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Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/08/30/return-of-anti-semitism-is-warning-to-every-democracy/
The Resurgence of Antisemitism Is a Warning to Every Democracy
(Telegraph-UK) Dr. Haim Ben Yakov - One of the most dangerous mistakes Western democracies are making today is to treat antisemitism as a problem that concerns only Jews. It does not. Antisemitism is a symptom of a deeper civic and moral disorder. The resurgence of antisemitism across Europe and North America should be understood as an early warning signal for every democracy. Today, public debate increasingly rewards emotional certainty over intellectual honesty. In such an environment, antisemitism flourishes wherever complexity is replaced by slogans, wherever individual responsibility gives way to victimhood, and wherever democratic societies lose confidence in the universal principles that once sustained them. The events of October 7, 2023, revealed how quickly parts of public discourse became unable, or unwilling, to distinguish between the deliberate murder of civilians and the political narratives constructed to justify it. Many public institutions appeared unable to make a basic moral distinction, excusing the deliberate murder of civilians. Antisemitism has historically provided societies with a ready-made explanation for complexity. It transforms uncertainty into certainty by offering a familiar culprit. The responsibility of democracies is to preserve the moral distinction between criticism and dehumanization. Criticism examines decisions. Dehumanization questions the legitimacy of an entire people and denies a nation's right to exist. Opposition to specific Israeli policies too often portrays the very existence of the Jewish state as uniquely illegitimate. Once that boundary disappears, antisemitism presents itself as virtue. The most important question facing democratic societies today is not how much they sympathize with Israel. It is whether they are still capable of making elementary moral distinctions. Can they recognize the deliberate murder of civilians for what it is? Can they condemn terrorism without immediately searching for explanations that diminish personal responsibility? A society that remains confident in its principles does not hesitate before condemning the massacre of civilians. A society that has lost confidence in its own values begins by asking whether the victims somehow deserved their fate. The strength of a democracy is measured by its willingness to defend moral principles even when doing so is uncomfortable, unpopular, or politically costly. A society that cannot defend the dignity of its smallest minority will eventually lose the ability to defend the freedom of everyone. The writer is CEO of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. He is the father of Yuval Ben Yakov, an Israeli soldier who was killed defending Israel during the first hours of the October 7 attack.