EDITORIAL: Political cowardice enables violent anti-Semitism
So now it is Britain’s turn to confront the anti-Semitism that has taken root at its heart.
Two Jews were murdered and another three seriously injured when a man who authorities have since identified as a British citizen who came to the UK from Syria as a child, drove a car into pedestrians before leaping out to stab anyone in sight.
On its own, that is an act so vile to defy comprehension.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.That it took place outside a synagogue, on Yom Kippur — the Jewish Day of Atonement and the holiest day on the Jewish calendar — magnifies the horror.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who flew back into the country from Denmark after the attack, responded with the same formulaic platitudes that have become the go-to for Western leaders in the wake of these chillingly common events.
Expressions of shock and sadness. Promises to do more to protect Jewish people. And assurances that the UK was a place where Jews were welcome and valued, despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
That such a barbarous event occurred in Britain should come as no shock to Sir Keir. This isn’t something that came out of nowhere.
The dots are easy to connect.
A straight line can be drawn from the atrocities of October 7, 2023 to Manchester’s Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue.
Along the way are all the other provocations.
Like in Australia, anti-Semitism has become normalised in the UK.
Like in Australia, there are frequent weekend demonstrations, at which concern for the suffering of Gazans is used as a fig leaf to express hatred of Jews.
Like in Australia, synagogues have been vandalised.
Like in Australia, students at Jewish schools have been discouraged from wearing their uniforms in public for fear they will be the target of abuse from strangers.
Like in Australia, British Jews have felt ostracised and attacked for their religion.
And like in Australia, the response from the UK’s leaders has been at best weak and at worst enabling of hatred.
The events in Manchester aren’t solely the act of a handful of murderous Jew-hating zealots.
They are the product of a culture that turns a blind eye to the creeping sickness of anti-Semitism; of a political leadership too cowardly to speak up against those who sow these seeds of hatred.
Sir Keir’s insincere professions of shock at the bloodshed in Manchester are all the more galling given his condemnation in recent months of the actions taken by Israel in defence of itself against Hamas. Sir Keir was among the coterie of left-leaning Western leaders to recognise a Palestinian State at last month’s UN General Assembly.
So too was Anthony Albanese, whose response to escalating anti-Semitism in Australia closely mirrors that of his good friend.
Sir Keir has found out that you cannot profess to be surprised that railing against the Jewish state emboldens violence against Jews themselves. Let’s hope Australian Jews don’t have to suffer for Mr Albanese to learn the same lesson.
