The Israeli‑American Civic Action Network (ICAN) is outraged and heartsick after a terrorist gunman murdered Israeli Embassy staff members Yaron Lischinsky, 29, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 27, outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, on 21 May 2025.
This crime targeted Israeli diplomatic personnel on American soil because of who they are and whom they serve.
Newly unsealed charging documents reveal the full depravity of the attack: the gunman fired at least twenty‑one 9 mm rounds, chased Sarah Milgrim as she crawled for safety, and executed her from behind. Such calculated brutality leaves no room for leniency and demands the harshest sanction the law permits.
Several members of the ICAN team have served in Israeli diplomatic capacities or worked shoulder‑to‑shoulder with its envoys. For us, this attack is not abstract; it is an assault on former coworkers, colleagues, friends, and family. It was an act of antisemitic terrorism and an assault on the special alliance shared by the United States and Israel.
We stand shoulder to shoulder with Ambassador Yechiel Leiter, the entire Embassy team, and the families of Yaron and Sarah. Their lives were devoted to building bridges. Their murders must not be met with silence or hesitation.
We note today’s announcement by Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Judge Jeanine Pirro that this murder is death‑penalty eligible. ICAN trusts the Department of Justice and the Metropolitan Police Department to bring the strongest possible federal hate crime and terrorism charges, prosecute swiftly, and ensure a sentence that matches the gravity of the offense.
We further note that this atrocity did not occur in a vacuum. Modern blood libels against Israel - pushed by the United Nations and its bodies such as UNRWA and the UN Human Rights Council, repeated endlessly in major media - have created a climate that invites violence against Jews. Hostile, one‑sided, and dishonest statements from international organizations fuel that hatred. Governments in Qatar, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and South Africa amplify and bankroll these slanders. At the same time, so-called human-rights NGOs and radical activist groups recycle them for global consumption. These actors bear moral responsibility for every bullet fired in Washington.
ICAN will continue to confront the ideology that inspired this violence. Antisemitism thrives when leaders hedge their words. We expect moral clarity from elected officials, civic organizations, and faith leaders. Condemn the murders without qualifiers and commit to stopping the next attack.
We also call on Congress and the Administration, as well as relevant state and local agencies, to deploy immediate, tangible resources, including enhanced diplomatic security, support for vulnerable Jewish institutions, and a zero‑tolerance policy toward incitement so that no other family endures this grief.
Based on the endless repetition of the lies spewed by the UN in the mass media, and the hyping of that obvious blood libel, it has become very clear to ICAN that much of the media is no longer interested in reporting facts about Israel, but rather only contributing to the cult like craze to vilify Israel.
This echoes previous waves of lethal antisemitism— from the late‑19th‑century pogroms in czarist Russia, to the anti‑Jewish violence sparked by Black Death conspiracy theories in medieval Europe, to the state‑sanctioned Jew‑hatred that swept the continent in the 1930s.
We know exactly where these canards lead, and ICAN will lead in fighting this worldwide hate campaign against Jews while remaining relentless in the fight against violent extremism and terrorism.