Britain ‘Out of Control’

The stabbing attack at Golders Green, the Jewish suburb of London, brings into sharper focus the wave of antisemitism that is sweeping Britain. The hateful assaults came a day after Israel’s First Lady, Michal Herzog, completed a solidarity mission to the nation. She visited the site, also at Golders Green, where two Hatzola ambulances were burned last month. Also on the itinerary was the Manchester synagogue where two were murdered on Yom Kippur.This is a serious crisis in Britain, for Jews and Britons alike. Prime Minister Keir Starmer showed up on X in the wake of the stabbings to declare that the “antisemitic attack in Golders Green is utterly appalling. Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain.” That was hardly enough for Israel’s foreign ministry, which reckons in respect of antisemitism “that the UK government can no longer claim this is under control.”Jerusalem adds that Sir Keir’s “statements are no substitute for confronting the roots of antisemitism festering across the United Kingdom. British Jews should not need security patrols and emergency volunteers to live openly as Jews. Enough words. The UK must act decisively and urgently.” We applauded King Charles III’s becoming a patron of a Jewish communal security organization, but much more is needed. A report released earlier this month from the Institute of Jewish Policy Research found that while emigration to Israel from the United Kingdom had reached its highest level in 40 years, “the British Jewish community is not on the brink of an exodus.” A growing “sense of conditionality,” though, now mars how British Jews think about their future in the land of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, Sir Moses Montefiore, and Nathan Rothschild. The Community Security Trust — the organization now backed by the Crown — reports more than 3,700 incidents over the past year. That’s the second highest year on record, trailing only 2023. This week saw the launch of a government-commissioned independent review into “antisemitism in schools and colleges in England.” The probe was convened, His Majesty’s government reports, “following data showing an alarming rise in antisemitism in education.”Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, minces no words when he declares, as he did, following the stabbings, that “in one of the great capital cities of the West, it has become dangerous to openly walk the streets as a Jew. This is an unacceptable situation. It’s time for the world to wake up.” Israel’s government has determined that Britain had in 2025 the highest per capita rate of antisemitic assaults of any country with a large Jewish community.One British journalist, Nicole Lampert, echoes Israel’s foreign minister in asserting, as she did to the Sun by telephone from London, that antisemitism is “out of control.” She notes that a group affiliated with Tehran claimed the arson against the ambulances and detects antisemitism “all over our society.” Ms. Lampert also cites the rise of the Green Party and its “horrendous anti-Zionist and Jew-hating candidates.”Last month the Telegraph reported that a WhatsApp chat for the Greens featured such contributions as calling Jews “an abomination to this planet” and speculating as to whether the ambulance attack was a false flag operation. One of the party’s candidates at Newcastle reasons that “it takes serious effort not to be a tiny bit anti-Semitic.” This alliance between the Corbynist hard-left and Islamist violence threatens not only the Jews, but Albion itself.

Britain ‘Out of Control’

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