Targeting Jews because you don’t like Israel is antisemitism

We need everyone to speak up now.

By Mimi Rocah

On June 1, police allege a 45-year-old Egyptian national drove to downtown Boulder, Colo., with a homemade flamethrower and Molotov cocktails and attacked demonstrators at a peaceful event to support hostages in Gaza. Fifteen people were injured in the attack. As he hurled fire at Holocaust survivors and others, the alleged perpetrator yelled “Free Palestine” and “How many children have you killed?” and “We need to end Zionists.”

This comes just two weeks after a man allegedly traveled from Chicago to Washington, D.C., and shot a young couple, Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, coming out of an event at a Jewish museum. Police say he shot them at close range – even as Milgrim struggled to crawl away. The alleged shooter shouted for the cameras that had gathered, “I did it for Gaza” and “Free, Free Palestine.”

And this follows the firebombing of the home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro in April in which the alleged arsonist cited treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and his belief about the governor’s support for the war as motivation.

It is difficult to adequately put into words the genuine fear that Jews across America are feeling at this moment. One Jewish activist, Hen Mazzig, summed up the recent attacks here and elsewhere: “Each attack happened in a different [place]. The perpetrators didn’t know each other. And yet, every Jew I know understands how deeply they’re connected. This is what Jewish anxiety looks like in 2025. Not just fear of a lone extremist—but fear of a global pattern no one wants to name.”

There is no denying the pattern: According to the Anti-Defamation League, 2024 had the highest number of antisemitic incidents across the United States ever recorded–9,354, representing a 344% increase over the past five years, including a rise in assault, vandalism, and harassment. And the trend shows that the majority of incidents are now related to anti-Israel or anti-zionism rhetoric, largely emanating from the political left. Increasingly, we see individuals claim to be acting on behalf of Gazans or to punish the Israeli government for the war started after the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre by Hamas. They claim that this isn’t anti-Jew or anti-semitism, it’s just anti-Israel. The alleged flame-throwing terrorizer in Boulder said this had “nothing to do with the Jewish community” but was directed at a “Zionist group supporting the killings of people on his land (Palestine),” according to state documents, as ABC News reported.

But here’s the thing: Targeting people with violence to hold them responsible for the actions of the Israeli government simply because the targets are perceived to be Jewish is antisemitism. Nothing about the victims walking out of the Jewish Museum event (supporting aid to Gaza) or marching for the release of hostages says “I am complicit in the war in Gaza” except for the perpetrator’s belief that the targets are Jewish and, therefore, responsible. And targeting a Jewish governor for his alleged stance on Israel out of the thousands of elected officials with similar stances says something about your motive. As Amy Spitalnik, chief executive of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said so clearly, “Make no mistake: If and when Jews are targeted to protest Israel’s actions, it should clearly and unequivocally be understood and condemned as antisemitism.”

That is why at least two of these crimes are being investigated and charged as federal hate crimes under the statute involving actual or perceived race, religion, or national origin (curiously, the Justice Department does not appear to have opened a federal investigation into the attack at Democratic Gov. Shapiro’s home). And to be clear, none of this shocking rise in violence is happening in a vacuum. Sheila Katz, chief executive of the National Council of Jewish Women, described it like this after Boulder:

For over 600 days, since the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, the conditions in the United States for deadly antisemitic acts have grown. At rallies and on campuses, in coalition rooms and online spaces, slogans sometimes directly drawn from Hamas’s terrorist manifesto have been chanted and painted on placards, and shouted from stages and in the streets. “Globalize the intifada.” “By any means necessary.” “From the river to the sea.” “Zionists out.” These are not simply words; they can be interpreted as calls for violence.

Both the Boulder and Washington attacks have been labeled as “acts of terror” by federal officials and others. There is no question that they have terrorized Jews. Are they chargeable as crimes of terrorism? That is more complicated because there is only a statutory definition of domestic terrorism in America, not a separate crime. Though both of these acts seem to meet the definition of ideologically driven criminal acts aimed at influencing the government or coercing the population, they must be linked to a foreign terrorist organization to be charged as such. There is some indication in the Boulder case that the perpetrator was inspired by and is being celebrated by Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization, but it is far from clear that the connection can be made for a terrorism charge.

So, the urgent question for Jews, for people who understand that this movement will not end with Jews, and for people who care about humanity, is: What now?

First, the mainstream media must be more responsible in its reporting about what is happening in Gaza. On multiple occasions since Oct. 7, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and others have had to retract, correct, or apply lengthy editor’s notes to incredibly inflammatory reporting. This isn’t to say that Israel should not be called out and the horrible death toll in Gaza reported. But exaggerations spread like wildfire on social media, where retractions, corrections, and editor’s notes do nothing.

Second, Congress should consider legislative options regarding the federal government's approach to defining and confronting domestic terrorism, including enactment of a domestic terrorism charging statute; the utility and consequences of applying the domestic terrorism label in federal policy; and adjustments to domestic terrorism data collection requirements for federal agencies.

Last, but perhaps most important, we need everyone of all political backgrounds to speak up and denounce not just the acts of violence but also the stereotyping, the vilifying of Jews, and the false equation with the Israeli government; to understand that the slogans being chanted like “globalize the intifada” and “by any means necessary” become instructions and adrenaline for some; they are being used to justify horrific violence. Though Jews have had some amazing allies, the loud progressive silence since Oct. 7, 2023, is wrong and dangerous, as many progressive Jewish leaders have pointed out. This simply is not about one’s feelings about Israel or Gaza. It is never OK to target civilians for the actions of a government, and it's not OK when it's happening to Jews.

Mimi Rocah was the district attorney of Westchester County, New York, from 2021 to 2024 and was a federal prosecutor from 2001 to 2017.

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