Ask the average Israeli about Britain and you will discover a considerable amount of affection has survived despite the increasing thorniness of the relationship at governmental and diplomatic levels.
Many identify as a fan of an English football club, be it Manchester United, Tottenham or Arsenal. Music, too bridges the divide, from the Beatles to Oasis and Radiohead, and all these cultural connections have helped to preserve a romantic notion of the UK.
But that image built on the past has been under a growing threat from the tide of hate and hostility to Israel pouring out in the news and on social media.
The almost weekly marches in London that began after October 7 calling for intifada and condemning Zionism are no longer shocking. Israelis watch their erstwhile friends with concern and a growing sense of resignation that the situation may soon be irreversible.
Even the once universal values of music, art and entertainment have become only cannon fodder in the extremism battleground. The outburst by Bob Vylan at Glastonbury last summer calling for “death to the IDF” seemed to reveal that the Britain which Israelis thought they knew was hardly to be recognised any more.
Still, the images from Golders Green of the stabbings last week were particularly shocking.
Israelis are hardened and accustomed to terror and conflict, but it was deeply disturbing to see the attack targeting a part of London many will know from their visits to family and friends in Britain, or indeed, for some, their original home.
Seeing their brothers and sisters in the diaspora suffer in the ways that they have is the last thing in the world any Jew in Israel wants.
The government in Jerusalem has been trying for several years to warn the UK about rising antisemitism and growing concern over Jewish safety.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote to Sir Keir Starmer about it last August, followed by President Herzog raising concern with King Charles to pass on on the British government in October.
But the warnings fell on deaf ears, say sources, or at least were certainly not fully heeded. Well-placed observers in Israel point to what they claim is an abundance of evidence for a growing threat to Britain’s Jewish community that far predates the escalation of tensions since October 7.
One Jerusalem insider has only one conclusion: “British Jews are expendable and its time for them to leave and come to Israel.”
Another political source echoes the alarm: “What we warned would happen in the UK has happened. Their decisions are dictated by what the jihadists want.
“There is a weakness in the UK. I see the relevance and importance of the Jewish community slip further down the agenda.
“A few years ago alienating the Jewish community had an effect. Now it has no effect at all. Their concerns are treated as irrelevant.”
The source directly links the escalation in antisemitism at least in part to Britain’s policy on Israel, even if it is a claim that the UK government would strongly deny.
Looking back to the previous British government’s straightforward support for Israel, the source says: “Rishi Sunak said, ‘We want you to win.’ The current Prime Minister does not say that.
“He is being dragged and pushed to ban hate marches. It is shocking, the way he appeases hatred on his streets.”
The source knows Britain and its Jewish community well and is unafraid to use terms that some will consider alarmist and hyperbolic in considering the future: “It’s finished. The diaspora in England is finished and there is no comeback. The same thing happened in Toulouse after the school attack [in which a rabbi and three Jewish pupils in the French city were shot dead in 2012]. It stops being a decision. Your personal safety is at risk and it becomes a no-brainer.
“The Jewish community in the UK have always been placid and unwilling to make waves, believing things will be OK. There has been a turning point. When a 76-year-old man is attacked at a bus stop in Golders Green, that becomes about personal safety. The same thing happened in Toulouse, where people simply left.”
The figures for aliyah suggest such alarm is not shared by the community in Britain, at least on the evidence to date.
In 2025, around 840 people arrived in Israel from the UK – the highest level for more than 40 years, but still a relatively small number in overall population terms. Yet according to the source, that only reflects a degree of denial by the Jewish community in Britain.
“The turning point was October 7. It brought everything to the surface, but it was always there. Jewish people put their heads in the sand for too long because they are placid and do not want to make a fuss.
“The UK will not protect you, and Israel is the only country where Jews are protected, despite everything we have had to go through. At the end of the day, our government protects us.”
Perhaps it is not surprising that British olim will echo such views: many will have factored such thoughts into their decision to make a new life and a new home in Israel.
One mother originally from Manchester who moved to Israel in 2015 says: “I think it’s par for the course the UK has had a problem for a long time, so it’s not surprising to see these attacks on the Jewish community.
“They have let the marches go on and on so the hatred for Jews will trickle down. I hope it will get better there as all my family live there but I doubt it. It’s a sad state of affairs – here, and there.”
Another British expatriate from London says: “As someone born and raised in the UK, watching the rise in antisemitism has been deeply unsettling because it doesn’t feel like it came out of nowhere. It’s more like something that was always there, just beneath the surface.
“There’s a real sense of loss. The UK always prided itself on tolerance, fairness, and quiet decency. It felt like a place where Jewish life could exist openly, open hostility is now part of everyday reality in a way that’s difficult to process.
“What’s perhaps most troubling is how normalised it can seem. There’s also a growing internal question: where does this lead? For many, the UK was never supposed to feel uncertain. And yet, for the first time in generations people are packing their bags.”
Many Israelis come from countries where there were once thriving Jewish communities that have now almost entirely disappeared, including across the Arab world. Carrying the burden of such history, there is growing unease about what they are seeing in Europe, including Britain, and the fear that the past eradication of whole communities may be repeated in ways that would until recently have seemed absurd if not unthinkable.
One former Londoner said: “When Israelis ask me what part of the UK I came from – my accent is a dead giveaway – it always ends in, ‘What a shame this has happened, I used to love the UK.’”
As Israelis observe rising tensions in Britain, history serves not only as a warning but also a way to shape the view of the present and its echoes of other chapters from Jewish history.
The outspoken condemnation of antisemitism by non-Jewish figures such as Kemi Badenoch and JK Rowling has been welcomed by British expatriates, who note also the significant if belated statements by Sir Keir Starmer and Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.
Israeli officials say they want to help not only the Jewish community but Britain as a whole against the threat of terror and extremism, sharing practical insights born from decades of conflict into how such threats evolve and can be contained.
The offers and the warnings from Jerusalem to London will continue to come: Israel can do little more for now.
Says one official: “The question now is whether the UK will take its head out of the sand.”
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