So…You Want to Globalize the Intifada?

What Happened?

WASHINGTON — A Jewish couple was fatally shot Wednesday night as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. A suspect is in custody.

Police identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26. The suspect is Elias Rodriguez, 31.

At approximately 9:08 p.m. ET, Rodriguez fired shots at Lischinsky and Milgrim as they exited a Young Diplomats Reception hosted by the American Jewish Committee at the museum.

Paige Siegel, who attended the event, said she heard a round of gunfire, followed by a pause, then another round. She moved to alert security when a frantic man suddenly ran inside, appearing to escape the shooting, urging people to “call the police.”

About 15 minutes later, Siegel said she expressed surprise that the man had been allowed inside given the building’s tight security. She asked if he knew where he was. The man stepped back and shouted, “I did it. I did it. I did it for Gaza. I did it for Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine.”

Siegel said he began opening a backpack, prompting her to yell, “Get him out!” Authorities then detained him.

Witness Katie Kalisher said that as Rodriguez was arrested, he unveiled a Jordanian keffiyeh and shouted pro-Palestinian slogans.

In the weeks before the shooting, Rodriguez posted radical messages on social media, including phrases like “De@th 2 Amerikkka” and repeated calls to “bring the war home.” Law enforcement said on the day of the attack, he published a 900-word manifesto titled Escalate for Gaza, Bring the War Home, condemning Israel and supporting Palestinian resistance.

It’s worth noting that the AJC event attended by Lischinsky and Milgrim focused on humanitarian support for the people of Gaza, defying the binary framing that often positions advocacy for Gaza and support for Israel as mutually exclusive.

Who Were the Victims?

Lischinsky and Milgrim met while working at the Israeli Embassy, according to Milgrim’s father.

Lischinsky served as a research assistant on Middle East and North African affairs at the embassy in Washington. He held a master’s degree in government, diplomacy and strategy from Reichman University, and a bachelor’s in international relations and Asian studies from Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

On LinkedIn, Lischinsky described himself as “an ardent believer in the vision outlined in the Abraham Accords,” supporting “expanding the circle of peace with our Arab neighbors and pursuing regional cooperation” as best for Israel and the Middle East.

Milgrim had worked at the embassy since November 2023. Before that, she was involved with Tech2Peace in Tel Aviv, which fosters coexistence between Israeli and Palestinian youth through dialogue. She also spent several summers participating in programs bringing together Palestinian and Israeli groups to build relationships and promote peace.

She earned master’s degrees in international affairs from American University and in natural resources and sustainable development from the University for Peace, as well as a bachelor’s in environmental studies from the University of Kansas. On LinkedIn, Milgrim described her passion as “at the intersection of peacebuilding, religious engagement and environmental work.”

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said the couple was about to get engaged. “The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing next week in Jerusalem,” he said.

What is an Intifada?

Phrases like “There is only one solution, Intifada revolution” and “Long live the Intifada” are common at pro-Palestinian protests. Another slogan includes “Globalize the Intifada.”

But do these protestors truly understand what the Intifadas were—and the heavy burden they placed on the collective conscience of humanity?

Historical Rise of Jew-Hatred and Islamism

To talk about the Intifadas, we must first examine the rise of Judeophobia and Islamism in the Arab world. 

In the 7th century, the Arab Empire conquered the Levant—including Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and parts of Turkey—taking the territory from the Byzantine Empire.

To secure dominance and control, the Arab colonizers imposed strict regulations on local populations—especially Jews—through the Pact of Umar (637 CE). This agreement allowed “People of the Book” to practice their religious cultures but only under harsh Dhimmi rules, including some such as:

• Jews could not build new synagogues.
• Jewish homes could not be taller than Muslim homes.
• Jews had to show deference to Muslims in public.
• Jews were forbidden from bearing arms or riding animals with saddles.
• Jews could not govern or lead (including employing Muslims)
• Jews had to wear identifying clothing, such as yellow belts, badges, bells or turbans.
• Jews paid a special tax called Jizya and faced severe penalties for nonpayment, including death.

