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Recent brutal attacks in Boulder, Colorado, and Washington, D.C., where assailants shouted “Free Palestine,” are raising alarm that anti-Israel rhetoric is now fueling deadly violence against Jews in America.
On May 26, a man named Mohamad Soliman allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at a Jewish group marching in Boulder to raise awareness about Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Just days earlier, in Washington, Elias Rodriguez was charged with murdering Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky — both staffers at the Israeli Embassy — while reportedly shouting the same slogan heard in Boulder: “Free Palestine.” The FBI has classified the Boulder attack as a targeted terror act.
Historian Jeffrey Herf, writing for The Free Press, warned that these incidents are part of a broader ideological current that is normalizing terror against Jews under the banner of liberation.
“These are terrorist attacks carried out against Jews in America in the name of ‘liberation’ thousands of miles away,” Herf wrote. “They were carried out by people who feel so emboldened by the global ideological assault on Israel and its supporters that they were willing to make the leap from hatred to violence.”
Herf traces the philosophical roots of this leap to radical leftist ideologies, comparing today’s rhetoric to the violent activism of the Weather Underground in the late 1960s. While that movement remained marginal, its ideological fervor inspired others to turn ideas into action.
Today, those ideas have found new legitimacy in academic spaces. Faculty and student groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) have normalized anti-semetic ideologies, Herf says, while either downplaying or ignoring Hamas’ terrorism.
Since October 7, 2023, when Hamas carried out a mass killing of Israeli civilians, chants praising Hamas have been heard at protests, including one documented by The Free Press near Columbia University, where masked demonstrators shouted, “Hamas, Hamas, we love you! We support your rockets too!”
These campus dynamics are no longer fringe. According to Herf, “With the formation of Faculty for Justice in Palestine, that antagonism became not only a ubiquitous form of leftist student activism but has also attained academic respectability in the universities.”
Herf warned that without stronger opposition to the ideological normalization of terror, more violence is likely.
“Only a small number, one hopes, will believe that violence against Jews and Israel’s supporters is necessary and desirable in order to ‘free Palestine,’” he wrote. “But today those who are prone to make that leap will gain momentum from an ideological climate that is even more conducive to terror.”
Herf concluded his analysis with a sobering reminder of the stakes if the current ideological climate remains unchallenged.
“Chances are that people who ‘love’ Hamas approve of the murders of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim,” he wrote. “How many of them have guns and are making plans to use them? The criticism of terrorism and antisemitism must become louder — much, much louder.”
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