Discussing the impact Israel's government has on a terror attack on a Mancunian synagogue over 2,000 miles away could seem antisemitic for anyone but a Jew. You might even wonder how one could suggest there is a link. So, I’ll do my best to make it clear.
I grew up in a leafy suburb of Greater Manchester, less than a 15-minute walk away from the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation. I remember it to be a fairly quiet, poorly-attended synagogue. On a day like Yom Kippur, that definitely wasn’t the case. There was a “large number of worshippers,” Greater Manchester Police said.
What was once a predominantly Jewish area has changed over time. Now, the area has a lot more Muslims, which, in of itself, shouldn’t be an issue – and that’s where the Israeli government plays a role, which I’ll get to.
The British Muslim community has looked on at the war in Gaza in horror as the death toll has risen, as hospitals have been hit, and as people have gone hungry.
As many would argue, Hamas shoulders plenty of blame for this. The terror group's long-documented strategy to maximize civilian death tolls and suffering is well-known by Jews in Manchester. Muslims, however, are much less informed.
Social media feeds are filled with the very real suffering in Gaza. But that context? Nowhere to be found. Anger has grown towards Israel, its government, and the IDF. At this point, accurate or not, the word genocide is firmly associated with Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
I recall following the war in 2014, I had the opportunity to interview the then-spokesperson of Israel’s Foreign Ministry as part of a college project. Amid a shaky ceasefire, the Israeli government decided to reclassify 400 hectares of land in the West Bank. I asked a broad question about antisemitism and whether the Israeli government ever considered antisemitism in Europe, and the impact its actions have on Jews in the Diaspora.
The response was telling, “I do not think that the conflict in Gaza was a source of antisemitism. Antisemitism is always there,” Emmanuel Nahshon told me. In fairness to him, he went on to diplomatically discuss the timing, saying, “Whether it was a wise decision to take some policy decision regarding land in the West Bank at this particular moment. This is another issue altogether.”
But this illustrates an Israeli government strategy that has only become more firmly entrenched over time. Simply: antisemitism exists around the world, it always has. So why should we care what part we have to play in it?
Israeli condemnations ring hollow as gov't lacks plan on antisemitism
What indicates that successive Netanyahu-led governments have continued to adopt this strategy is the recent news that Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism Michal Cotler-Wunsh resigned from her volunteer position. She cited the lack of “comprehensive strategy or authority” to actually handle the fight against Jew-hatred. Cotler-Wunsh described being repeatedly ignored on the issue.
The words of Israel's Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa'ar, and PM Netanyahu, who condemned the attack publicly in separate posts on X, sound incredibly hollow against this backdrop.
Behind closed doors, and even sometimes publicly, Israel advocacy organizations will admit that the Israeli government has handled the war in Gaza badly. Statements and actions were made with little thought for how they would be received internationally. One prominently placed Israel advocacy leader once told me that “this is the worst possible government for the worst possible war.”
And here we are: two Jews dead and others wounded in Manchester, at the hands of what appears to be a Muslim man, at a time when the Israeli government has made little effort to turn down the temperature or make better efforts to understand how its actions and statements affect the Diaspora – or even non-Jewish people who look at Israel from afar. In fact, in no surprise to anyone, the antisemitism envoy position wasn't even set up by a Netanyahu-led government.
But in reality, it makes sense in some ways. The former Israeli ambassador to the UK, and former Likud minister Tzipi Hotovely, in 2017, accused Diaspora, particularly American, Jews of not not “understanding the complexities of the region,” saying that they were “people that never send their children to fight for their country.” She has since apologized and been condemned, and has potentially made more efforts to understand Diaspora Jewry.
But I'd argue that it's actually Israeli officials who've made little effort to understand the Jews around the world their actions have an impact on.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is under indictment and fighting legal battles of his own, and despite him saying years ago that any Prime Minister in such a situation should resign, he hasn’t. While in 2014, he hadn't yet been indicted, it seems likely that anyone facing such legal battles would become increasingly combative over time. Diaspora Jews don't need a combative Prime Minister in the Knesset.
Far-right and combative Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir genuinely couldn't care less about the impact his bombastic actions have on Jews in the Diaspora. In fact, according a source who was actively asked him about this, this is confirmed to be the case. Diaspora Jews don't need combative ministers like Ben-Gvir
No one is denying that this attack, whatever to motive, is explicitly antisemitic. What is likely to be an attack on British Jews for a war they have no control over, will make that even clearer – if and when that’s confirmed.
The problem is that Israel is the Jewish state, and it’s now led by the very worst us Jews can apparently come up with. A smarmy, self-serving man who cares more about staying in power than the Israelis, and Jews he represents.
Diaspora Jews are stuck in a tough place, as Netanyahu continues down the road of isolationism and making Israel look more like a pariah state than ever, even simple support for the land where Jews are indigenous, from British Jewry, could be perceived as abhorrent.
For Jews in the Diaspora, this is not the Israeli government that they should want. But for some reason, the Prime Minister is often conflated with Israel itself and receives defense from Jews in the UK. I urge you to stop defending him. We can and will do better without him and his ilk, who make it clear they care little for the Diaspora Jews whose actions they have an impact on.