255. Rising tide of antisemitism around the world

In March, there was a series of killings and arson attacks by settlers targeting Palestinian civilians. Killings continue by the sick Israelis even now.

Malcolm Rifkind, the former British foreign secretary, is among the prominent members of the Jewish diaspora calling on Israeli President Isaac Herzog to intervene and halt attacks by Jewish extremists on Palestinians in the West Bank.

An open letter to Herzog, organized by the London Initiative—a liberal Zionist network of 360 members, including prominent Jewish, Israeli, and Israeli-Palestinian figures—has garnered over 3,000 signatures. Signatories include diplomats, philanthropists, rabbis, and academics from Australia, Canada, Europe, South Africa, the UK, and the US. 

The letter said: “Mr. President, the terror, death, and destruction inflicted by Jewish-Israeli extremists against innocent Palestinians across the West Bank is an abomination. Israel’s security forces are clearly better able to protect Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, who live under varying levels of Israeli military and civil control, from Jewish terror. That they do not act decisively suggests a lack of directives from the government.”

“It is not only morally shameful but a strategic threat to the future of Israel. It damages world Jewry and the relationship of future generations with Israel. Sadly, based on events and on the statements of the most extreme coalition partners, it can be concluded that the violence now engulfing the West Bank is not only condoned by the government but is in fact policy.”

Signatories to the letter include Matthew Gould, the former UK Ambassador to Israel; Lord Michael Levy, a former Middle East envoy and close ally of former Prime Minister Tony Blair; Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who served as a cabinet minister under Margaret Thatcher and John Major; Tory peer and Times columnist Daniel Finkelstein; philanthropist Dame Vivien Duffield; and Sir Mick Davis, a former Conservative Party treasurer and co-founder of the London Initiative.

Prominent signatories outside the UK include the billionaire Canadian philanthropist Charles Bronfman; the Israeli diplomat Ilan Sztulman Starosta; Michael M Adler, a former US ambassador to Belgium; and the former Canadian ambassador to Israel Jon Allen.

It was a surprise when Herzog’s office posted his response on X. 

Referring to what he called the “recent surge of violence by extremist elements in Judea and Samaria” and “grave offenses against innocent people”, he added: “I share your conviction that these acts of violence stand in stark contradiction to the values upon which Israel was founded and to the enduring ethical tradition of the Jewish people. Herzog said he had demanded the authorities “employ all available means to bring those responsible to justice and put an immediate end to this unacceptable phenomenon”.

He went on to say that “at a time when Israel is in the throes of a bitter war against enemies that seek its destruction, and the Jewish people is contending with a fierce and rising tide of antisemitism around the world, this kind of violence against innocents further plays directly into the hands of Israel’s detractors, fuelling hatred that weakens us as a nation and jeopardises Jews everywhere.”

If I remember correctly, one such letter from the London Initiative was sent to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2025, signed by 6,300 Jews worldwide. Nothing has happened since then. In fact, he ignored it and never acknowledged it.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog correctly observes that a deep hatred toward Jews and Israelis is gradually emerging around the world. The days are bleak for young Israeli citizens. 

Their world would be limited to the safe boundaries of Israel, but what about those staying outside of those boundaries? The diaspora?

However, can Herzog and the much-talked-about opposition leader, Yair Lapid, initially instruct his cultural ministry and educational institutions to eliminate the dirty systems along the lines of madrasas that promote hatred? 

What I have heard from my Israeli friends, I find Lapid a better person to take the country out of the mess it is in. He came from a respected family; his father was a journalist and politician who served as Justice Minister, and his mother was a novelist and playwright. 

Lapid himself is the author of 12 books, a songwriter for numerous Israeli musicians, a former TV presenter and news anchor, and an editor of the newspaper Yedioth Tel Aviv, and is best known for his weekly column "Where's the Money?" So, he can at least be expected to think and speak logically.

I must remind the president, who seems to be a good man, that when you teach your kids hate and upmanship, they will one day destroy the very country they live in. And no one will come to their rescue because they would have lost friends and sympathizers.

I feel the Israeli education system and the very society have become worse than any Islamic country the world loathes for its madrasas. Madrasas have only produced jihadists and terrorists. 

Trained since 1948, in class after class, the average Israeli citizen has become a moving, hate-personified individual. 

That is the root cultural mindset that Israeli soldiers and ordinary people share, gleefully bombing a hospital, with hundreds dying. They can't resist the temptation to show the world how sick-minded they are.

They have forgotten that the world still feels the pain of those six million Jews who lost their lives; they were the ancestors, their fathers, grandfathers, and grandmothers, who were tortured and sent to concentration camps by Hitler. 

Jews have been the primary recipients of the world’s sympathy, but unfortunately, they are losing it. Their actions demonstrate to the global community that they are more villainous than the Gestapo and SS soldiers. This causes great pain and anguish for people like me, who are their most ardent supporters. 

After reading the Israeli President’s response and witnessing the large protests on the roads in Tel Aviv calling for an end to the war, we still hold hope. It’s crucial to see a regime change in Israel; indeed, it was more essential for the US to accomplish a regime change in Israel before addressing Iran.