UK
Keir Starmer’s ‘lamentation’ of Manchester attack is a ‘depraved opportunity for PR'
Author and former JC editor Jake Wallis Simons condemned the government for ‘hammering Israel’ for the past two years.
October 6, 2025 14:04
Author and former JC editor Jake Wallis Simons condemned the government for ‘hammering Israel’ for the past two years.
October 6, 2025 14:04UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's “lamentation” of Manchester's Heaton Park Synagogue terror attack was a "depraved opportunity for PR" after two years of "hammering Israel" according to former JC editor Jake Wallis Simons.
The author was in conversation with podcast host Brendan O'Neill at a packed JC event at Belsize Square Synagogue on Sunday to launch his new book, during which he hit out at Starmer over his response to last week's attack, which saw two Jews killed.
"I was most appalled by the eyewitness report of the attacker who said, 'this is what you get for killing our children' - that was in his head," Wallis Simons began.
Pointing the finger at a handful of alleged instigators, he said: "It is the very people who spent two years inciting against the Jews... whether it's the mainstream media, the BBC… It is incitement of violence.
"The prime minister, recognising the Palestinian state, week one, Hamas was congratulating him, week two, he was lamenting a Hamas-style attack.
"I dare say Hamas was celebrating the attack the same way they celebrated the recognition of Palestine."
He continued: "On October 7, people saw more clearly. You had Israel and you had jihadis and the problem was the jihadis, but since then, Hamas has got society to think that actually the problem isn't the jihadis, they are just responding to the real problem, which is Israel."
Wallis Simons added that he believes that the response by Starmer and other government officials was opportunistic.
"Whether it's Keir Starmer or the others on the left… even though they have been hammering Israel constantly for the last two years, now they're lamenting the deaths of Jews… It was a depraved opportunity for PR."
He went on to say: "One tweet 'we are so sorry about the deaths in Manchester, ' the very next tweet 'Israel is genocidal'."
"All I want from Starmer is some silence. Just don't say anything. Just hang your head. Don't say anything. We don't want to hear anything. Not now Keir. Not after two years. Not after recognising a Palestinian state. Zip it. Off you go'."
Never Again? How the West Betrayed the Jews and Itself was released on October 2, the day of the Heaton Park Synagogue attack.
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