Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Progressives are grappling with the killing of two people who worked at the Israeli embassy in Washington by a gunman who echoed a slogan that has become a rallying cry for many American liberals since the start of the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
After his arrest, the man suspected of killing the couple outside the Jewish Museum in Washington on Wednesday night exclaimed \u201cfree, free Palestine<\/a>,\u201d a phrase that has become ubiquitous at peaceful demonstrations and on social media over the past 18 months.<\/p>\n The attack brought renewed focus to a strain of violent radicalism on the left, even as progressives pointed out they share nothing with the gunman except his apparent support for Palestinian rights. What the attack did, they said, was hurt their cause.<\/p>\n \u201cIt betrays our values and hands more power to those already pushing authoritarian crackdowns,\u201d said Layla Elabed, an organizer in Michigan and the leader of the Uncommitted National Movement<\/a>, which arose in protest of U.S. support for Israel\u2019s response to the Hamas attack launched on Oct. 7, 2023.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also putting pressure on progressives to respond.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere\u2019s our Martin Luther King today? I don’t know where that individual is. Who is that individual?\u201d said a progressive strategist granted anonymity to speak freely. \u201cWe just don\u2019t have big moral leaders in our society, period, let alone on the political front.\u201d<\/p>\n A fringe, more radical wing of the pro-Palestinian movement has blinked in and out of national attention since the onset of the war in Gaza. Thousands of protesters have been arrested, including dozens who forcibly entered and occupied university buildings<\/a>. And last year, POLITICO reported<\/a> that an online network of pro-Palestinian activists in the U.S. included resources on how to \u201cescalate\u201d political actions beyond legal bounds, as well as pro-Hamas content.<\/p>\n Asked if members of the left are doing any soul searching, Kevin Rachlin \u2014 the Washington director of the Nexus Project, a left-leaning Jewish advocacy group \u2014 said, \u201cI think they are.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is more and more proof that we need to address antisemitism as a full society versus addressing [it] on the left or on the right,\u201d Rachlin said.<\/p>\n Antisemitism historically and in recent years has more closely been associated with fringe groups on the alt-right, including most notably the 2017 \u201cUnite the Right\u201d neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia. President Donald Trump himself dined with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes at his Mar-a-Lago resort in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n Supporters of the pro-Palestinian movement, including liberal lawmakers, found themselves on the defensive after the shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum<\/a> in a way that conservatives have had to respond to far-right violence in recent years.<\/p>\n Now, some pro-Palestinian activists worry the shooting, which federal authorities called a targeted act of antisemitism, could set back any progress they\u2019ve made in their policy goals amid an increasingly dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and an expansion of Israel\u2019s military operation<\/a> in the decimated territory.<\/p>\n “We hope and caution against this vigilante violence being used to undermine the movement to end the genocide, a movement of hundreds of thousands of Americans calling for ceasefire and arms embargo,\u201d said Sandra Tamari, executive director of the pro-Palestinian Adalah Justice Project.<\/p>\n Alex Pascal, a former Biden administration official who helped craft its strategy to combat antisemitism<\/a>, said, \u201cWe cannot allow this violence to be weaponized by those who might exploit it to further degrade our democratic rights and freedoms.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump and Republicans for years have cast the pro-Palestinian movement as a group of radical terrorist sympathizers. As the Trump administration has taken increasingly severe steps to<\/a> suppress the movement and punish its leaders, Democrats and advocates have pushed back on that characterization, framing Republicans\u2019 actions as an attack on free speech.<\/p>\n Pro-Palestinian lawmakers rushed Thursday to condemn the murders and call them acts of antisemitism. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said<\/a> he was \u201cappalled\u201d by the \u201cheinous act.\u201d Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) emphasized,<\/a> \u201cAbsolutely nothing justifies the murder of innocents.\u201d<\/p>\n Republicans were quick to paint the attacks as just part of broader extremism in the movement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Palestinian cause is an evil one,\u201d Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) said Thursday on \u201cFox & Friends.\u201d \u201cThe only end of the conflict is total surrender by those who support Muslim terror.\u201d<\/p>\n As details about the attack emerged late Wednesday night, the Trump administration jumped into offense. Attorney General Pam Bondi and D.C.\u2019s newly tapped interim U.S. attorney, Jeanine Pirro, visited the scene. And on Truth Social<\/a> just after midnight, Trump wrote: \u201cThese horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.!\u201d<\/p>\n The left has had to walk this line before. Earlier this year, when federal immigration agents detained and moved to deport Mahmoud Khalil<\/a>, a Palestinian green card holder and leader in last year\u2019s pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University<\/a>, the Trump administration justified the arrest by claiming Khalil was a supporter of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.<\/p>\n Democrats have largely united around detained pro-Palestinian activists as victims of the Trump administration whose constitutionally protected political speech is under attack \u2014 but also hedged their statements by emphasizing they didn\u2019t endorse Khalil\u2019s opinions on the subject.<\/p>\n \u201cI abhor many of the opinions and policies that Mahmoud Khalil holds and supports,\u201d Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at the time on X<\/a>. But, he added: \u201cIf the administration cannot prove he has violated any criminal law to justify taking this severe action and is doing it for the opinions he has expressed, then that is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n Holly Otterbein contributed to this report.<\/p>\n