What did they think was going to happen? What did they believe allowing thousands to march through our streets week in and week out, glorifying terrorism and screaming “globalise the intifada” would lead to? What did they think that the courts not punishing Hamas fans, the medical boards saying there was nothing wrong with doctors writing screeds about “Jewish supremacy”, would result in?
All our politicians expressing their horror and sympathy with the Jewish community should look at how they have played a part in this. They’ve seen the threats against Britain’s Jews skyrocket, and while they have offered vague plaudits about how anti-Semitism and other forms of racism are bad, they have done nothing to stop it.
Our current leaders are people who stayed in the party – even in the cabinet – as Jeremy Corbyn ramped up anti-Semitism in the Labour party and in this country. They said anti-Semitism was a bad, bad thing but refused to look at where it was coming from or do anything about it.
Stop this hate preaching
It is there on the far-Left, which revels in the power of this hatred, it is there on the far-Right, which has always hated Jews, and it is there in extremist Islam. Watch, in the next few days, those politicians talk about community cohesion, even though we live in a country where some Imams (not all, there are many good Muslims, too) encourage hatred against Jews. They and the Crown Prosecution Service have not done enough to stop this hate preaching.
The massacre of October 7, 2023, gave these anti-Semites rocket fuel. The hate has rained down on Britain’s Jews. Kids in school, students in universities, patients in hospitals, people visiting their relatives in cemeteries, people in the workplace: there is barely a Jew in Britain who has not experienced some anti-Semitism in the past two years.
How did our leaders respond? Well, in the last few weeks, this Government rewarded terrorists who killed Jews with a state. They showed how killing Jews was acceptable. Then you have the likes of Sir Sadiq Khan – mayor of London, which houses the majority of Britain’s 290,000 Jews – calling Israel’s war against Hamas “a genocide”.
Khan was repeating what was said on those marches, the marches that claim Jews are the new Nazis.
I found out about the attack on my way out of the synagogue after the morning service for Yom Kippur. My synagogue, like most of Britain’s synagogues, including Heaton Park where the attack took place, has a ring of security around it: a steel gate, security guards (made up of both professionals and volunteers from the community), CCTV cameras, and a bombproof door.
Terrorists will always find a way
Because the threats against us were already so high, there could hardly have been more security. But terrorists will always find a way. What is particularly chilling is that this school is so close to Manchester’s Jewish school, King David.
Manchester’s Jewish community is close-knit, and my husband is part of it. One of those stabbed is a relative of my father-in-law’s girlfriend.
This attack couldn’t feel any closer to home.
For the last two years, every day, every month, it has felt like the hatred has been ramping up, ramping up, ramping up. Some friends have already left the country, and there are a few times when I meet with other Jews when the subject isn’t brought up. Are we safe in this country anymore? Do we have a future here? Increasingly, it feels like the answer is no.
Our leaders shouldn’t be surprised at what happened in Manchester. And if they want us to stay we need more than facile words about how sorry they are.
What did they think was going to happen? What did they believe allowing thousands to march through our streets week in and week out, glorifying terrorism and screaming “globalise the intifada” would lead to? What did they think that the courts not punishing Hamas fans, the medical boards saying there was nothing wrong with doctors writing screeds about “Jewish supremacy”, would result in?
All our politicians expressing their horror and sympathy with the Jewish community should look at how they have played a part in this. They’ve seen the threats against Britain’s Jews skyrocket, and while they have offered vague plaudits about how anti-Semitism and other forms of racism are bad, they have done nothing to stop it.
Our current leaders are people who stayed in the party – even in the cabinet – as Jeremy Corbyn ramped up anti-Semitism in the Labour party and in this country. They said anti-Semitism was a bad, bad thing but refused to look at where it was coming from or do anything about it.
Stop this hate preaching
It is there on the far-Left, which revels in the power of this hatred, it is there on the far-Right, which has always hated Jews, and it is there in extremist Islam. Watch, in the next few days, those politicians talk about community cohesion, even though we live in a country where some Imams (not all, there are many good Muslims, too) encourage hatred against Jews. They and the Crown Prosecution Service have not done enough to stop this hate preaching.
The massacre of October 7, 2023, gave these anti-Semites rocket fuel. The hate has rained down on Britain’s Jews. Kids in school, students in universities, patients in hospitals, people visiting their relatives in cemeteries, people in the workplace: there is barely a Jew in Britain who has not experienced some anti-Semitism in the past two years.
How did our leaders respond? Well, in the last few weeks, this Government rewarded terrorists who killed Jews with a state. They showed how killing Jews was acceptable. Then you have the likes of Sir Sadiq Khan – mayor of London, which houses the majority of Britain’s 290,000 Jews – calling Israel’s war against Hamas “a genocide”.
Khan was repeating what was said on those marches, the marches that claim Jews are the new Nazis.
I found out about the attack on my way out of the synagogue after the morning service for Yom Kippur. My synagogue, like most of Britain’s synagogues, including Heaton Park where the attack took place, has a ring of security around it: a steel gate, security guards (made up of both professionals and volunteers from the community), CCTV cameras, and a bombproof door.
Terrorists will always find a way
Because the threats against us were already so high, there could hardly have been more security. But terrorists will always find a way. What is particularly chilling is that this school is so close to Manchester’s Jewish school, King David.
Manchester’s Jewish community is close-knit, and my husband is part of it. One of those stabbed is a relative of my father-in-law’s girlfriend.
This attack couldn’t feel any closer to home.
For the last two years, every day, every month, it has felt like the hatred has been ramping up, ramping up, ramping up. Some friends have already left the country, and there are a few times when I meet with other Jews when the subject isn’t brought up. Are we safe in this country anymore? Do we have a future here? Increasingly, it feels like the answer is no.
Our leaders shouldn’t be surprised at what happened in Manchester. And if they want us to stay we need more than facile words about how sorry they are.