Under Caliph Uthman (644–656 CE), Arabization intensified with policies like destroying vineyards—as wine is banned in Islam. This further devastated Jewish communities since viticulture was a major source of income for indigenous populations. Many Jews could no longer pay the Jizya tax—not even with help from Halukkah, a charity established and funded by Diasporic Jews in resistance to foreign persecution in the homeland.

Other colonial tactics included forced religious conversions, building the Al-Aqsa Mosque atop the Jewish Temple ruins and renaming Israelite cities to erase the indigenous Judean presence.

These oppressive measures persisted into the Ottoman era (1516–1918).

As the Ottoman Empire weakened under the weight of European debt, the 19th century gave rise to Islamism—an extremist ideology that positioned itself as a religious-political alternative to the empire. It called for the implementation of sharia law, pan-Islamic unity, and the reestablishment of a caliphate, while entirely rejecting non-Muslim influence.

The eventual collapse of the Ottomans not only fueled this ideological shift but also redrew the map of the Middle East—territories once considered part of Southern Syria (including what is now Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon and Jordan) had all been under Ottoman control.

One of the earliest and most influential adopters of this Islamist ideology was the Muslim Brotherhood. Founded in Egypt in 1928 by scholar Hassan al-Banna, the Brotherhood emerged as a transnational Sunni Islamist organization with the goal of establishing a caliphate governed by sharia law. Early on, the group embedded itself into Arab society by offering humanitarian services and social programs, a strategy that helped build grassroots support and normalize its presence among local Arab communities.

The Brotherhood’s influence grew steadily—particularly after the Arab defeat in the 1967 war, when Islamism replaced Arab nationalism as the dominant ideological force in the Middle East. Its growing popularity, however, usually came at the expense of minority groups—like Jews.

The Muslim Brotherhood openly espoused antisemitic views, often in its weekly publication, Al-Nadhir. The magazine ran inflammatory articles such as “The Danger of Jews,” warning of alleged Jewish conspiracies against Islam, and described Jews as a “societal cancer” that had “corrupted Egypt and its population.” Al-Nadhir also incited economic boycotts of Jewish-owned businesses and encouraged violent riots against Jewish communities—all of which took place prior to the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948.

Thus, from the Arabization of the Levant to the rise of Islamism—which was well before the establishment of the State of Israel and revival of Jewish sovereignty over the land—Judeophobia was normalized in the Arab world. Today, nearly 75% of the contemporary Arab population is estimated to hold antisemitic views.

How Does Judeophobia and Islamism Appear Today?

In 1979, Israel hoped to delegitimize the terror-oriented Palestinian Liberaton Movement (PLO) by recognizing the Palestinian charitable group Mujama al-Islamiya, led by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, despite his Muslim Brotherhood ties.

However, Yassin’s group secretly collected weapons with malicious intent, leading to his arrest in the 1980s. He was later released in a prisoner swap and went on to form Hamas with the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007.

The Anti-Defamation League called Hamas’s 1988 charter “a modern-day Mein Kampf” because of its hateful and violent goals against Jews, clearly reflecting the antisemitic attitudes set by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Hamas charter also outlines its Islamist goals, also originally set by the Muslim Brotherhood:

The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day… This is the law governing the land of Palestine in the Islamic Sharia and the same goes for any land Moslems have conquered by forces, because during the times of conquests, the Moslems consecrated these lands to Moslem generations till the Day of Judgement.

Even in December of 2023, Hamas leader Fathi Hammad declared:

The [Palestinian] people have been soldiers throughout History…[They] are preparing to establish the caliphate, with Jerusalem as its capital city of Palestine as an independent state- it will be the capital city of the Islamic Caliphate…

This strain of Islamism has had a tangible impact on Gaza’s Christian minority. While Muslims make up 98% of Gaza’s population, the Christian minority—just 2%—has faced severe persecution. From forced conversions to the desecration of sacred sites, including the disinterment of graves, it’s evident that Hamas aims to erase this community’s presence in its Islamist state, mirroring the historical experiences of Jews under the original caliphate.

