Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter offered a strong defense of Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, as the Israeli government doubled down on the strategy in the face of strong pushback from the Trump administration.

Speaking at an American Jewish Committee event on Capitol Hill, Leiter argued that, in carrying out the strike, Israel was only doing what it and other countries have always done in the past: hunting down terrorists who perpetrate attacks on them wherever they may be.

He made repeated reference to Jordan’s King Hussein’s Black September campaign against Palestinian terrorists in Jordan, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir pursuing those responsible for the 1972 Munich Olympics attack and the U.S. launching wars to hunt down those responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

“Israel acted in the context of what any normal country does, it pursues terrorists and eliminates them, like King Hussein, like Golda Meir, like the United States of America,” Leiter said.

Leiter also highlighted U.N. Security Council Resolution 1373, presented by the U.S. and passed weeks after the 9/11 attacks, which “obligates states to prevent and suppress the financing and support of terrorism, including the harboring of terrorists.”

“Now what is Qatar doing if not financing and supporting terrorism by playing host to Hamas, the very people who sent the terrorists who murdered six people sitting at a bus stop in Jerusalem, waiting to go about their business?” Leiter said, referencing a Hamas-linked attack days before the Israeli strike in Doha. 

“Who sent them? The terrorists we targeted in Doha. They celebrated the murder of these six innocents the same way they celebrated, on camera, the slaughter of 1,200 innocents on Oct. 7,” Leiter added.

Leiter said that, in striking Hamas leaders in Doha, “We are acting in the context of the U.N. charter, of international law, in the cause of sanity and morality.”

He noted that the campaigns by both Jordan against Palestinian terrorists and the United States against terrorist groups in Iraq could also have been considered “disproportionate,” a criticism that some in the international community have leveled over Israel’s operations in Gaza.

Leiter also argued that Israel’s ongoing military operations in the Middle East increase, rather than hurt, the prospects for expanded normalization, “because we are empowering the moderate elements within Islam.” The AJC event was a celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Abraham Accords.

Addressing criticisms that Israel has failed to properly plan for the day after the war in Gaza, Leiter insisted that those plans are in place — but can’t be safely discussed in public.

“We’re preparing for the day after. The day after is going to be brilliant and for it to succeed, we can’t talk too much about it, and it certainly can’t be an Israel-sponsored day after to enjoy success,” Leiter said.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter arrived at his post in January as Israel was more than a year into its war with Hamas in Gaza and facing declining American support for the Jewish state. 

The Trump administration has been much friendlier to the government in Jerusalem than its predecessor, supporting the Israeli war effort in Gaza with no limitations on arms shipments. Yet, the broader political atmosphere is more hostile to Israel than it has been in decades. 

The turn away from Israel was reflected in a recent Senate vote in which a majority of Democrats supported blocking some arms sales to Israel, as well as in the growth of the isolationist wing of the Republican Party, the rise of influential media figures who peddle antisemitism and public opinion about Israel in decline.

Leiter spoke with Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov and the executive director of the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, Asher Fredman, on the “Misgav Mideast Horizons” podcast this week about his efforts to engage members of both parties, the future of the U.S.-Israel alliance, what is next in the war in Gaza and more.

Amid these concerning political trends, Leiter said that the U.S. and Israel have started to discuss what will happen after the Obama-era 10-year Memorandum of Understanding between the countries, which currently commits $3.8 billion a year in American defense aid to Israel annually, expires in 2028. 

While Israel’s official position favors continuing aid, some in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and others on the Israeli right have been advocating for moving from a model of aid to one of collaboration on joint projects.

“Maybe we’ll change the nature [of the MOU], where there will be greater [joint] research and development between our two countries, rather than relying on American weapons,” Leiter said. 

Leiter emphasized that the defense relationship between Israel and the U.S. benefits both countries.

