OPINION: When will our Jewish communal leaders show genuine courage?

Israel’s reputation has taken an almighty bashing since it unleashed its war on Hamas after the atrocities of 7 October. Instead of international support, the IDF operation, designed to restore the country’s security, has mobilised Palestinian supporters from the Sydney Opera House to Big Ben, and cast a frightening pall over Britain’s Jewish community. 

At a performance of Tracy-Ann Oberman’s brilliant interpretation of the Merchant of Venice at the Criterion Theatre, in the heart of London, the hostile atmosphere for Jews in Britain was evident. Theatre-goers, many of them Jewish, were herded behind a metal barrier as they queued for bag checks and a police presence was evident nearby.

For a change there were no pro-Palestinian demonstrators close-by but the menace was evident. Inside, burly security guards at every entrance were designed to be reassuring.

The elderly gentleman sitting next to me commented that after decades of West End theatre-going, being in the heart of London was unsettling to him as a Jew. The secondary theme of the play, Jewish resistance to Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists in the 1930’s, has real current resonance.

It also raised questions in my mind as to whether Jewish leadership in the UK, with the possible exception of Campaign Against Antisemitism, will ever be courageous enough to stand up publicly to evil?

The greatest worry is that in spite of Israel being the wronged party in the current conflict the damage to Israel’s normalisation, a respected OECD member with promising ties in the Gulf region, has been so badly damaged that it will take decades to restore.

Or is the leadership become so complacent about its establishment status that it believes that will be sufficient to squash Jew and Israel hatred fomented by Hamas supporting demonstrators? Recent chaotic scenes in Parliament and the government’s flaccid support of Israel’s case tell us it won’t.

Renewed antisemitism and anti-Israel rhetoric reminds me of a conversation in Tel Aviv a year ago. At a dinner with British diplomats I was told the role of the Israeli embassy had changed dramatically. It was the case for most of Israel’s history that 70 percent of the work done by officials posted to Tel Aviv was about security and strategy issues.

Now 70 percent of the agenda concerned trade, economy and technology links. The UK, looking for a magic pill to restore stuttering productivity, was in awe of Israel’s high tech and life sciences innovation. In wartime circumstances, much of that will be on hold, and security issues restored to primacy.

The greatest worry is that in spite of Israel being the wronged party in the current conflict the damage to Israel’s normalisation, a respected OECD member with promising ties in the Gulf region, has been so badly damaged that it will take decades to restore. Much of the blame for the despoiling and distortion of Israel’s esteem in the eyes of the world can be put wholly at the door of the broadcast media.

Some five months of repeated images from Gaza of death, injury and destruction and virtually unchallenged, hateful claims of genocide have taken an enormous toll on Israel’s global place in the world. One of Ronald Reagan’s closest advisers the late Michael Deaver, known as he ‘Vicar of Visuals,’ recognised four decades ago that what lingers in the mind of voters are pictures not the words. In the case of Gaza the endless stream of video has blighted public opinion.

Against the power of gut-wrenching images attempts by friends of Israel and Jews to deconstruct the narrative of hate and criticism are ignored.

Writing in the Spectator, Douglas Murray seeks to right the jarring suggestion of a genocide. He points out that Bashar al-Assad’s assault on his own people (with the assistance of Iran and Russia) in the Syrian civil war caused the death of 600,000 of his citizens. That means that ‘every six to 12 months he manages to kill the same number of as every war involving Israel ever,’ Murray writes.

Similarly, 377,000 Yeminis have died in the battle between the Houthis, and the Yemeni authorities backed by Saudi Arabia. Yet the Houthis cries of ‘Kill all Jews’ go largely unchallenged  in Britain.

It is just Gaza which has engaged Britain’s chattering classes and demonised Israel and Britain’s Jews. The wanton damage to Israel’s standing in the world looks irreparable. And the collateral hurt to Britain’s Jewish community is immeasurable.

• Alex Brummer is a Jewish News columnist and the City Editor, Daily Mail.