In Washington, DC, the country’s capital, federal prosecutors have charged a man who is accused of fatally shooting two Israeli embassy employees.
Elias Rodriguez was charged with two counts of first-degree murder on Thursday in federal court, as well as with murdering foreign officials, causing death with a gun, and aggravated assault with a weapon.
In a subsequent press conference, interim US Attorney Jeanine Pirro warned that the prosecution was looking through evidence for additional crimes and that those charges were only the start.
Pirro said, “This is a horrific crime, and I and this office will not tolerate these crimes,” Pirro continued.
“We will continue to look into this as a hate crime and a terrorism crime, and we will add more charges as the evidence warrants.”
Rodriguez is accused of shooting American employee Sarah Milgrim and Israeli citizen Yaron Lischinsky at the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC.
The two employees were leaving an event hosted by the pro-Israel American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday evening at 9:08 PM Eastern time (01:08 GMT Thursday). At the scene, both were declared dead.
The young couple’s engagement is scheduled for the upcoming days, according to Israeli Embassy staff.
A young couple was about to get engaged in a foreign country when their bodies were taken from their bodies in a body bag in the dead of night. Pirro appeared to primarily make reference to Lischinsky’s foreign roots, saying, “We are not going to tolerate that anymore.”
Because these kinds of incidents remind us of past events that we can never and must never forget, this kind of case picks at old sores and scars.
One of Washington’s oldest synagogues, in the city’s heartland, is located next to the museum, so she made note of the attack on Wednesday night.
According to Pamela Smith, the suspect chanted “Free Palestine! ” to the Washington Metropolitan Police. “Free Palestine” following the incident. Rodriguez, who was originally from Chicago, appeared to have made an appearance and was taken into custody shortly after the shooting.
Rodriguez claimed in an affidavit that Rodriguez “did it for Palestine.” For Gaza, I did it.
Israel’s war against Gaza, where millions of Palestinians have been left without basic food and supplies, is drawing international condemnation as a result of the shooting.
At least 53, 000 people have been killed in the war, according to experts from human rights organizations and the UN.
Jewish, Muslim, and Arab communities have all reported increases in harassment and racism since the war started on October 7, 2023.
Officials on Wednesday protested anti-Semitism, and President Donald Trump’s administration pledged to pursue the suspect in every legal way.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated on Thursday that the Department of Justice would pursue the perpetrator of this offense to the fullest extent permitted by the law. Under President Donald Trump, “Hatred has no place in the United States of America.”
She then compared “anti-Semitic illegal behavior” to anti-war protests at US universities, which have been largely peaceful. However, pro-Jewish hatred has been largely disapproved by protest leaders.
One US Congressman claimed that the “Palestinian cause” was “vil” after the shooting. Randy Fine, the representative from the republic of Virginia, continued to advocate that the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan should end with World War II.
He claimed that “we nuked the Japanese twice to secure an unconditional surrender.” “That needs to be the same here,” he said. This culture needs to be eradicated because something is fundamentally, fundamentally wrong with it.
The Israeli government also referred to the shooting as an attack on its state.
The administration of President Donald Trump has taken a hard line against top US universities over their responses to pro-Palestine protests, as well as their diversity initiatives and curricula.
The move on Thursday to block Harvard University from enrolling foreign students represents the latest escalation in a months-long standoff, which critics say has been rooted in unfounded claims of rampant anti-Semitism.
In a statement, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the administration was “holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus”.
Harvard has called the latest move “unlawful” and a “retaliatory action”.
Here’s how we got here:
December 2023: The standoff stretches back to the months following the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, and the resulting Israeli offensive on Gaza, in which at least 53,655 Palestinians have since been killed.
Then-Harvard President Claudine Gay’s testimony before Congress on the administration’s response to pro-Palestine protests sparks outrage, as elected officials, particularly Republicans, call for greater crackdowns.
Gay subsequently resigns from her post and is replaced by Alan Garber in August 2024.
January 2025: Trump takes office in January 2025, following a campaign where he vowed to crack down on pro-Palestine protests, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes, and “woke ideology” on college campuses.
Trump also signs a series of executive orders calling for government agencies to take actions against DEI programmes at private institutions, including universities, and to increase government actions to combat anti-Semitism, particularly on campuses.