“Recently, there was a podcast with [Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in which she said, ‘Why are we giving $3.8 billion to Israel when people in the United States don’t have health care?’” he said. “What she neglected to mention is that the vast majority of the $3.8 billion is spent in the United States and actually is providing jobs — and health care — for American workers. It’s all American weapons … purchased with American aid. So it’s a win-win situation.”

Leiter also quoted Gen. George Keegan who once told journalist Wolf Blitzer that the value of Israeli intelligence is worth five CIAs.

“You know how much that would cost [to replace]? The level of cooperation we have at this point between our intelligence communities is very, very, very deep and wide. We provide a tremendous service to the United States’ interests in the Middle East,” he said.

The U.S. and Israel will have to evaluate “a paradigm shift” in the region when working on the next MOU, Leiter said.

“I think we have to start from a broader view of things in terms of the geostrategic realities that are developing in the Middle East. … The ramifications of [the strikes on Iran in] Operation Rising Lion and Midnight Hammer, but really the ramifications of the war against Iranian proxies over the past almost two years now since Oct. 7, [2023], is a changing Middle East,” Leiter said.

“We’ve seen all of the proxies degraded. We’re about to completely destroy Hamas. Hezbollah is dramatically degraded to the point where the Lebanese government is actually moving towards disarming them. We have the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. Nobody could have imagined that would have happened. And the Houthis are being degraded … There’s a new Middle East out there,” he added.

In Leiter’s view, the result of the last two years is that moderate Muslim states face fewer threats from Iran and other radical Islamists, increasing the chances of what he termed “an Abraham Accords 2.0.” 

“That enables the United States to rely more on a collective between Israel and its neighbors, and have less of an American footprint in the Middle East,” he said. 

“Therefore,” the ambassador added, “the nature of any MOU or collaborative effort is going to change.” 

Leiter spoke to JI before a day of meetings on Capitol Hill, in which he planned to meet with Democrats and Republicans. He has made sure to meet with critics of Israel in addition to friendly members of Congress.

“I will always divide my day [between the parties] and make it as much of a bipartisan effort as I possibly can,” he said. “Not only for tactical political reasons — the Democrats can take control of Congress in a year and a half and if we haven’t paid them the proper respect and attention, we’re going to pay a very serious price — but beyond the tactical political plane, I believe that Israel is a bipartisan issue and should remain so.”

Leiter said that some of Israel’s critics are reflexively critical: “It’s a very partisan atmosphere in Washington right now, which makes it very complicated. You can see this in issues that are not related to Israel … If the administration is saying one thing, the Democratic opposition believes it’s got to say something else. There’s strong support for Israel in the [Trump] administration, so that almost drives the Democratic opposition into opposing very close support for Israel.” 

The ambassador emphasized that “in the Trump administration, we’ve seen a level of collaboration between Israel and the United States that we’ve never had [before],” citing the joint strikes on Iran’s nuclear program in June. “There’s never been this kind of cooperation at this level. We’re very close on the one hand. On the other hand, there are dramatic and very intense challenges to this relationship.” 

In addition to “the woke left, which has distanced itself from Israel, because we’re perceived as … the white men that have dominated and written history,” Leiter lamented the “conspiratorial, isolationist” right.

“Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens’ orbit is not America First, it’s Israel and Jews last,” he said. “America First is fine. We don’t have an issue with that. We put Israel first, America puts America first … I think it’s obvious and elemental. With the isolationist and conspiratorial right, Israel is always wrong and the Jews are always behind everything that’s wrong.”

Still, Leiter said he has not found that anti-Israel view in the halls of the White House, State Department or Pentagon.

“There are legitimate strategic positions that the U.S. should put more focus on the far East rather than the Middle East. … I think that actually may be advantageous to Israel and the Middle East as a whole if that’s going to happen in a gradual and careful way as we move into the future,” he added.

