There will be no Jews left

Credit: CST website

“We will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets,” said Keir Starmer.

Talk about chutzpah.

Tolerating antisemitism on the streets is exactly what the British government has been doing every week since the first hate marches (sorry, “ceasefire” marches) on 7 October

Following the terrorist attack at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester and rising antisemitic hate crimes, Keir Starmer has announced a £10 million funding boost to enhance security at synagogues and Jewish schools, including measures like CCTV, alarms, and floodlights.

Obviously this is supposed to sound impressive and meaningful. £10 million is a nice neat, big round number, designed to grab your attention - it is salient as the nudgers would say. We’re supposed to be impressed by these pretty words of appeasement. But it’s a bit late now.

“Hatred and violence seeks to divide us. But we choose the path of solidarity. We stand with the Jewish community, and with all communities, who have been forced to live in fear,” said Shabana Mahmoud. Sorry Shabana, that’s not quite right. Hatred and violence are not sentient forces in their own right. People feel hatred and inflict violence. Which people, Shabana? Care to name them?

The Jewish community is under siege and the government’s response is to provide more security, not more freedom. Your presence is tolerated, but your safety is conditional.

And now there’s the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending their team’s Europa League match against Aston Villa. The Safety Advisory Group deemed it too risky to allow Israeli fans to travel to this match in Birmingham, citing potential protests and violence. The police accepted this decision.

And what does this say about the state of Britain today?

This decision is an admission that the police aren’t up to the job because of the huge scale of the problem. It is a striking admission that Jews simply aren’t safe.

And perhaps it’s not just about safety. From political elites to useful idiot celebrities, there are calls to bar Israel from global events, from sport to the Eurovision contest.

Zarah Sultana of the ‘Fruit and Nut’ party is quite open about where she would like to see this go. Just as she is open about wanting Palestine to be literally free “from the river to the sea”. In other words, the annihilation of the State of Israel.

Where does this end for British Jews?

Perhaps Jews will be told to just stay at home? A Jew lockdown — for their own safety, you understand? Or perhaps they should be confined to certain areas? Perhaps they should leave and go to Israel, the country our government once sought to restrict arms sales to while recognising the State of Palestine, currently run by psychopathic terrorists?

The problem is not just the hate. It’s the appeasement. It’s the refusal to name the problem, to confront the source of the hate, to protect the victims instead of confronting the perpetrators. It’s the normalisation of Jewish vulnerability.

We have to speak up, over and over, because antisemitism won’t simply disappear, and it won’t decrease on its own. The opposite: antisemitism grows and grows if left unchecked. If you have ever wondered what you would have done when confronted with antisemitism and the horrors of the Holocaust then you got a pretty good idea in the aftermath of 7 October.

Some Jews are leaving Britain. Some are thinking about it. Not just because of the hate, but because of the indifference. Because the state has decided that their safety is secondary to the difficulty of dealing with the causes of the problem.

If we do not wake up to this reality, there will be no Jews left in our country. And who could blame them.