February 2025: The US Department of Justice (DOJ) launches a task force to “root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses”.
The task force later announces it will visit 10 schools, saying it was “aware of allegations that the schools may have failed to protect Jewish students and faculty members from unlawful discrimination, in potential violation of federal law”.
The schools include Harvard, as well as Columbia University, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Northwestern University, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Southern California.
March 7, 2025: The Trump administration takes its first action against a US university, slashing $400m in federal funding to Columbia University and accusing the school of “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students”.
A subsequent letter from the Department of Education warns Harvard and dozens of other universities of “potential enforcement actions”.
March 21, 2025: Columbia yields to Trump’s demands, which include banning face masks, empowering campus police with arresting authority, and installing a new administrator to oversee the department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies and the Center for Palestine Studies.
March 31, 2025: The US Departments of Education (ED), Health and Human Services (HHS), and the US General Services Administration (GSA) announce an official review of $255.6m in Harvard contracts and $8.7bn in multi-year grants.
The review is part of the “ongoing efforts of the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism”, the statement said.
April 11, 2025: Harvard is sent a letter saying the university has “failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment” and listing several Trump administration demands.
The demands include a governance overhaul that lessens the power of students and some staff, reforming hiring and admissions practices, refusing to admit students deemed “hostile to the American values and institutions”, doing away with diversity programmes, and auditing several academic programmes and centres, including several related to the Middle East.
April 14, 2025: Harvard President Garber issues a forceful rejection of the demands, writing: “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights”.
The US administration announces an immediate freeze on funding, including $2.2bn in multi-year grants and $60m in multi-year contracts.
April 15, 2025: In a Truth Social post, Trump floats that Harvard could lose “Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity”. He accuses Harvard of “pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness’”.
April 16, 2025: The Department of Homeland Security calls on Harvard to turn over records on any foreign students’ “illegal and violent activities”, while threatening to revoke the university’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program approval. The certification is required for it to enrol foreign students. Noem gives an April 30 deadline for this.
April 21, 2025: Harvard files a lawsuit against the Trump administration, accusing it of violating the First Amendment of the US Constitution with “arbitrary and capricious” funding cuts.
April 30, 2025: Harvard says it shared information requested by Noem regarding foreign students, but does not release the nature of the information provided.
May 2, 2025: Trump again says the administration will take away Harvard’s tax-exempt status. No action is immediately taken.
May 5, 2025: The Trump administration says it is cutting all new federal grants to Harvard.
May 13, 2025: The US Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announces another $450m in federal funding from eight federal agencies.
May 19, 2025: The DOJ announces it will use the False Claims Act, typically used to punish federal funding recipients accused of corruption, to crack down on universities like Harvard over DEI policies. The Department of Health and Human Services also says it is terminating $60m in federal grants to Harvard.
May 22, 2025: Noem announces revocation of Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program, blocking it from enrolling new foreign students and saying current students will need to transfer to continue their studies.
Finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of Seven (G7) democracies have pledged to address “excessive imbalances” in the global economy and said they could increase sanctions on Russia.
The G7 announced the plan on Thursday as the officials, who met in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, said there was a need for a common understanding of how “non-market policies and practices” undermine international economic security.
The document did not name China, but references by the United States and other G7 economies to non-market policies and practices often are targeted at China’s state subsidies and export-driven economic model.
The final communique called for an analysis of market concentration and international supply chain resilience.
“We agree on the importance of a level playing field and taking a broadly coordinated approach to address the harm caused by those who do not abide by the same rules and lack transparency,” it said.
Lowering Russian oil price cap
European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said the G7 ministers discussed proposals for further sanctions on Russia to try to end its war in Ukraine. They included lowering the G7-led $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil, given that Russian crude is now selling under that level, he said.
The G7 participants condemned what they called Russia’s “continued brutal war” against Ukraine and said that if efforts to achieve a ceasefire failed, they would explore all possible options, including “further ramping up sanctions”.
Russia’s sovereign assets in G7 jurisdictions would remain immobilised until Moscow ended the war and paid for the damage it has caused to Ukraine, the communique said. It did not mention a price cap.