About the ongoing war against Hamas, Leiter said, “There’s no public in the world that wants to end the war more than we [Israelis] do. No one has suffered as much as we do. Since the day Israel was founded, we haven’t experienced one day of peace. Not a day. We want to end this war and we can’t do it unless we have defeated this enemy. … The ultimate goal is going to be a complete demilitarization of Gaza,” he said.

Leiter pushed back against accusations that Israel plans to force residents out of Gaza with backing from the Trump administration.

“The president of the United States didn’t talk about forcing anybody, but talked about giving them the option … Why not allow these people the opportunity to choose? That’s all we’re suggesting.”

The ambassador noted that Israel has facilitated the exit of 40,000 people from Gaza who have visas to receive medical care in other countries, and they left through Israel, not Egypt, which would charge them tens of thousands of dollars to transit through their country.

“Why wouldn’t Egypt just open the border and let people go through?” he asked.

Leiter also spoke out against a Palestinian state, saying that very few Israelis still support the proposition.

“Even the left-of-center realize that the bandwidth for another state west of the Jordan River is untenable and unacceptable. Since Oct. 7, that bandwidth has narrowed further, and it’s about a hair’s breadth now … Everybody’s got to get used to that and stop talking about this two-state solution,” he said.

“There will be far more normalization and peaceful relations with our Palestinian neighbors once we get beyond this red herring of the two-state solution,” the ambassador added.

Leiter said that there are alternatives to a Palestinian state, including “autonomous zones … total autonomy,” while “security and overall foreign relations are going to remain in Israel’s hands.” 

He spoke about possible dramatic economic growth benefiting Palestinians in the West Bank, which could come as a result of planned infrastructure corridors crossing from the Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.

The ambassador expressed hope about an “Abraham Accords 2.0,” in which Israel normalizes relations with Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia and several Central Asian Muslim countries.

“Once that happens, the whole issue of saying everything is based on Palestinian centrality goes away,” he said.

With a dozen countries planning to recognize a Palestinian state in the coming weeks, in an effort led by France and Saudi Arabia, Leiter accused Europe of attempting “a cleansing process, because if you can condemn Israel for genocide … that means that what Europe was guilty of 80 years ago is not unique.”

In addition, the ambassador argued that European leaders are concerned about getting the votes of growing Muslim populations in their countries.

“They couldn’t care less about Palestinians. If they really cared, they’d issue some visas. I mean, France could issue 150,000 visas and give people a new opportunity at life, but that’s the last thing they want to do. They don’t want to allow in more Muslims. …It’s a tragedy that we’re paying the price for this,” he added.

Recognizing a Palestinian state is “prolonging the war,” Leiter said. “Basically what the French are doing is declaring Oct. 7 Palestine Independence Day. Brilliant, right? Let’s reward these people for slaughter and massacre.”

“It’s an outrage. It’s immoral. And we have to stay the course. We are ultimately going to be vindicated. I have no doubt about it,” he said.

Leiter’s son, Moshe, a physician and father of six, was killed in battle in Gaza on Nov. 10, 2023.

Leiter said his son was “a very committed Jew and Zionist and he knew what he was fighting for … for the right of the Jewish people to live in their homeland in peace and security.” 

“I carry him on my back every day, and it gives me the power, the energy, the ability to go forward,” he said. “You really have to make a decision when you lose someone that you love so much and you’re so close to and fills your life with meaning and purpose. He’s the reason why it’s so hard to get up in the morning, and he’s also the reason why I do, because you have to make that choice and move forward.”

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter told a gathering of American Jewish leaders on Wednesday that the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz had “destroyed” the sites.

Leiter also laid out the timeline of U.S. and Israeli coordination on the strikes, which he said stretched back to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington in February, though he said it only became clear in the days before Israel began its strikes in Iran that the U.S. was likely to participate. And he argued that any deal with Iran must include, as a precondition, that Iran no longer seek the elimination of the Jewish state.

