To Netanyahu, who has taken aim at Prime Minister Keir Starmer after the deaths of a young Jewish couple in Washington DC on Thursday. 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez was charged with murder yesterday evening after allegedly killing Israeli embassy staff Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim who planned to get engaged next week in Jerusalem. In a clip addressing the attack, Netanyahu claimed that British, French and Canadian leaders had ‘effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power’. He added about the leaders that they want Israel to ‘stand down and accept that Hamas’s army of mass murderers will survive’.
The remarks by Israel’s prime minister come after the young couple were attacked outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, where they were attending a reception for young Jewish diplomats which centred around discussing ways to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. Rodriguez, a left-wing activist, is accused of the murder of foreign officials, causing the death of a person using a firearm and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence – and if found guilty, could face the death penalty. Two American women thought to be employed by the Israeli embassy were also targeted in the shooting.
In a statement, Netanyahu remarked: ‘We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and the wild incitement against the state of Israel. Blood libels against Israel are paid in blood — and they must be fought relentlessly.’ But pushing back against his comments about Starmer is armed forces minister Luke Pollard, who insisted the murders were a ‘terrible example of the antisemitic hate that, sadly, we are seeing rise in the world’ and added:
I don’t recognise what Prime Minister Netanyahu has said about that awful event in the United States. We condemn the killing of diplomats thoroughly. We want to see a proper investigation – as we would do in all things – to secure justice for those people who have been murdered in the States. But we also, at the same time, should not remove ourselves from the need to secure a lasting peace in Gaza. A lasting peace is good for Israel.
Meanwhile President Donald Trump has hit out at the attacks, writing on his social media platform Truth Social: ‘These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen!’ The US president is thought to be getting increasingly irritated, however, by the continuation of the war in Gaza, with the White House calling on Netanyahu to ‘wrap up’ the war as quickly as he can. Watch this space…
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