JNS
"Yair Golan's blood libels are echoing among Nazis and Israel-haters around the world," said Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu.
Israeli Cabinet members on Thursday accused Yair Golan, who leads the far-left The Democrats Party, of having incited the Washington, D.C., terrorist attack in which two Israeli embassy staffers were murdered.
"The last tweet of Yaron Lischinsky—may God avenge his blood—the embassy employee who was murdered in the Washington terror attack, was fighting against the U.N.'s blood libel about imminent danger of death by starvation for 14,000 babies in Gaza," Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli noted in a post.
This libel "in recent days was reinforced by reckless statements of Yair Golan—'killing baby as a hobby'—[former Prime Minister] Ehud Olmert, and the propagandists of the PLO and Hamas at the Haaretz paper," wrote the Cabinet minister.
"Anyone who spreads lies, compares Israel to the Nazis, accuses the IDF of war crimes, or claims that the 'hobby' of IDF troops and the State of Israel is to kill babies is fully complicit in the outcome," Chikli said.
Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu stated: "Yair Golan's blood libels are echoing among Nazis and Israel-haters around the world. We are now paying the price for them in the murderous attack in Washington, and history teaches us that we will pay more in the future.
"Yair, the blood of the embassy staff is on your hands and those of your friends. My sincere condolences to the families of the victims," he said.
On Tuesday, Golan told the Kan News public broadcaster that Israel Defense Forces soldiers fighting the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip "kill babies as a hobby," sparking accusations of antisemitism.
"Israel is on the path to becoming a pariah among nations, like South Africa once was, if it doesn't return to acting like a sane state," he said. "A sane state does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals of population expulsion for itself."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu berated the left-wing leader, who holds the rank of major general in the IDF reserves, branding his remarks as "outrageous" and slamming the lack of a "limit to [Golan's] moral decay."
As Israel is battling "a multi-front war and leading complex diplomatic efforts to free our hostages and defeat Hamas, Golan and his allies in the radical left are echoing some of the vilest antisemitic blood libels against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel," the premier charged in a statement.
Responding to the shooting attack on Thursday morning, Golan said that "Netanyahu's 'Kahane Chai' government is fueling antisemitism and hatred of Israel, and the result is unprecedented diplomatic isolation and danger for every Jew, everywhere on the globe," he wrote on X.
Kahane Chai, or Kach, is a defunct Jewish far-right group named after the American-Israeli rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocated for transferring all Arabs out of the Jewish state. Kahane was killed in 1990.
The Democrats Party "will replace them and restore security to every Jew—in Israel and around the world," Golan said.
He added: "I share in the grief of the families of those murdered in the attack in Washington, and I stand in solidarity with all the employees of Israel's foreign service.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog called on both sides to "stop these ugly mudslinging battles," in a statement posted to X on Thursday morning.
"For the despicable murderer in Washington, internal Israeli political opinions are meaningless," Israel's head of state noted, adding, "You are asked to understand the magnitude of the responsibility at this moment—to restrain your words and to do only what strengthens and supports the State of Israel and the Jewish communities around the world."
Lischinsky and his partner, Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were killed when a terrorist opened fire outside an event in Washington's Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday night. The couple was set to be engaged soon.
The shooter, identified as Elias Rodriguez, apparently wanted to murder Israelis or Jews at the American Jewish Committee event hosted by the museum. He yelled "Free, Free, Palestine," according to eyewitnesses.
Netanyahu attributed the shooting to "blood libels against Israel," saying incitement and false charges against the Jewish state led to the violence.
"We are witnessing the horrific price of antisemitism and the rampant incitement against the State of Israel. Blood libels against Israel result in spilled blood, and they must be fought with all our might," he said.
According to a Direct Polls survey published by Israel’s Channel 14 News channel on May 15, if an election were held now, The Democrats Party would win 16 out of the Knesset's 120 mandates.
