Chickens Come Home to Roost

The chickens have finally come home to roost. After increasing calls to "globalize the intifada," two young Jews were murdered in our nation's capital this week after attending an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. The shooter yelled "Free Palestine" as he brutally cut short the lives of two people with so much promise in front of them. If anything, it should dispel any myth that the so-called "Free Palestine" has anything to do with alleviating the plight of Palestinians. The two victims had been committed to fostering good relations between Jews and Arabs and their deaths do absolutely nothing to assist the Palestinian cause. There are so many layers of this tragedy to unpack. I will touch upon a few points. Security: Undoubtedly, there should be and will be calls to increase security in the Jewish community. The WSJ noted that the average cost for security for Orthodox Jewish Schools in 2022-23 was $184,000 and has risen to $339,000 in 2024-25. There are limits to what increased security can accomplish. As Bari Weiss noted, "No police force, not even the best in the world, can hold back a culture that has embraced violence as a means of expression." While the calls for an increased security posture are justified, the issue is far more complex than just increasing a security budget. Free Speech: It's a tragic irony that adherents of the Free Palestine movement manipulate the privileges of liberal democracies to advance hate and violence. While I am not a constitutional scholar, the Supreme Court ruled many years ago that free speech does not entitle you to "yell fire in a crowded theater." In essence, it means that while you generally have the right to express yourself freely, that freedom is not absolute and can be limited if your speech creates a clear and present danger, such as inciting panic or causing harm. This week's murder of two Jews demonstrates the dangerous overlap between hateful rhetoric and bloodshed. Root of Conflict: If there can be any silver lining since October 7, the roots of the conflict have become more apparent. As this week's events have demonstrated, it has nothing to do with alleviating the plight of the Palestinians or Arabs. In March, there was a revenge killing in Syria by militias associated with the new regime who executed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite sect. In case you missed the United Nations condemning it or the students marching in Ivy League Universities, you are not alone. The double standard is so obvious and blatant. The root of the conflict is also not because of the lack of any Palestinian State. The Tibetians and Kurds have long aspired for a state and their cause gets a brief yawn from the international community. It's also not about settlements, occupation or anything else the mainstream media might want us to believe. The root of the conflict is the strong objection by nations all over the world to any Jewish presence in the Land of Israel. The ties of the Jewish People to their ancestral homeland are apparently too much for many to handle. It's essential to be clear-eyed about what is at stake. Everything else is just noise. Have a Peaceful Shabbos, Rabbi Yaakov Fisch