no one should be surprised.
I woke up to this horrible news. Overnight, a non-Jewish friend messaged me: “Mate, I hope you’re not in D.C.” That simple sentence gave me pause. How has it come to this? Is my life now at risk too? For what, exactly? For the crime of serving my country honourably for over 31 years in the Australian Army, a defence force? For having served as an unarmed military peacekeeper in Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt? For forming close friendships with Israeli Jews, Druze, Christian Arabs, and Muslim Arabs—alongside Lebanese and Syrian nationals—based on mutual respect and shared humanity?
Having lived in the Levant for over two years, I can say categorically: the way Israel is portrayed in much of the Western media is utter nonsense. The crude distortions, the double standards, the erasure of context and history—it’s as if truth itself has become the enemy.
Is my life now at risk because I have founded a nascent global charity to combat antisemitism—modelled on the visionary work of Senator J. William Fulbright after the Second World War—to allow reasonable, open-minded non-Jews to safely experience Israel for themselves? Does that make me guilty of some modern “thought crime”? It certainly feels that way.
Since October 7, 2023—the day Hamas launched its monstrous assault on southern Israel, murdering, raping, and abducting civilians in acts of medieval savagery—I have found myself repeatedly shocked not just by the depravity of terrorists, but by the reactions of those I once thought reasonable. I have seen it up close, among people I’ve known for most of my adult life.
A former schoolmate from Brisbane Grammar—someone I shared classrooms and rugby fields with in the early 1990s—now parrots slogans that would make Hamas propagandists blush. “From the River to the Sea,” he declares online, apparently unaware—or unwilling to admit—that such a slogan calls for the eradication of the world’s only Jewish state.
Another example: a Sri Lankan-born defence contractor working in Canberra’s Department of Defence, who once impressed me with his intellect and professionalism, now floods social media with vitriol. Sharing memes and propaganda indistinguishable from that of open antisemites, he packages his hatred as “human rights advocacy.” It is anything but.
Even an Australian Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan—someone who wore the same uniform I have proudly served in for over three decades—has embraced this descent. Now involved in the Australian union movement, his public posts cast Israel as a colonial oppressor, while studiously ignoring the atrocities of those who slaughtered children in their beds and burned families alive.
I am no longer surprised. But I remain outraged.
Because the truth matters. And lies—repeated often enough, broadcast widely enough, left unchallenged long enough—have consequences.
We are not talking about policy disagreements or differences of opinion. We are talking about a complete moral inversion. By endlessly pontificating about what they think is happening in Gaza—while refusing to confront what has happened in Israel—far too many have become useful idiots in a propaganda war waged by terrorists.
We are living in Orwellian times. Truth is no longer a defence; it is an inconvenience. Every instinct and historical precedent suggests that things may get worse before they get better—if, indeed, they improve at all. The times amidst which we live are deeply troubling. Perhaps we in the West are closer to midnight than many may perceive.
But there is still time—if we act. I call on people of good will to help end this madness. To call out the terrorists and terrorist sympathisers in our midst and ensure they face consequences befitting their behaviour. A helpful tip: they are the ones concealing their identities in keffiyehs, not those quietly wearing a kippah on their way to and from synagogue.
Silence is complicity. And appeasement is betrayal.
Lies have consequences. We see them now—in broken lives, in bloodstained sidewalks, in the haunted eyes of a community once again forced to bury its young. It is not too late to speak, to stand, to act. But time is short. And the stakes could not be higher.
Colonel Michael Scott CSC is the CEO and Founder of The 2023 Foundation, a charity focused on combatting antisemitism and fostering peaceful coexistence.
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