This intention was also evident during the Oct. 7 Simchat Torah massacre. For example, hostage Agam Goldstein-Almog said she was forced to recite the Quran, given an Islamic name and threatened with marriage by her captor.

Because of their shared interests, the Iranian regime trains and funds Hamas, expecting them to carry out Islamic initiatives in Palestine. It has been reported that Iran provides $70 to $100 million per year to Hamas alone, along with other Islamist groups like ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, the Taliban and the Houthis. 

Contrary to its public claims of fighting for a “free Palestine,” Hamas is advancing the goals of the Islamic Republic to reestablish a caliphate governed by sharia law—a land free of Jews “from the river to the sea.” The phrase echoes similar calls made in 1948, when the founding of the State of Israel was opposed by those seeking to eliminate the Jewish presence in the region.

The Intifadas

What were the Intifadas?

The term intifada comes from Arabic and was first used to describe the 1950 Iraqi uprising against the Hashemite monarchy. While it literally translates to “to shake off,” the claim that it simply represents resistance to oppression—without violence—ignores historical reality. As Jewish educator Debbie Lechtman puts it: “It’s like excusing the phrase Mein Kampf by translating it as ‘my struggle,’ or pretending Sieg Heil is just a patriotic cheer. The literal meaning doesn’t erase the context.”

In reality, intifada has never referred to peaceful protest. The popular chant “There is only one solution, Intifada revolution” echoes the Nazis’ “Final Solution” and reflects a similarly genocidal intent—especially considering the Arab alignment with Axis Powers during World War II. The two Intifadas—from 1987 to 1993 and from 2000 to 2005—were marked by widespread terrorism and brutal violence.

The First Intifada began in 1987 after an Israeli truck driver accidentally collided with a car of Palestinian workers, resulting in their deaths. What started as a spontaneous Arab protest quickly escalated into a widespread uprising, eventually evolving into an organized, militarized campaign against Israeli civilians. These rioters used stones, Molotov cocktails, explosives and other weapons, ultimately killing around 200 Israelis.

In response, Israel launched various counterterrorism operations, some of which involved live ammunition which drew criticism from human rights groups. By the end of the First Intifada, an estimated 1,962 Palestinians had died—including over 300 who were executed by their own people on suspicion of collaborating with Israel.

The Second Intifada claimed over 1,000 Israeli lives across five years. Palestinian militants—often disguised as civilians—carried out stabbings, shootings and bombings—including 141 suicide bombings alone. These attacks targeted everyday civilian places like buses, markets and restaurants. 

Victims included elderly Holocaust survivors to young children—even newborns. The violence affected nearly every community across the country with Israelis afraid of simply stepping outside.

On August 9, 2001, a Palestinian suicide bombing at a pizzeria in downtown Jerusalem took the lives of 16 people—including seven children and a pregnant woman—and injured over 130 others
(Photo: Ohayon Avi/GPO).

During the Second Intifada, approximately 2,700 Palestinians lost their lives. Israeli sources link roughly 2,124 of these deaths to members of militant groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah. Meanwhile, around 600 Palestinians were reportedly killed by other Palestinians—again, accused of cooperating with Israel.

The Repercussions of the Intifadas

Following the First Intifada, Israel implemented military checkpoints along the borders of Israeli and Palestinian land as a counterterrorism measure. After the Second Intifada, Israel began constructing a security barrier—often referred to as the “Apartheid Wall” by critics—which is primarily (about 90%) made up of fencing that runs between Israel proper and the West Bank.

Roughly 85% of the barrier runs through the West Bank rather than along the 1949 Green Armistice Line. Although it was never an official border, about 9% of Palestinians now live in areas cut off from the rest of the Palestinian population in the West Bank, a decision that continues to spark controversy.

While the barrier was built for security purposes, it had a major impact on daily life for many Palestinians—especially those in the isolated 9%. In response, Israel has allocated roughly $500 million toward humanitarian accommodations, including new roads, tunnels and designated passageways to help with movement and access.