Brent crude currently trades at around $64 per barrel.
A European official said the US is “not convinced” about lowering the Russian oil price cap.
Earlier this week, the US Treasury said Secretary Scott Bessent intended to press G7 allies to focus on rebalancing the global economy to protect workers and companies from China’s “unfair practices”.
The communique also recognised an increase in low-value international “de minimis” package shipments that can overwhelm customs and tax collection systems and be used for smuggling drugs and other illicit goods.
Business owners in Syria have praised the European Union’s decision to lift sanctions on Syria this week, which, according to observers, is the most significant ease of Western pressure on Damascus in more than a decade.
Asaad al-Shaibani, the country’s foreign minister, praised the EU’s decision, which came after a similar announcement made by the US in mid-May.
Many Syrian businesspeople are hopeful that their livelihoods will be rebuilt after years of economic isolation.
Businesses that were barred from Syria and stopped dealing with us as a result of the sanctions are now in contact with us, according to Hassan Bandakji, a business owner in the area.
“Many businesses and producers are telling us they’re coming back and want to reserve a spot in our market,” said one producer.
Bashar al-Assad’s government was subject to extensive sanctions from the EU and the US, both of which were broad-ranging and were issued following a rebel offensive in December of last year.
Businesses were severely stymied by the economic restrictions that severely limited trade, investment, and financial transactions in Syria.
Ali Sheikh Kweider, who runs a factory in the countryside of Damascus, said, “The main challenge we faced was getting raw materials and automated lines.”
We were unable to send or receive any transactions, according to Kweider, according to Kweider.
As part of its efforts to rebuild Syria, the new government, led by former rebel leader and interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa, had demanded that the sanctions be lifted.
Donald Trump, the president of the United States, said he planned to order the lifting of American sanctions against Syria after a meeting with al-Sharaa last week in Saudi Arabia.
According to Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed, the government hopes that the sanctions’ relief will aid Syria’s resumption of its international network.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, has frequently attempted to portray himself as a close friend of American President Donald Trump, but the relationship has rarely been as straightforward as the Israeli prime minister has claimed.
And recently, there is growing rumors in the Israeli media that the two leaders’ interactions have begun to unravel.
Trump’s most recent Middle East trip, which included visits to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, gave rise to some notions of the gap, but not to Israel, the nation that has typically been the US’s closest ally in the area.
In the same vein, negotiations between the US and Iran, one of Israel’s most fervent regional adversaries, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen have been ongoing without any reassurances from Israel, a nation that has always valued itself as a central figure in these matters. In contrast to the growing chorus of international outcry over Israel’s actions in Gaza, US Vice President JD Vance made the decision to cancel a planned visit to Israel for what appear to be “logistical” reasons.
Israeli commentator Dana Fahn Luzon, who appeared on national television earlier this month, succinctly stated, “Trump is telling Netanyahu, Honey, I’ve had enough of you. ’”
On February 4, 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump hold a joint press conference in Washington, DC.
Mitchell Barak, an Israeli pollster and former political aide to a number of senior Israeli figures, told Al Jazeera, “We’re seeing a total breakdown of everything that might be of interest to Israel.” America was once our closest ally; We don’t appear to be sitting at the table right now. Every Israeli ought to be concerned about this. ”
Netanyahu is held responsible for this by many Israelis, Barak continued. It is obvious that Trump didn’t like it when he presented Trump with some sort of pocket. Netanyahu blundered a line. ”
No friend could be any better.
Prominent figures in the US administration are highlighting the strength of their alliance, despite growing concern about a potential rift within Israel.
Steve Witkoff, the special envoy to President Trump, stated last Sunday that while the US was trying to stop what he called a “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza, there was “any daylight between President Trump’s position and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s position.”
On March 14, 2025, protesters in New York City, US, guard the entrance to Columbia University.
White House National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt, who denied reports that the Trump administration was planning to “abandon” Israel if it continues to wage its occupation of Gaza, reaffirming his country’s commitment to Israel.
In addition, the Trump administration has been active in halting criticism of Israel’s occupation of Gaza in public spaces, particularly on US college campuses.
Rumeysa Ozturk, who was detained while promoting an opinion piece she co-authored for a student newspaper, was one of several international students who were detained and deported for their support of Palestine.