“There’s this little debate out there, you get into the etymology of the English language,” Leiter quipped, addressing ongoing questions about the extent of the success of U.S. operations and by how long they had delayed Iran’s nuclear program. “What is the difference between ‘elimination’ and ‘obliteration,’ ‘setting them back for years’ [and] ‘destruction.’”

Leiter did not delve into specifics of his assessment or what it was based on.

The comments, at a gathering organized by the Jewish Federations of North America and Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, came after the leak of a preliminary, reportedly low-confidence Defense Intelligence Agency assessment indicating that the strikes had only set back Iran’s nuclear program by a matter of months. Other reports indicated that some of Iran’s nuclear material and centrifuges may have survived the operations.

The Trump administration forcefully denounced the DIA assessment, insisted that the nuclear program has been fully destroyed and published an Israeli assessment indicating that the Iranian program had been set back further.

Leiter addressed the Senate Republican Conference over lunch on Wednesday, and delivered a similar assessment.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the No. 2 Senate Republican, told Jewish Insider that Leiter said the attacks had been “very successful.” 

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) told reporters that Leiter said the operations had set Iran’s nuclear program back by “years.”

Leiter also told the audience of Jewish leaders that Netanyahu had presented Israeli plans to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office during his first visit in February. Subsequent reports had indicated that Trump vetoed the plan, at the time.

The Israeli envoy said, “We laid out in front of the administration what the possibilities were. We did not ask for a green light. We made it very clear that this is existential, that this is 1938. The only difference is that in 1938, we were dependent. We were helpless.”

Leiter said Israeli officials had presented Israel’s capabilities and plans, and the potential options for working with the U.S.

“We moved ahead, first with minimal planning together, then with extensive planning together,” Leiter said. “It wasn’t until a few days before we launched Operation Rising Lion that it was clear that the president was moving in the direction of making sure that this strike to eliminate the annihilationist threat to the State of Israel was something the United States would participate in, in full.”

The Israeli ambassador also said that Israel was at the “cusp of the possibility of taking out the Iranian regime” but said, “we’re not in the business of regime change. Regime change has to come bottom-up, not top-down. We can’t force it.”

He said that, if the U.S. and Iran agree to a deal going forward, there should be “an elemental demand that Iran first say it is not going to pursue the annihilation of the State of Israel, the Jewish people.”

Leiter said he would also be meeting on Wednesday with a group of six Democrats who had supported efforts to withhold arms from Israel.

“I tell them, ‘Look, I’ll go into the lion’s den. Just invite me. You want to talk? I’ll talk,’” Leiter explained. “I know that I’m going in front of the firing squad. But that’s my job. I’m going to make the case because I know that our case is the most justified case in the annals of human history.”

Looking at the Middle East broadly, Leiter said Israel has “changed history” after Oct. 7, 2023, having degraded Hamas and Hezbollah and helped to bring about the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.

“We have someone now [in Syria] who’s at least saying the right things, who’s playing the right music,” Leiter said, a notable turn from the Israeli government’s initial skepticism and hostility toward the government led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former jihadist. “We don’t know where it’s going to go, we have to be cautious, but it’s moving in the right direction.”

Addressing the murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers at the Capital Jewish Museum, Leiter emphasized the intrinsic ties between the Jewish people and Israel, and said, “at the core of this murderous, annihilationist antisemitism is the rejection of the very right of the Jewish people to have a right to sovereignty. You cannot fight antisemitism without fighting anti-Zionism.”

He said that the Jewish community cannot let antisemites — “Candace Owens or somebody from the other side, whatever it is” — dictate to them what Judaism is or “disembowel Judaism from Zionism.” 

“Don’t go down the slippery slope. Don’t go down. We are not an apartheid state. We are not genocidal murderers,” Leiter said. “My son would be alive today if what they’re accusing us of doing, we do. We don’t starve people and we don’t do ethnic cleansing, and we’ve lost countless soldiers because of the approach we take to warfare.”

Leiter’s son died in combat in Gaza.

When Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter agreed last week to a major interview with Iran International, the biggest independent Iranian news outlet in the world, the geopolitical status of the region looked very different than it did when Leiter sat down with anchor Fardad Farahzad on Tuesday morning at the National Press Club in Washington. 

What was billed as a candid conversation with Leiter, where he would answer questions directly from Iranians curious about Israel’s approach to military strikes in Iran, turned into a newsy postmortem on the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, which had shakily come to a close just hours earlier with a ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump and the Qataris. 

Leiter touted Israel’s military victories but did not offer a full endorsement of the ceasefire — and asked whether he was surprised by Trump’s announcement on Tuesday night, he demurred: “I came to Washington on Jan. 27, and there hasn’t been one day where I haven’t been surprised,” Leiter quipped.

“I think we saw it coming, because we accomplished the vast majority of our goals, our military goals, and that’s diminishing to the point of elimination the path to a nuclear bomb and proliferation of ballistic missiles,” said Leiter. 

In 12 days, Israel had “decimated [Iran’s] capacity to inflict tremendous damage on Israel,” Leiter continued. When pressed by Farahzad whether that meant Israel had eliminated Iran’s nuclear program, Leiter’s message was less straightforward.

“Eliminated is a big word. Obliterated is a big word. We can’t get into … what, exactly, ‘obliterated’ means,” said Leiter. (Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday that “obliteration is an accurate word.”) 

While the details of how thoroughly Israel had damaged Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs are still somewhat uncertain, the fact that Israel had achieved great military success in Iran in less than two weeks was not disputed. 

Instead, much of the conversation featured Leiter grappling with the limits of Israel’s capabilities in Iran. As barbaric and evil as Israel finds Iran’s regime, Leiter reiterated that regime change is not on the table for Israel. 

“There are few things that unite Israelis, but change in Iran is one of them,” said Leiter. “We want regime change. We’re certainly going to support it in every way we can. But militarily? No. War cannot bring regime change. It doesn’t work.” 

Farahzad read questions that had been sent in by Iranian viewers and called on several Iranians in the audience. Almost every one of them asked some version of the same question: Now that there is a ceasefire, Iranians are afraid of what will come next for them. The mullahs remain in power, weakened and wounded. What will they do to the people of Iran? How can the U.S. and Israel leave the Iranian people on their own and walk away? 

“Please help assuage the people of Iran’s mindset that the world leaders are saying stuff from both sides of their mouths, but they’re not taking into consideration that if the mullahs are left in power, it will do much more damage to the people of Iran,” one audience member pleaded with Leiter.

He acknowledged the precarity of this moment for the Iranian people, and their frustration at Israel’s inability to help them reach the outcome that many of them want. Instead, Leiter said he hoped Israel’s brief incursion into Iran, helped by the U.S., could spur Iranians who want a change in their country’s leadership to overcome their fears and bring about that change. 

“I don’t think I have an answer that’s fully going to satisfy you,” said Leiter. “The bandwidth in the United States right now for anything that even smacks of regime change — very small bandwidth. The ability for Israel to act [by] itself for regime change is extremely limited. What we are doing is, I think, advancing the cause of liberty to a great degree. In our efforts to secure ourselves, we are moving the region into a greater effort of liberty. It takes time.” 

Leiter presented a vision of a forward-looking Middle East, where the arc of history bends toward justice for the Iranian people, even if that arc is not a straight line.

“Based on history, I think we are moving towards an era of greater freedom, of greater people sovereignty. I think that that’s been helped, facilitated, by what we’ve done,” said Leiter. “We’re not in the position to make a long-term strategy for another country. Our long-term strategy is to stay alive.” 

Iranians now worry that they may be left paying a price for Israel’s victory, as the country’s hard-line rulers lash out. Leiter acknowledged that, but countered that it is not only Israel who can help the Iranian people. He called for Europe to step up.

