Israel is responsible for anti-Jewish attacks here
JVL Introduction
MJ Rosenberg is writing in the United States but his argument applies equally to Britain.
The reality is increasing antisemitism and the fear that it is going to get worse – much worse.
Without in any way justifying the violence – nothing justifies targeting innocent people, and certainly not children, anywhere, affirms Rosenberg – if you want to stop it, you have to look at the conditions that produce it.
There is a context – Gaza and a Middle East now in flames.
There is more context – “for decades, major American Jewish organizations—along with many political leaders and rabbis—have insisted that Israel acts in the name of Jews everywhere. “We are one,” they say.”…
“You cannot spend decades insisting that Israel represents all Jews and then be surprised when others, including dangerous and hateful people, take that claim at face value.”
RK
This article was originally published by MJ Rosenberg's Substack on Wed 18 Mar 2026. Read the original here.
Israel is responsible for anti-Jewish attacks here
Have you heard about the Gaza Genocide?
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There is so much wrong with this article that it’s difficult to know where to start.
But I’ll start with the words quoted in JVL’s introduction:
“for decades, major American Jewish organizations—along with many political leaders and rabbis—have insisted that Israel acts in the name of Jews everywhere. “We are one,” they say.”…
“You cannot spend decades insisting that Israel represents all Jews and then be surprised when others, including dangerous and hateful people, take that claim at face value.”
Firstly, plenty of fairly mainstream Jewish individuals and organisanisations have made it clear in public that they do not support the Netanyahu government or what it is doing within Israel and in Gaza and the West Bank. Maybe they have not said it loudly or clearly enough, but plenty have been saying it and writing articles to that effect.
Secondly, the suggestion that people should not “be surprised” when “hateful people” use this alleged uncritical support for Israel as an excuse for antisemitic attacks, is unavoidably a form of justification and also classic victim-blaming that we would not tolerate were it applied to any other minority group.
This provocative MJ Rosenberg article recalls the legendary restaurant diner.
The one who complains to the chef about the wretched food – and the small portions.
One Rosenberg sentence reads: “Nothing justifies targeting innocent people.”
But he wrote the headline: “Israel is responsible for anti-Jewish attacks here.”
It would prove folly to deny the IDF’s carnage and occupation fuel antisemitism.
Yet a Syrian-born knifeman, not Israel, attacked Manchester synagogue-goers.
The UK’s policies on Palestine and Iraq motivated the 7/7 terror acts.
However, the bombers, not ministers, killed the 52 innocent civilians.
Washington support for anti-Muslim action heralded the avenger Islamists al-Qaeda.
The 9/11 plane hijackers, not the US administration, took almost 3,000 lives.
Mainstream UK and American Jewish organisations purport to speak for Jews.
Well publicised evidence confounds these groups’ homogenous pretensions.
Four in ten British Jews report a weakened attachment to Israel.
And a majority believes Netanyahu’s war in Gaza clashes with their Jewish values.
The Washington Post found most US Jews think Israel culpable for Gaza war crimes.
The problem is the conflation of racist actions against Jews with legitimate opposition to Zionism. It would help if the dubious term ‘anti-semitism’ was discarded. For a start, Palestinians speak what is categorised as a ‘semitic’ language so Zionists are also ‘anti-semitic.
African Americans and African-Caribbeans do not have a specialised term for racism against them. So recent attacks on Jews should be treated in the same way, racism.
Were I not Jewish from top to bottom, Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians and all those who stand in the way of the greater Israel would turn me bitterly antisemitic. Yet, the irony is that large number of non-Jews emigrate to Israel and gain Israeli citizenshhip. Israel welcomes all as long as they are white and happy to kill Arabs. I will not be surprised when Tommy Robinson becomes an Israeli citizen and settles in the West Bank.
Although a bit convuleted and repetitive, this article is fundamentally right.
The terrorist State of Israel’s long term and continuing genocide of the largely helpless indigenous people, whose homeland is being stolen by colonialist settlers from outside of the region, is directly responsible for the occasional and relatively mild, by comparison, anti-Jewish attacks here. As is also the ultra-biased Zionist Israel-supporting so-called Chief Rabbi. As is also the establishment media and the establishment rulers of our country.
Jim Denham is wrong on both counts.
1. There is no fantasy Israel that didn’t dispossess the Palestinians – the government is irrelevant.
2. He is substituting explanation with justification.
John Bowley inverts logic on its head.
Israel is directly responsible for the “occasional and relatively mild, by comparison, anti-Jewish attacks here”?
Since 7 October 2023 the more than 73,000 Palestinians killed by the IDF and settlers dwarf the number of UK Jews who have suffered racist violence.
But, neither the families of the victims in the Manchester synagogue terror nor those of the 2025 targets in 100-plus UK antisemitic punches and kickings would call them relatively mild.
Are Islamic governments, whose security forces assault Britons, directly responsible for attacks on-innocent Muslims here?