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Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-891526
When Jewish Ambulances Burn, No One Is Safe
(Jerusalem Post) William C. Daroff - The arson attack in London's Golders Green, targeting ambulances operated by a Jewish volunteer rescue organization, shatters a basic rule of civilized society. Ambulances save lives. They do not carry ideology. Anyone who burns them does not protest. They declare that nothing remains off limits. This attack fits a pattern that grows more violent, more organized, and more brazen. Evidence points to networks aligned with the Islamic Republic of Iran directing, enabling, and inspiring violence against Jewish targets across multiple countries. This is not random hatred. It is strategy. Iran uses proxies and deniability to project power beyond its borders. Antisemitism does not stay contained. It escalates. It tests how much a society will tolerate before it acts. Once violence replaces rhetoric, the damage does not stop with Jews. It spreads outward and weakens the norms that protect everyone else. This moment does not call for statements. It demands action. Governments must take responsibility for the security of Jewish institutions. In the U.S. alone, Jewish communities spend more than $750 million each year on guards, surveillance, hardened infrastructure, and emergency preparedness. That is indefensible. Protecting houses of worship, schools, and communal institutions sits at the core of state responsibility. Violence does not begin with violence. It begins with language that society excuses, minimizes, or disguises. Stop pretending that rhetoric and violence exist in separate worlds. When attackers target institutions of care, worship, and communal life because they are Jewish, the issue extends beyond antisemitism. It becomes a test of whether democratic societies still enforce their own rules. Societies that fail to defend these boundaries lose them. The writer is CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.