Sydney terror deepens my doubts about the future of British Jews - The Jewish Chronicle

Nothing better illustrates the difference between shock and surprise than this morning’s Bondi Beach murders.

The attack is, of course, deeply shocking. Even those of us who have repeatedly warned that allowing Jew hate to flourish and grow would make such an incident – or rather incidents – inevitable are nonetheless shocked by the sheer evil on display. You would have to be inhuman not to be shocked by it.

But surprised? I don’t often claim to know what "the Jewish community” is thinking. We are far too varied for anyone to make such a claim. But I’ll stick my neck out on this. Is there a single Jew who did not expect to see Manchester happen? Or who did not expect to see more murders after Manchester?

Bondi didn’t happen here, obviously. But we all fear – we know – that something like it will. Because just as it sends a message when you tackle hate, so it sends an equal and opposite message when you don’t. And that message has been sent loud and clear by the refusal of our governments and authorities to act (let’s not forget that the hate marches began and then solidified under a Conservative government).

Which of us hasn’t had the conversation in recent months as to whether there is a future for us here? I’m going nowhere. They will have to do an Edward I to get rid of me. But like so many in our community, I fear for my kids’ future. I was lucky to be born and to live most of my life at a time when open and serious Jew hate was not the norm. That is no longer the case.

It’s said that Jew hate is being normalised. That’s wrong. It has already been fully normalised and it is folly to pretend otherwise. The toothpaste is out of the tube and I don’t see how it can be put back in. The only discussions which matter now are how we deal with that reality.

That reality has changed so much about how we will live our lives as Jews. First Yom Kippur, now Chanukah. If we look across the diaspora, the evidence suggests that Jewish festivals are now the occasions on which our enemies seek to kill us. It’s as if we have entered a time warp and gone back to late 19th century Russia.

I am not being facetious here. This normalised Jew hate is real, and it is not going to get better. CST is a superb organisation staffed by some of the most brilliant and committed people alive. But the idea that a communal charity can be a bulwark against a rising tide of Jew hate and terror is not so much unrealistic as fatalistic, because if that is all we have then the game really is up. The police are excellent at dealing with terror plots – I will always have personal reason to be grateful to them for that, as my JC colleagues will remember when I was editor, and my presence on a hit list meant I had armed protection outside the office and at home – but they are worse than useless at, well, policing.

Worse than useless because their refusal to act against chants such as “globalise the intifada” – globalise the slaughter of Jews, in other words – feeds the hate and enables the terrorists. Every single weekend Piccadilly Circus is taken over by Jew haters and their globalise the intifada chant. And neither the police – nor, of course, the Mayor of London, who has, to my knowledge, not once in two years expressed even a mild hint of a criticism of any of the hate marches and their antisemitic chants – do anything.

I am sorry to sound so desolate. I would like to think it’s because the murder of at least 11 Jews is so fresh in the mind. But it isn’t that. It’s because I see no other rational response than desolation at where we now are.

To get more from opinion, click here to sign up for our free Editor's Picks newsletter.

Topics:

Sydney terror attack

Australia

Terrorism