By Jim Geraghty
Monday, June 02, 2025
There are monsters among us.
Some might object to that as a dehumanizing term for the
perpetrator of Sunday’s act of terror. But what other word so accurately
describes a man who shows up to a march of Americans — marching to call on
Hamas to release the remaining hostages — and who starts hurling Molotov
cocktails to burn them to death? How else to label someone who looks at a crowd
of senior citizens and concludes, “They must burn”?
How do you survive the Holocaust and live to see
old age, only to have some monster try to incinerate you a second time — this
time on the streets of the United States? An attempt to incinerate you a second
time for being a Jew, right here in America?
You have probably noticed a recurring pattern here.
Less than two months ago, a man attempted to burn down
the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg, Pa. The Dauphin County district
attorney’s office released audio of the indicted arsonist calling 911 and declaring, “Governor Josh Shapiro needs to
know that Cody Balmer will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do
to the Palestinian people.” As governor of Pennsylvania, Shapiro has no formal
role in U.S. foreign policy. He has standard pro-Israel views.
The criminal complaint against Balmer notes:
Prior to interviewing BALMER, he
was advised of Miranda Warnings. BALMER advised that he understood his rights
and agreed to speak with Troopers. During this interview, BALMER admitted to
harboring hatred towards Governor SHAPIRO. . . . BALMER also advised that prior
to committing these acts, he was aware his actions would result in negative
consequences. When asked if he was aware that Governor SHAPIRO and others were
home at the time of this act, BALMER advised that he was aware this was a
possibility. BALMER also admitted that he knew it was a possibility people
could be injured by his actions. BALMER was asked specifically what he would
have done if Governor SHAPIRO found him inside of his residence to which he
advised he would have beaten him with his hammer.
(Speaking of hateful nutjobs who want to beat political
figures with a hammer, do you feel like you’ve heard a lot more about the guy who attacked Paul Pelosi than this guy?)
The search warrant for Balmer’s residence declared
police were looking for “any and all cell phones, laptops, tablets, or any
electronic device that could store or transmit data. Any writings or notes that
contain any of the following: the name of Josh Shapiro; reference to Palestine,
Gaza, Israel or the current conflict in Gaza.”
It was just a week and a half ago that an ideologue
consumed by hate gunned down Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim in cold
blood as they left the Young Diplomats Reception of the American Jewish
Committee in Washington, D.C.
From the criminal
complaint against Elias Rodriguez:
RODRIGUEZ spontaneously stated on
scene to MPD, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, I am unarmed.”
RODRIGUEZ was holding a red scarf identified by one witness as a “Kaffiyeh.” As
MPD officers were escorting RODRIQUEZ from the Museum, he shouted “Free
Palestine.”
RODRIGUEZ is captured on the
video extending both his arms in the direction of the decedents and firing
several times, as indicated by the muzzle flashes. Once the decedents fell to
the ground, RODRIGUEZ is captured on the video advancing closer to the decedents,
leaning over with them with his arm extended, and firing several more times. As
Decedent-1 attempted to crawl away from RODRIGUEZ, he followed behind her and
fired again. After a brief moment, RODRIGUEZ appeared to reload his firearm. At
the same time, Decedent-1 sat up. Once he reloaded, RODRIGUEZ fired several
times at Decedent-1.
And now yesterday’s horror, where yet another
“anti-Zionist” activist for Palestine decided that a bunch of Jews had to die
for the outrageous provocation of marching in support of hostages, who have now
been held for 603 days.
The ugly truth is that Hamas’s war against the Jews has
come to America. Sure, the perpetrators of these attacks may not have Hamas
membership cards, but their worldview, agenda, and increasingly, their methods
are indistinguishable from that of the terrorist group.
And this is why no one believes, or should believe,
anyone who says, “I’m not antisemitic, I’m just anti-Zionist.”
You may say you’re anti-Zionist, but your
political allies keep trying to kill random Jews. They also keep tearing down public menorahs, making threats to Hillels on
college campuses, spray-painting hateful messages on synagogues. This crowd
insists it is only objecting to the policies of the Israeli government and,
entirely coincidentally, that rage just keeps accidentally hitting random
American Jews.
The governor’s mansion is not an IDF base. A young couple
are not IDF soldiers. A parade of elderly Americans calling for the hostages to
be released is not an IDF commando unit.
One of the core tenets of Hamas and every other
virulently antisemitic terrorist group is that there is no such thing as an
innocent civilian, that every Jew everywhere in the world is a legitimate
target. We’re seeing that same worldview at work on our own soil. These people
don’t hate Israel; they just hate Jews and don’t want to admit it.
On May 27, the “DSA Liberation Caucus” — a self-described
“Marxist-Leninist-Maoist caucus” within the Democratic Socialists of America — declared,
“Free Elias Rodriguez and all political prisoners.”
Remember, Rodriguez shot and executed Milgrim as she
attempted to crawl away. But in the minds of these people, he’s a “political
prisoner.” You see, murder is part of their political agenda.
Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is a member of
the Democratic Socialists of America. The DSA gave New York Congresswoman
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a conditional endorsement in 2024, and the DSA withdrew their endorsement of Texas
Democratic Congressman Greg Casar in 2022. You can find a list of lower-level
DSA officeholders here.
On a separate note, Sunday’s terror attack appears to be just about the most stinging indictment of the Biden
administration’s immigration policies imaginable:
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, was
arrested and taken to the hospital with minor injuries after his alleged attack
on the “Run for Their Lives” group that was gathering on Pearl Street, police
said Sunday night.
Soliman is an Egyptian national
who overstayed his visa after entering the U.S. during the Biden
administration, three Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement sources told Fox News.
Soliman first arrived in the U.S.
after landing at Los Angeles International Airport on Aug. 27, 2022, with a
non-immigrant visa.
He was authorized to stay through
Feb. 2, 2023, but never left. On Sept. 9, 2022, he filed a claim with U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services.
On March 29, 2023, Soliman was
granted work authorization, which was valid through March of this year.
That’s from Fox News. Meanwhile, in the 6 p.m. hour yesterday, CNN featured Andrew
McCabe, former deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (and
acting director between James Comey and Christopher Wray), who contended that
the FBI was rushing to judgment by labeling the event an “act of terror.”
JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: Andrew,
let’s go first to you. What — I’m kind of is standing out to me just in terms
of a law enforcement perspective right now is that the local authorities are
saying one thing, and the FBI is saying something slightly different.
ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW
ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes. That’s never a great start. I think that the press
conference that we saw, one thing was abundantly clear is they, the local
authorities, and I’m not sure we got the name of that person who was speaking.
He seems to be a chief or somebody in charge there.
DEAN: Yes. Same. Yes.
MCCABE: Yes. He is really being
very, very careful. And I think that’s the right approach at this point. They
don’t have a clear idea that they’re willing to communicate to the rest of the
world yet of even exactly what happened, who was there, how they were attacked
with fire, and what the purpose or the motive of that attack might have been.
So he was very, very clear to say that they’re not drawing any conclusions
about terrorism or anything else at this point.
They’re trying to figure out who
they have in custody and what that person might have done and who he was trying
to hurt with that action. So it’s hard to imagine that the FBI has more or
better information at this point to kind of rush out with the conclusion within
like 10 minutes after we all started hearing about this, that it’s a targeted
act of terror. It may very well be, but most of the time you try to be very
careful about attaching that label to an attack until you have solid evidence
that indicates a motive that would qualify as terrorism, like an act intended
to intimidate a population or to change the impact, change the direction of
government, that sort of thing.
Those are all parts of the
terrorism statute. So I think we go with what we’re hearing from the folks who
are closest to the event at this point. And they do have a lot of work to do,
but they seem to be on top of it. And we’ll hear from them again tonight,
apparently.
What other motive did McCabe envision was at work here?
Robbery? Sexual jealousy?
Ben Williamson, assistant director for public affairs at
the FBI, responded on X, “The guy shouted ‘Free Palestine’ while
throwing fire bombs at a crowd of Jewish people. We correctly referred to an
investigation of terrorism, will continue to do so, and we have zero interest
in what either these CNN guests have to say. Kick rocks.”
There are a lot of times when a Trump administration
spokesman’s default setting of brash, in-your-face pugnaciousness and contempt
comes across as unprofessional and immature. This is not one of those times.
ADDENDA: A little while back, I joined Ray Powell
and Jim Carouso on their podcast, Why
Should We Care About the Indo-Pacific, for a wide-ranging discussion
covering how intelligence agencies are increasingly convinced that Beijing
covered up Covid-19’s laboratory origins, to China’s heavy influence on U.S.
and international institutions, to America’s shifting global media strategy
under Donald Trump.
Ray’s
a U.S. Air Force veteran who has served in a variety
of positions including air attaché to Vietnam from 2013 to 2016, and defense
attaché to Australia from 2017 to 2020.
Jim’s a former chargé d’affaires at
the U.S. Embassy in Canberra, Australia, and chargé d’affaires at the U.S.
Mission to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. You’ll definitely want
to check them out.
And over in that other Washington publication I write for, an
examination of how the Trump administration’s Department of Justice is riding
to the rescue of Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, who currently has a job
approval rating of 14 percent.
The original draft of the piece began:
Back in 2023, I greeted Chicago’s election of Brandon Johnson as its newest
mayor with intense pessimism. I concluded the “city electorate’s collective
decision to reject [the preceding unpopular mayor Lori] Lightfoot and replace
her with Johnson reflects a fervent belief that hard-left, combative
progressivism is the right way to run a city, or perhaps the only way to
run a city, no matter what results are generated by that philosophy and those
polices.” As you might expect, a whole bunch of progressives disagreed
strongly.
My editor observed, correctly, that this sounded like an
“I told you so,” in light of Johnson’s current immense unpopularity. Yes! Yes,
it does!
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