(JNS) It’s past time to acknowledge that for Hamas and its allies, the pogrom in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, yielded one enduring, transformational success.
To find it, don’t look to Gaza, most of which has been reduced to rubble as a result of the two-year Israeli war to defeat Hamas in the coastal enclave.
Look instead to those Western countries that are home to significant Jewish communities: to the United States, to Canada, to Australia, to France, to Germany, and especially, given the terrible events of the past week, to the United Kingdom.
In all these countries, Jews have been seized by a fear and an uncertainty they haven’t known since the Shoah. At least three generations of Jews, my own included, grew up regarding Jew-hatred in the democratic West as largely a historical relic, even if we did on occasion encounter antisemitic barbs.
Now we are faced with arson attacks on synagogues, day-care centers and kosher restaurants. The “visibly Jewish” among us—those who wear traditional clothing, kippahs, tzitzit, Star of David necklaces—are the subjects of assaults...
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