Anti-Semitism / Why won’t the West defend Jews? |
Bondi Beach is not occupied territory. Yet a Jewish celebration there ended in blood. It is not within a military zone, not contested land, not an ‘open air prison’, but still, among civilians, on a day marked for celebration, Jews were once again slaughtered, picked off by a Muslim father and son who were motivated to kill as if it were their God-given right. The images from Bondi are now etched into public memory, but the political reaction now taking shape confirms how little our leaders understand the nature of what they are facing.
The war has not ended. It has migrated. The images coming out of Bondi as the horrors unfolded were a field report from a war already underway. It is a war without formal declarations, which does not depend on tanks or treaties. It spreads through ideology, through grievance networks, through digital propaganda and imported narratives, recruiting from mosques and message boards, from fringe collectives and activist mobs. The enemies of the West no longer require battalions; they need only a few men with weapons, a crowd willing to intimidate, and a state too diffident to respond.
In this war, they aim first at Jews, but we are neither the only victims nor the bigger ‘enemy’ being targeted. In London last week a mob gathered outside a popular Notting Hill restaurant simply because it is owned by the Israeli chef Eyal Shani. The police failed to move them on, leaving the job to a small gathering........