“We’re not the only democracy in the world. Why is it that the chancellor of Germany says Israel is doing the dirty work for all of us? We’re a tiny, little country. Where’s Germany? Where’s England? England has a huge stake,” said Leiter. “Are we the world’s policeman? Please. I would say to the chancellor of Germany, ‘You’re absolutely right. We’re doing the dirty work for the world, but it’s about time that you helped us.’ And if they did, it would be a lot easier for the people of Iran.”

The interview will air several times this week on primetime in Iran, and to Iranian diasporas around the world. 

Vice President JD Vance visited the Israeli Embassy in Washington on Tuesday to pay his respects following last Wednesday’s killing of two staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in the nation’s capital. 

Vance was seen in photos posted on X by Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter signing a condolence book at the embassy honoring the memories of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, the two staffers killed in the May 21 attack following a museum event for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee.

“Thank you @VP Vance for coming to the Embassy to honor our dear colleagues and friends, Sarah and Yaron. The care and compassion you and the Trump administration have shown in the wake of this murderous attack are testaments to the enduring friendship between our two countries and peoples, and our mutual battle against terrorism,” Leiter wrote on the social media platform. 

Leiter said at a press conference immediately following the shooting that Lischinsky and Milgrim met while working at the embassy and that Lischinsky planned to propose on an upcoming trip to Jerusalem. 

The alleged shooter, Elias Rodriguez, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, the murder of foreign officials, causing death with a firearm and discharging a firearm in a violent crime. The interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, said last week that the 31-year-old Chicago native, who was seen on video shouting “free Palestine” and “I did it for Gaza” after the attack, is eligible for the death penalty. 

A Vance spokesperson did not respond to Jewish Insider’s request for comment on the visit, though the vice president wrote on X the morning after the shooting that, “My heart breaks for Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who were murdered last night at the Capital Jewish Museum.”

“Antisemitic violence has no place in the United States. We’re praying for their families and all of our friends at the Israeli Embassy, where the two victims worked,” Vance said at the time.

Pro-Israel leaders in the United States on Thursday connected the murder of two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington to the anti-Israel advocacy seen on the political extremes throughout the country since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, characterizing it as a culmination of such rhetoric and, in some cases, the failure of some politicians to denounce it.

The suspected shooter, Elias Rodriguez, shouted “free, free Palestine” and “I did it for Gaza” following the shooting, according to an eyewitness and video from the arrest. He reportedly published a manifesto railing against Israel.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said that the attack should be a signal to the left that it needs to rethink its rhetoric on Israel and Zionism. He compared the anti-Israel movement in the United States to a “cult” that has been stoked online and is using inherently violent slogans while its members “try to hide behind this idea that it’s free speech to intimidate and terrorize members of the Jewish community.”

He said that too many on the left have failed to call out antisemitism in the anti-Israel movement.

“Why can’t you just call it what it is, and then address and assert the pressure on the aggressor,” which is Hamas,” Fetterman said. “I can’t even imagine having to live with that ever-present antisemitism and what? Why can’t people just acknowledge and call that what it is?”

Fetterman predicted that the same elements of the left that have supported Luigi Mangione, the alleged assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, will also rally behind Rodriguez.

“What part of my party does this come from where it’s like, we try to defend or try to justify assassinating an executive in broad daylight or … somebody [who] guns down” two people at a Jewish event, Fetterman asked incredulously.

Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter connected the shooting to the anti-Israel protests seen on college campuses and elsewhere in the country.

“The point of the matter is that on campuses around this country, where ideas — these are the temples of ideas — where smart ideas, intelligent ideas, moral ideas, truthful ideas, are supposed to be taught, we have useful idiots running around in support of the destruction of Israel,” Leiter said at a press conference.

“This is done in the name of a political agenda to eradicate the State of Israel,” Leiter added. “The State of Israel is now fighting a war on seven fronts. This is the eighth front, a war to demonize, delegitimize, to eradicate the right of the State of Israel to exist.”

