The Washington shooting is a chilling warning to Jews everywhere

Waking early on Thursday in London, I read the news on a half-lit phone screen: two people, Israeli embassy staff, gunned down outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C. A man shouted “Free Palestine,” – of course he did – after he had fired his weapon and walked inside the building – where, in an extraordinary confusion of roles, guests offered him water and comfort, believing he too had been a victim. In a way, maybe he had.

Though our airwaves and streets have been filled with talk of genocide, that word is rarely explored or explained with honesty. In fact, one distinguishing feature of genocide is that it is not only the work of tyrants and soldiers; it is made possible when ordinary people come to see extraordinary cruelty as permissible, even necessary.