The End of Antisemitism

On Yom Kippur-+the holiest day in the Jewish religious calendar--two Jewish people were killed and three left in serious condition after a car ramming and stabbing attack outside a synagogue in Manchester. The suspect, who was shot dead on the scene was a 35 year old British citizen of Syrian descent.

In response to the Yom Kippur attack, and the rise in antisemitic incidents, the Prime Minister assured British Jewry that Britain doesn't simply provide refuge for Jews. The United Kingdom, he stated, offers Jews a home. It is a country where Jewish buildings, synagogues, and schools will receive round-the-clock protection.

On behalf of the nation, Keir Stammer offered his condolences to the families and victims affected, and stated that 'Britain will come together to wrap our arms around your community and show you that Britain is a

place where you and your family are safe, secure and belong.'

In response to such support and assurances, community leaders of the UK's Jewish population of approximately 275,000 are now asking what can be done to keep Jewry safe. Determined to protect fellow Jews from further attack, they have called for extra layers of security as well as a strong response from the government to the rising levels of danger.

But will political assurances by the British government and the demands from British Jews curtail the growing antipathy toward the Jewish community? For over two thousand years Jews have been hated because in numerous ways they were different from the general population. But today the situation is different: Jew-hatred is

largely fuelled now by the actions of the Israeli government.

For nearly a century, the Palestine-Israel conflict has given rise to a new form of antisemitism. Arab antisemitism has exploded around the globe. And most recently, the war in Gaza has enflamed critics of Israel everywhere. Unlike previous kinds of antisemitism, Jews are not detested because they are outsiders. Jewry today is loathed because of Israel's merciless onslaught of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Over the past two years hundreds of thousands of pro-Palestinians have marched through streets in countries around the world protesting against Israel's onslaught in Gaza.

In the past Jews were hated because they were different from the majority population.

These differences varied considerably from century to century. By contrast, the explosion of Jew-hatred today is based on deeply-held moral objections to Israeli policy. Critics around the world are shocked and horrified by the ways in which the Israeli military is carrying out its campaign. Day after day numerous television and You Tube channels portray the deaths of innocent civilians including women and children.

The explosion of this new kind of antisemitism will, I believe, have devastating consequences. No longer will the Jewish community be regarded as innocent victims as they were in past centuries.. Instead Jewry will be viewed as perpetrators of crimes against humanity. The Arab world and beyond will not forgive Israel for its onslaught. And these modern antisemites will be joined by millions of protestors around the globe who regard the Jewish

community as inhumane. The current crimes against humanity will not be forgotten, and the memory of this war will continue to haunt Jewry.

Security for the British Jewish community will thus not come about because of political statements. Nor will Jews be safe because they demand it. Jews will be secure only if the war in Gaza ends.

But it is not enough for the war simply to stop. What is now required is for Jews to empower the powerless after more than a century of bloody conflict. The Palestinian people must have a state of their own.

More than 75 years after the creation of the state of Israel, painful compromises must be made by Jews as well as Palestinians in an effort to find a way forward. Only by joining

in common cause with Palestinians who seek liberation and freedom can contemporary Jewry be safe in the countries where they live. It is not enough for the British government to promise safety. Nor will Jew-hatred cease because the Jewish community demands it. Instead antisemitism will intensify until the Palestinian problem is solved. The Gaza war must stop. And Palestinians need to have a home of their own, as Jews did in 1948.