Brendan O’Neill speaks at London synagogue |
Sporting a ‘ZIONIST’ emblazoned hoody, columnist and writer Brendan O’Neill spoke to a crowded hall at north west London’s Mosaic Jewish Community. O’Neill’s punditry is prolific, his columns frequently appearing in The Spectator, The Daily Telegraph and Spiked. It is not just the volume of O’Neill’s writing that sets him apart from the pack – his unequivocal support for Israel alongside his outspoken condemnation of Islamism is bold and heroic.
Based in the suburb of Stanmore the Mosaic Jewish Community, a pluralist union of three progressive synagogues is to be commended for inviting O’Neill to speak. That he spoke on the same day as a rabble of left-wing rabbis published a letter in The Sunday Times that can best be described as toxically problematic, hearing O’Neill address the Mosaic crowd with his blunt, direct and uncomplicated eloquence was a breath of both political and Zionist fresh air.
O’Neill opened his talk with reference to the horrific Hamas attacks of October 7th 2023. He went on to say that what he found most upsetting was not so much the brutal attacks themselves, but rather the celebrations of Hamas’s terrorism that erupted across the Western world on October 8th. O’Neill was to research that vile phenomenon in some depth and his book After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation makes for compelling reading that has been immaculately researched.
A Catholic by birth and of Irish descent, O’Neill revealed to the audience that he is a first-generation Briton, having been born in England to parents who are both immigrants. Notwithstanding his familial ties to the Irish Republic, O’Neill both considers himself, and conducts........