For instance, more than 70 agricultural crossings have been created so Palestinian farmers can continue cultivating the land and transporting goods. In an effort to preserve both the environment and the economy, Israel also hired contractors to carefully uproot and replant more than 60,000 olive trees—an important local resource.

To further assist those affected, Israel established a District Coordination Office (DCO) in 2004. The DCO helps manage services like education, employment, healthcare and oversees entry permits for Palestinians who need to travel into Israel for other needs.

Despite the controversy regarding these strict border measures, international security experts and human rights groups still acknowledge that the checkpoints and barrier are effective in protecting Israeli citizens. In fact, both have been credited with reducing terror attacks—especially suicide bombings—by about 90% or more compared to the early 2000s peak.

“Globalize the Intifada!”

The Intifadas were not solely caused by the development of the modern State of Israel or its shortcomings. Rather, they are the result of 1,000-year-old Judeophobia and the rise of Islamism. Israel is simply the politically correct outlet.

On Oct. 7, 2023, a phone call was recorded between a terrorist and his parents during the Simchat Torah massacre:

Open my WhatsApp now and you’ll see all those killed. Look how many I killed with my own hands! Your son killed Jews!

When protesters chant “Globalize the Intifada,” they are not calling for peaceful resistance—they are enabling violence. The term has long been associated with suicide bombings, stabbings and shootings targeting civilians—specifically Jews.

But what starts with the Jews doesn’t end with the Jews.

First they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

The glorification of the Intifadas—and the casual dismissal of its radical fundamentalist discourse—emboldens extremists to target minorities across the Arabized Middle East and North Africa.

It empowers the attacker who swung an axe at Assyrian Christians during last month’s Assyrian New Year Parade in Iraq.

It empowers the terrorists who shot a 57-year-old Catholic man in the head in India weeks ago—simply because he refused to recite the Islamic declaration of faith.

And it empowers murderers like Elias Rodriguez, who—just last night—gunned down Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim: two Jewish peacebuilders, two people in love.

They were killed not for what they did or didn’t do—but simply for who they presumably were: Jewish.

What Have the Intifadas Done to Help the Palestinian People?

From the Jewish perspective, the only thing to come from an intifada is death—for both Jews and Arabs alike. And of course the consequence of inconvenience for non-Israeli residents passing through Israeli borders.

Based on the historical context provided, would a globalized intifada truly benefit Palestinians or would it instead advance the agenda of the modern Islamist conquest?

Xenophobia and Judeophobia

Xenophobia—prejudice against those perceived as foreign or strange, often rooted in racist ideology.
Judeophobia—hostility toward Jews (including the denial or distortion of Jewish history), often rooted in racist ideology.

In the United States, antisemitic incidents have surged by over 200% in the past year, with more than 10,000 recorded since October 7, 2023. Though Jews make up just 2% of the American population, they are the target of nearly 55% of all religious-based hate crimes.

This alarming rise of Jew-hatred reflects the broader trend of today’s misinformation, falsification and obliteration of Jewish identity and history.

Next Steps

Just as we wouldn’t ask a misogynist to define sexism or a bigot to explain racism, we must loudly reject the narratives of antisemites who deny Jewish heritage and indigeneity, as well as those who justify violence as resistance.

We are just 0.2% of the global population—our voices are easily drowned out. So when you speak, shout. And when you shout, find a megaphone.

We know who we are, and it’s time to remind the world.

We are the living descendants of the ancient Israelites—with our Canaanite customs preserved and our connection to the land unbroken for over 4,000 years.

We are Am Yisrael. And no amount of senseless bloodshed or intifadas will ever change that.

For the Fallen, For the Future

.תְּהִי נַפְשׁוֹ/נַפְשָׁם צְרוּרָה בִּצְרוֹר הַחַיִּים
Tehi nafsho/nafsham tzerurah bitsror hachayim.
May their souls be bound up in the bond of eternal life.

And may their memory be both a blessing and revolution—a call to justice, peace and lasting change.