Since the beginning of the current campaign between Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Israel, there has been an alarming spike in hostilities against Jews. According to The New York Times, the Community Security Trust, which records antisemitic threats, saw a “490 percent increase” in antisemitic incidents from the previous seven days. The trust also said “it believed that many more attacks had gone unreported.” The attacks are not only growing more frequent, but also more brazen and violent, and the media coverage of them is, as always, biased or partial or nonexistent.
Regrettably, I don’t think there is much that UK Jews can do about it. As always, when Jews, or the State of Israel, are involved in a conflict, it galvanizes antisemites into action. As a result, the increase in antisemitic aggression is visible the world over, and not only in the UK.
For this reason, I don’t think that the UK Jews have anywhere to go. Israel might have been a safer place before, but I’m not sure this is still the case. It might become, in its own way, as unsafe as London or Brooklyn or anywhere else. In fact, the very places where Jews felt the safest have become the most unsafe places for Jews.
We are approaching a situation where people all over the world will tell Jews, “Who are you? You are not a nation, and therefore, you have no place. You conquered the land of Canaan, which belonged to seven other nations, and you think it belongs to you? Subsequently, you were driven out, and you yourselves fled from here, and now you want to return to that land?”
If we look into it, we will see that wherever there are Jews, there are problems. We are hated, rejected, and it will reach a point where we will not have one safe place for Jews. If we look even deeper, we will realize the reason for it, and then we will understand that in the current state of the people of Israel, we have nothing to look for on Earth. No one likes us; no one wants us, everyone hates us; and everyone rejects us.
In light of all this, the best, and only thing that Britain’s Jews should do is turn to one another. The unity of Jews has always been our shield against oppressors, aggressors, and other evildoers. Now, too, it is their only hope.
This, by the way, is true not only of UK Jews, but of all Jews wherever they are. In fact, our unity would be most effective if we weren’t forced into it by antisemites. If we opted for unity rather than our customary enmity toward each other, our haters would stop hating us. We wouldn’t have to apologize for being; our unity would project warmth and power, and its radiance would draw all the nations toward us, not in hostility, but in friendship.
Currently, the nations are becoming increasingly belligerent toward each other, and one way or the other, they blame it on the Jews. For our part, we do very little to show that they are wrong. On the contrary, we exude so much self-hatred that no one wants to associate with us. Therefore, the world will not change its attitude toward us until we change it toward each other. Our only hope lies in our unity—in times of war, as in times of peace.
[People driving through London in a convoy of cars shouting antisemitic obscenities. (Twitter) May 16, 2021]