Words. Words. Words. This week, two Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green, a Jewish area on the outskirts of London. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson called it “sickening” and asked, “What is the useless (London Mayor) Sadiq Khan doing?” The Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Sarah, put the terror incident into perspective: “An attack on one community is an attack on us all.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, “This is not an isolated incident. It is the latest in a spate of utterly vile attacks on the Jewish community… I’ll be bringing together criminal justice agencies to ensure we have effective and swift justice.” Jewish communities there and here in Canada are saying, enough words, enough blame. Let’s see some real action.
Rising Tide of Violence
The leading Jewish organization in the U.K., The Board of Deputies of British Jews, said, “The antisemites are attempting to raise the cost of being Jewish in the U.K. We must work as a society to ensure the cost of being antisemitic is far higher.” Lord David Wolfson told the House of Lords that “the first step to any cure is correctly identifying the disease.”
To cure this disease, Western democracies must begin confronting the ingrained antisemitism that is rapidly turning into violence. In Canada, this past weekend, a man attempted to infiltrate a synagogue in Thornhill, Ont., and assaulted a person nearby. A few days later, a rock smashed the window of a local Judaica store. This is Kristallnacht in slow motion, and it’s gone viral and global.
Call for a Reset
Recently, I challenged a police group by saying that we need a complete reset in how we are confronting the violent antisemites around us. That sentiment is starting to trickle up to leadership. In Toronto, over these past few weeks, we have seen a lessening of demonstrations on our streets and in front of Jewish establishments. There is more work that needs to get done (especially at Bathurst and Sheppard) but police have thankfully become more vigilant in arresting and charging vile people who sow hate in our society.
Violent antisemitic attacks are the first salvo against our freedom and democracy. For over two decades, these haters have been using antisemitism to disrupt and hijack universities, unions, and now, even political parties. They have used these organizations to gain a foothold by proselytizing their members to turn their backs on fellow Canadians and the pluralistic society we have built. Our public spaces, our streets and our institutions have been poisoned by the toxic pro-Palestinian movement.
In case you haven’t noticed, “Globalize the Intifada” is a call to import violence to our shores. What happens in the Middle East should stay there. Canada and the U.K. are not battlegrounds for hatemongers who bring their venom to our lands. Becoming a citizen of our nation is not a right, but a privilege. We must stop tolerating the intolerant, lest they weaponize our freedom and use it against us.