He also connected rising global antisemitism to countries like France that have spoken out against Israel and are moving to recognize a Palestinian state.

A coalition of 42 Jewish organizations, in a statement, described the murders as “the direct consequence of rising antisemitic incitement in places such as college campuses, city council meetings, and social media that has normalized hate and emboldened those who wish to do harm.”

William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said on X, “There is a direct line between demonizing Israel, tolerating antisemitic hate speech in the public square, and violent action.” 

“We are now witnessing the deadly consequences of months of relentless antisemitic incitement — amplified by international organizations and political leaders across the globe — since the horrors of October 7,” Daroff said. “This is not a debate over policy; it is the mainstreaming of hatred, and its consequences are measured in blood.”

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) said on X the attack was “the deadly consequence of normalizing Jew-hatred.”

“Since October 7, antisemitic attacks have surged — fueled by violent chants to ‘globalize the intifada’ and slurs like ‘dirty Zionist,’” Gottheimer said. 

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), highlighting a tweet from a local anti-Israel group that praised the attack, said that, “Violence is not a bug but a feature of virulent Anti-Zionism.”

Arizona state Rep. Alma Hernandez called out a series of progressive lawmakers, saying, “spare us the fake outrage.”

“Two Israeli diplomats were murdered in cold blood—and you dare act concerned? Y’all have spent years fueling the hate and antisemitism that’s now exploding across America. Don’t pretend to care,” Hernandez continued, in an X post. “You are constantly surrounded by keffiyehs and “Free Palestine” and have pushed rhetoric that’s radicalized Americans into thinking murdering Jews and harassing them in the streets will somehow “liberate” Palestine and end the so-called genocide. No thanks.”

“We don’t want prayers from politicians who support individuals and organizations that promote this hate and who are being actively supported by said individuals and organizations while they run for office,” Hernandez added.

“You can’t support chants of ‘Globalize the Intifada’ and then be ‘appalled’ when people act it out,” Georgia state Rep. Esther Panitch said on X in response to a statement on the attack from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) that did not acknowledge that the victims worked for the Israeli embassy and condemned “violence” broadly. Panitch also criticized other progressive Democrats who issued statements on the attack.

Panitch added, “Fascinating that those who campaigned against the Jewish community’s right to define their own experience of antisemitism are the ones who call ‘Globalizing the Intifada’ peaceful protests. The same ones who can’t say the word antisemitism in their posts.”

Jordan Acker, the University of Michigan regent who has been repeatedly targeted with antisemitic harassment and vandalism, drew a direct line between those incidents and demonstrations on the University of Michigan’s campus, and the Wednesday night murders.

“This isn’t protest. It’s a threat. This is what antisemitism looks like — and it’s escalating,” Acker said. “This is part of a terrifying trend: Jews in America being hunted, harassed, and attacked for being visibly Jewish — for existing in public. When we call it antisemitism, we’re told we’re overreacting. That our fear is political. That our pain is inconvenient. We’ve been gaslit for 18 months. Enough.”

He also called out progressives directly, saying “antisemitism isn’t any less dangerous when it comes wrapped in ‘progressive’ language.”

In response to the attack, some of the most prominent far-left critics of Israel on Capitol Hill have offered what many in the Jewish community have seen as half-hearted and inadequate responses.

“My heart breaks for the loved ones of the victims of last night’s attack in D.C. Nobody deserves such terrible violence. Everyone in our communities deserves to live in safety and in peace,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said, linking to an article highlighting that the victims, Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, were Israeli Embassy workers, but not noting their backgrounds or the circumstances of the shooting in her own post.

Omar noted that the shooting took place at the Capital Jewish Museum but did not acknowledge the victims’ backgrounds and condemned violence broadly.

“I am appalled by the deadly shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum last night. Holding the victims, their families, and loved ones in my thoughts and prayers,” Omar said. “Violence should have no place in our country.”