“Oct 7 2023”

In 1144, the murder of a tanner’s apprentice in Norwich was blamed on French-speaking Jews, birthing a shameful tradition of blood libel that ascribed to Jews a penchant for murdering children.

As the unknown person who recently scrawled graffiti outside my house put it: “think Gaza”. Are the Israelis trying to kill infants? Of course not. They understand that every death is a victory for Hamas in the international arena.

The ease with which so many reach for Jewish malevolence to explain the Palestinian tragedy has roots reaching back to East Anglia. But no longer do the good people of Norwich throw Jews down wells. Rather, the local council equivocated this week about the public Chanukah lighting.

These anti-Israel protesters are obsessed with the Holocaust.

Shameful behavior in London today.
pic.twitter.com/Kh4Y8RNYNs

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) December 9, 2023

The history of terrorism in pursuit of political aims is as long as history itself.

However, the past two decades have witnessed important, and needless to say worrying, developments in what could be seen as a zoological version of political activism.

The old versions saw disgruntled individuals assassinating powerful enemies. Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by 53 Senators led by his closest friends, Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. Nizam al-Mulk, he powerful Grand Vizir of Seljuks in Iran, suffered the same fate at the hands of 18 Nizari hashasheen (assassins) including a Russian slave. The Qajar Nasseredin Shah was dispatched with a single bullet while mumbling “Son of a Donkey!”

Radical pro-Palestinian demonstrations appear to have developed a new tactic: they are targeting Christmas tree lightings across the country, and other Christian symbols, in addition to symbols of Israel and Jewish institutions.

h/t Kiki9

At 6.30am on October 7, Yussef Alziadna’s ringtone woke him with a start. Having ferried revellers to the Nova music festival until 1am, the Palestinian taxi driver had been expecting a lie-in.

Instead Amit Hadar, an Israeli whom he had dropped off with his friends hours earlier, was calling, begging for help. Hamas had attacked the festival. Could Alziadna bring his 14-seater van to rescue them?

Alziadna, 53, understood the risks. “I told myself, it doesn’t matter if I am going to die, I have to save as many lives as possible,” he said. “I’m an Israeli, they are Israelis.”

Friday’s YouGov survey shatters the caricature of Holocaust deniers as old, white, right-wingers in rural America. The poll exposes the left as home to those who refuse to believe the fate of 6 million Jews and illuminates Democratic reluctance to expose the antisemitism festering in their midst.

YouGov asked 1,500 adult Americans if they “agree or disagree” that “the Holocaust is a Myth.” Ten percent of Democrats agreed, double the number of Republicans. Seven percent of liberals and 6 percent of conservatives said the same.

Pro-Palestine protests have cost police as much as £20 million and have put a strain on other frontline duties as thousands of officers have had to be redeployed every week since the Israel-Hamas conflict began on October 7.

Bills are set to rise further as demonstrators have pledged to keep taking to the streets until Israel ends its military campaign in Gaza.

A survey published this week by the German Central Council of Jews reports that a third of Jews in Germany have experienced some type of antisemitic attack since October 7th. The attacks have ranged from antisemitic graffiti to personal insults, and almost all communities report increased psychological pressure, receiving threatening calls and threatening emails.

A stunning 80% of the Jewish religious congregation leaders surveyed stated that life has become more unsafe for Jews—specifically Jews who wish to express their faith in public in any form—since the October massacre.

Germany has a tendency to classify Muslim anti-semitism as “right-wing.”

Anything happening to a mosque is a major story. But an Iraqi Muslim immigrant running around with a shotgun outside a synagogue is a minor story.

The prime minister of Canada recently blasted Israel for accidentally killing civilians in Gaza— even though the Canadians deliberately killed German civilians in World War II.

Hypocrisy? Cynical indifference to the historical record? Perhaps a little bit of both.