UK
Never Again?
David Horovitz, founding editor of The Times of Israel, writes in his newspaper:
We had thought, after World War II, that much of humanity had recognized the evil it could demonstrably do, recoiled, and largely determined that it must not happen again. We had thought that, at least in our lifetimes and for a few generations to come, the oldest hatred had been marginalized. We were wrong.
Two generations ago, most of my father’s family fled Nazi Germany for London just in time — a year before the Frankfurt synagogue founded by my great-grandfather was burned down on Kristallnacht. No governments in purportedly reasonable countries are endorsing antisemitism and the targeting of Jews. But there is growing empathy in some government quarters for the obsessive and skewed hostility to Israel, and for policies that would weaken the only Jewish state’s capacity to defend itself against its avowedly genocidal enemies.
I don’t think there’s been a more worrying period for the Jewish people since World War II.
The central lesson of the Holocaust is what it says about humanity’s capacity for evil. It never occurred to me that it couldn’t happen again.
Israel has never been more important to the Jewish people. Jews must defend themselves to survive. I don’t think defeating antisemitism is a realistic goal.
I hope I’m wrong,
UK Prime Minister Speaks Out Against Antisemitism; Pledges More Funding
On February 28, 2024, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke at the annual dinner of the Community Security Trust (CST), whose mission is to protect the UK’s Jewish community:
We’ve got to end this passive tolerance of words and actions that go against what we stand for.
Yes, you can march and protest with passion; you can demand the protection of civilian life but no, you cannot call for Jihad there is no “context” in which its acceptable to beam antisemitic tropes onto Big Ben and there’s no cause you can use to justify the support of proscribed terrorist groups, like Hamas.
And yes, you can freely criticise the actions of this government, the Israeli government or indeed any government.
But no, you cannot use that as an excuse to call for the eradication of a State – or any kind of hatred or antisemitism.
These statements are fundamental to the liberal democratic values that define Britain.
They are the very essence of our identity of who we are as a country.
To belong here is to believe these things; to stand up for these things.
And it’s time we were much, much clearer about this.
Sunak also pledged a minimum of £18 million in CST funding every year for the next four years. Previously, CST was required to bid for funding every year. This will give the organization a reliable funding stream.
The full transcript of the speech is available here.
See also, The Times of Israel