The DC Israeli Embassy staffer killings are what happens when words become weapons

Words have consequences.Deadly words have deadly consequences.Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Sarah Milgrim, 26, and Yaron Lischinsky, 30, who were attending an American Jewish Committee event on Middle East cooperation, were assassinated on Wednesday because of deadly words.

The alleged murderer, American-born Elias Rodriguez, shouted, “Free, free Palestine.” The two young people were planning to go to Israel in a week for their engagement.Instead, they will be buried amidst untold grief, sorrow, loss, and anger. What does “Free, free Palestine” mean? It sure isn’t a cry for peace or coexistence.

Rather, it’s a call for the annihilation or expulsion of nearly 10 million Israelis, who live in a land associated with the Jewish people since time immemorial. How to achieve annihilation? The chants that surely inspired Rodriguez — a left-wing extremist without clear links to Islam and the Middle East — and his fellow travelers, tell the story: “Globalize the intifada,” “We are all Hamas,” “F–k the Zionists,” and “By any means necessary.”Those are unmistakable calls to hatred, incitement, and violence.They already led to the murder, in 2023, of Paul Kessler, 69, a pro-Israel demonstrator in Los Angeles, not to mention subway riders in New York being told by masked mobs to leave the train if they were Zionists, Jewish students at Cooper Union barricaded in the school’s library while a frenzied mob hovered just outside, Jewish students at Columbia University being told to study from home if they felt unsafe on campus, Jewish houses of worship desecrated and Jewish businesses spray painted and boycotted.

The list is long and growing. Hamas, a terrorist group according to the United States and European Union, attacked Israel on Oct.7, 2023, resulting in the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust — 1,200 killed, 251 kidnapped.

In proportional American terms, the fatalities would have numbere...