|
Trending Topics
|
After a Series of Deadly Attacks on the Global Jewish Community, Jews Have Good Reason to Be Angry
(Guardian-UK) Dave Rich - Heaton Park, Boulder, Washington, D.C. - and now Bondi Beach. The 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas unleashed a wave of antisemitism around the world. The footage of two gunmen calmly taking aim at families enjoying a Hanukkah party is utterly chilling. Places that used to feel safe are now suddenly on the frontline. If you are Jewish, wherever you are, the decision about whether to celebrate Jewish festivals anywhere other than in your own home may be a matter of life and death. Nobody should have to live like this. Our societies cannot continue to function if this becomes the norm. The whole basis of Western liberal democracy, the belief in shared values within a diverse society, is endangered by these attacks. Some people react as if this terrorism is akin to a natural disaster or unforeseen tragedy. But terrorism does not emerge from a vacuum. It is merely the most violent, lethal expression of a set of attitudes and beliefs that are much more widely held. The ideas that some take as justification for murder are popularized and normalized through the language of much of the anti-Israel movement that has marched up and down our city streets and through our university campuses these past two years. Violent words lead to violent actions, especially when left unchallenged and unchecked by the law. Lots of people involved in pro-Palestinian activism do not support antisemitic violence against Jews. But like it or not, it seems this movement has generated and sustained a political culture in which violence is both conceivable and enacted. Shooting Jews celebrating Hanukkah is the most extreme manifestation of this hatred. This is now a global emergency of antisemitism, and it is the consequence of two years of turning a blind eye, taking the easy path and ignoring the warnings. Alongside the grief and the defiance, Jews are angry. And they have every right to be. The writer is director of policy at Britain's Community Security Trust.