Former Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie, speaking out Thursday about the shootings of two Israel embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., tells Newsmax that such violence is growing even in places where he thought it would be “unimaginable.”
“These two young people, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were starting on their lives, and they’re gunned down,” Wilkie told Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.”
The victims, reportedly a couple who had been planning to become engaged, were killed when the gunman approached them and two others as they left the Capital Jewish Museum and opened fire.
A Chicago man, Elias Rodriguez, 31, was arrested and reportedly yelled “Free Palestine” when being taken into custody.
He initially was tied to a socialist political party, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which has denied any association with him or the shootings, reports Newsweek.
Wilkie also pointed at Democrats, calling them “one party in this country” as well as groups that should be “standing up against antisemitism.”
“[They] are more worried about placating that one party than they are getting out and denouncing this and standing with people like President [Donald] Trump and fighting this,” said Wilkie.
He added that antisemitism is the “oldest hatred.”
“The notion that it has appeared in the streets of so many cities and our campuses is one of the saddest chapters in recent American history,” Wilkie said.
The former secretary continued that the fight against antisemitism needs to “come from the bottom.”
“We have children who, from their earliest time in school, are taught that America is a symbol of oppression and racism, and by extension, this little country in the Middle East, the 67 million people, a democracy, is somehow an outpost of colonial oppression,” said Wilkie.
And that is the “greatest danger” to the future of the United States, he said.
“If you can’t even elevate your nation rhetorically, how are you going to protect your nation when a crisis comes?” said Wilkie.
“We are the beneficiaries of a civilization that grew out of the Judean desert 3,000 years ago, and that continuum is everything that keeps the world from a new dark age,” he added. “It gave us free speech, free association, freedom of religion, the right to assemble, and the right to do what we want. The greatest of uncharted rights, the right to be left alone by government and others. And that’s the great tragedy of this.”
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