Muslims are undermined when politicians refuse to name the Islamist threat
'We will survive this', writes Deborah Lipstadt, 'but we will survive far better if our allies recognise that they too are in the crosshairs'
In countries worldwide, the way in which Jews must live is not normal.
There are armed guards at every Jewish institution. Strangers find they have a hard time entering, even if they have come to pray. Shopkeepers in many Jewish neighbourhoods keep their doors locked during business hours. Patrons must wait to be allowed to enter. If there is anything about you that seems “strange,” proprietors will simply turn you away.
Families who want to patronize a kosher or Israeli restaurant often choose to have the food delivered rather than sit in the restaurant, especially if they are with their children. Why risk having you dinner disrupted by hateful protestors who engage in shouting ugly slogans while the police often stand idly by? Parents think twice about giving their children a small Jewish star necklace. Is it safe? People who do wear them often slip them under their shirts when they are walking in certain neighbourhoods. Some Jewish families have moved the mezuzot from outside their doorposts to inside, where they are not readily visible to passersby.
Americans once thought this was unique to Europe. Not anymore. Jews in many places are, to borrow a phrase from another form of bigotry, “going back into the closet.” That is not healthy for any group or for the society in which they live.
Recent events in the UK have highlighted that abnormality. They have been horrifying. But they have also been utterly predictable.
Over the past few years, matters have steadily escalated. A verbal assault became a shove. A shove became a knock-down. A knock-down became a rock thrown at a passerby. A rock became a firebomb. A firebomb became a car ramming into a synagogue. A car became a man wielding a knife to try to cut the throats of two random Jews.
This escalation was not happenstance. The perpetrators of these acts and those who sympathize with them watched to see if there were any consequences. Too often there have been none. They notice and the next time they escalate what has come before.
None of this has surprised me. We saw it coming, just as the Sydney Jews saw Bondi Beach coming. But too often the authorities have not taken these warning seriously.
What has taken me aback are the reactions or non-reactions of so many Brits. Those who have made the fight against racism in general and events in Gaza in particular their raison d’etre during the past few years have been absent.
We have heard from politicians, many of whom have spoken out about “not tolerating” such outrages. They have proclaimed that there is no place for such hate in Britain. While I am glad that they feel this way, their platitudes have become tiresome. What is needed is a seriousness of purpose, i.e. action.
But they do something even worse. They speak about getting to the “root cause,” but in so doing they dissemble and fail to acknowledge the truth. They know the root cause, but they are fearful of the consequences, both political and actual, of openly identifying it. You cannot solve a problem if you do not name it.
The problem is extremist Islamist jihadism and their compatriots on the far left. I know quite well that the far right also poses a very real threat. But the stabbings, fire bombs, assaults, and the like are currently coming in the main from Islamist extremists.
When politicians and leaders refuse to acknowledge that, they throw moderate Muslims, such as Baroness Falkner of Margravine the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, who has made this argument, under the bus.
There is some good news. Increasing number of British non-Jews, horrified by this turn of events, are openly proclaiming “We stand with British Jews.” Thank them. Expressing gratitude is an essential element of being Jewish. When so many non-Jews remain silent and go about their business as usual, those who are willing to speak out are to be valued greatly.
But grateful as I am for their solidarity, we must also tell them that it is not solely Jews who are being threatened. This is an attack on Western culture and civilization in its broadest manifestations. This is an attack on democracy and the rule of law. This is an attack on British society in its entirety, including mainstream Muslims. This is a brutal assault on us all. It has started with the Jews, but it will not end with them.
I have seen some people proclaiming on their social media platforms, “We stand with British Jews.” I would like to amend that slogan to: “We stand with British Jews, not out of sympathy, but because they are us.” (The phrasing may not rise to the level of the Bard, but you get my drift.)
I was deeply moved by a video of Adam Boxer, a teacher at The Totteridge Academy (TTA), a London secondary school, delivering the Thought of the Day for the students. Explaining what he did as a CST volunteer at his synagogue his children’s school, he demonstrated his kevlar-reinforced stab jacket for the students. His presentation was low-keyed, matter of fact, and sobering. Very British and very powerful.
But what touched me most was his comment that, when he had driven his children to their Jewish schools that morning, his nine-year-old daughter noticed the stab jacket and asked why it was in the car. When he explained that he planned to show it to the students in his school, she was surprised: “What? You don’t have security at TTA? Why don’t you?”
He did not know how to explain to his daughter that his school did not need it. “How do I explain that there are not people dreaming and fantasizing and plotting to come and murder the children at this school.”
Whether we explain Jew-hatred to this little girl or not, she will learn this reality soon enough. I hope that by the time she does, she will have been inoculated, by learning about and embracing our traditions, history, culture, and community, by learning to love being Jewish, not because of those who hate us, but despite them.
We have faced worse in the past. Yet, we are still here, not as victims – though that has been part of our history – but as people who revel in their shared legacy, history, culture, and tradition.
We will survive this.
But we will survive far better if our allies recognize that they too are in the crosshairs.
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