Right now, Jews are terrified. And it’s not difficult to understand why.

Israelis are surrounded by radical Islamic groups — including Hamas and Hezbollah, funded by states such as Iran — intent on achieving one single mission: the destruction of the Jewish people. These groups (despite the political correctness of certain media reports) are not military in nature. They are terrorist groups driven by a hunger for the blood of innocents. Through their demonic eyes, the more innocent the victim, the greater their success.

Almost two weeks ago, Hamas launched an assault on civilian areas of Israel. Beyond its now “normal” barrage of rockets targeting homes, schools, hospitals, and workplaces, Hamas engaged in acts of sheer brutality that left many in a state of complete disbelief. Its terrorists gunned down young people at a concert. They raped women next to their dead friends. They dragged captives back to Gaza. They burned families alive. They decapitated babies. Young or old, healthy or sick, man or woman, Israeli or non-Israeli, it made no difference. All that mattered to these Palestinian terrorists was that each victim was Jewish.

Hamas' unimaginable viciousness — both now and since its inception — is so well known to those in Israel that one father was gut-wrenchingly relieved when he discovered that his beautiful 8-year-old daughter, Emily, was murdered rather than captured. Death, he argued, was a better fate than what would have been waiting for her in Gaza.

But despite this horror, this is not why Jews are terrified.

After all, while these attacks are unprecedented in scale compared to recent decades, the existence of genocidal groups surrounding the Jewish state of Israel is hardly new. After all, since its founding, multiple attempts have been made by Islamic groups and Arab nations to wipe Israel off the face of the planet — with Israel emerging victorious every single time.

No, what terrifies Jews like me is not necessarily the knowledge that radical Islamic groups in the Middle East would delight in the mass murder of Jews.

Instead, it is the widespread, unapologetic, and bloodthirsty celebration of antisemitic genocide on Western streets. People in Sydney chanting, “gas the Jews.” People in London marched in favor of a 21st-century Holocaust. New York City — home to more Jews than any other place on Earth outside of Israel — grinding to a halt as Americans, draped in Palestinian flags, cheer on the rape, burning, mutilation, decapitation, torture, and murder of men, women, children, and babies simply because they’re Jewish.

And all while the fires of rage are fueled by figures such as Palestinian-American Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who proudly spreads the now-debunked claim that Israel destroyed a Gaza hospital. Such propaganda amounts to nothing short of a blood libel.

The vile rhetoric we have seen explode across the supposedly civilized and tolerant Western world is indistinguishable from the propaganda of Nazi Germany. If anything, the actions and language of Hamas are worse, not in scale but in attitude. After all, Nazi Germany covered up its unspeakable crimes. Hamas boasts of them.

And while public support was almost universally in favor of Israel in the immediate aftermath of the attack, Jews will notice a familiar pattern: The world is far more comfortable with Jews as silent and willing victims. The moment Jews dare to do what they have been unable to do for thousands of years of persecution — fight back, the world becomes immediately uncomfortable. Suddenly, phrases such as “de-escalation,” “proportionality,” and “cycle of violence” creep back into the conversation in a way that they wouldn’t have had any other group been attacked.

So why are Jews terrified? Because we are witnessing the rebirth of modern-day Nazism in the form of Medieval radical Islamic barbarism, and it’s a rebirth that has not only been willingly imported by the countries that defeated Nazism in the 20th century but is rapidly taking control, reminding Jews (yet again) that nowhere is safe.

Ian Haworth is a columnist, speaker, and host of Off Limits . You can follow him on X at @ighaworth . You can also find him on Substack .