On April 3, 2025, protesters gathered outside a federal court to hear from Rumeysa Ozturk’s lawyer, a Turkiye student from Tufts who was being detained by US immigration authorities in Boston, Massachusetts.
Spatting
The Trump administration has firmly positioned itself in Israel’s hands thanks to those policies. And it is not surprising when you consider what Trump did to his own policies during his first term in office.
Trump complied with many of the Israeli right’s demands in that capacity between 2017 and 2021, including the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital despite its eastern half being occupied by Palestinians, acknowledging the annexation of the Golan Heights, acknowledging that Syria is occupied, and stepping down from the Iran nuclear deal.
The Trump-Negalese relationship is reportedly strained by his actions because he is said to be angry with what he perceives as a lack of gratitude for those pro-Israel policies.
Trump also reacted furiously after Netanyahu praised former US President Joe Biden in the wake of his victory over Trump in the 2020 election, which the current president continues to dispute.
Bibi [Benjamin] Netanyahu was the first to congratulate [Biden], for whom I fought more than any other person I dealt with. Bibi might have kept quiet. In a 2021 interview, Trump claimed that he had made a terrible mistake.
However, analysts said that in the run-up to the US election of 2024, Netanyahu and his allies actively sought out Trump because they believed that using him as a means to advance their goals and maintain their occupation of Gaza.
Before the election, Netanyahu had actually campaigned for Trump, highlighting Biden’s negative reputation, according to Associate Fellow at Chatham House, Yossi Mekelberg.
Because Trump is so contractual, they are now unsure of which direction to take him. There is no win in Palestine, Mekelberg continued, referring to the string of victories the president claimed during his most recent Gulf tour.
A protester holds a placard ahead of the US Consulate in Tel Aviv, Israel, on February 3, 2025 [File: Antonio Denti/Reuters/Reuters/Facebook]
A general consensus is emerging in the Israeli press and media that Trump is simply fed up with trying to put an end to the Gaza war that Netanyahu and his allies on the hard right have no desire to pursue.
According to reports, Trump has reportedly halted contact with Netanyahu over concerns that the Israeli prime minister may be trying to manipulate him.
Yanir Cozin, a reporter for Israeli Army Radio, quoted an unnamed Israeli official as saying, “There’s nothing Trump hates more than being played as a sucker and someone being played, so he made the decision to cut off contact.” ”
Political analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg said from Tel Aviv that there is a sense in Israel that Trump has a crush on Netanyahu. Supporters of Netanyahu are panicking because they previously believed Trump’s support was unrestrained. ”
Now what?
According to Flaschenberg, a break in Netanyahu and Trump’s relations with Trump might not automatically mean a break in Israel and the US, with all political parties spewing about what the future might hold if the two countries’ political alliances are rebalanced.
According to Mekelberg, the US’s support for Israel has been the foundation of both nations’ foreign policy for decades. Additionally, according to analysts and polls, support for Israel, while declining, is still ingrained in a large portion of Trump’s Republican base, particularly among Republican and Democratic donors.
[File: Jim Watson/AFP] US President Donald Trump has long been a vocal supporter of Israel.
With regard to Israel’s reliance on US support, Flaschenberg said, “Those opposed to Netanyahu and the war are hoping that the US may now apply a lasting ceasefire.” Trump has no reason to believe him, but rather because of how shocked they are by the current administration. ”
However, those on the hard right, such as Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and its national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, are also present. Mekelberg speculated that they may also be hoping to profit from any change in direction US policy toward Israel takes.
According to Mekelberg, Smotrich, and their supporters might profit from American disinterest, based on how it develops. Israel’s dream is fulfilled if the US continues to provide them with diplomatic support and weapons at the UN, he said. Smotrich has assured his supporters that allowing minimal aid into the besieged enclave would not mean that Israel would stop “destroying everything that’s left of the Gaza Strip”.
However, it’s uncertain where Netanyahu might play a role.
The Israeli prime minister’s claims that he relyed on the war to maintain the political coalition he needs to stay in office and avoid both a legal judgment in his corruption trial and a political verdict over the failures of his government prior to the bombing of the October 7, 2023 attack are widespread and persistent.
