When conspiracy replaces compassion
JVL Introduction
JVL is very well aware that allegations of antisemitism are routinely weaponised. Our entire existence has revolved around fighting such abuse.
Some people have become so used to this abuse that they are in danger of being desensitised to the horror of actual antisemitic attacks.
Julia Bard wrote the article below at the end of March, in response to reactions to the attacks on the Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green at the end of March.
She said that on occasion immediately after the events “people started reaching into the dustbin to retrieve threadbare scraps of information, well-worn conspiracy theories and age-old stereotypes to explain, justify or deny what was clearly an antisemitic attack.”
We expect it from the right. Alarmingly she cites many sources on the left and asks:
“So what is in the minds of anti-racists and anti-fascists, whose first instinct is not to show compassion for the targeted community or to call for solidarity and support, but instead to abandon them, to deny that they are the subjects of a racist attack, and to imply that they deserved what they got?
We’ve seen it again around the recent stabbings in Golders Green. Yes, the government and Jewish communal leaders have shamelessly weaponised these events, using them to try to suppress our right to protest.
But that mustn’t be allowed to diminish our sympathy and solidarity with those who are the victims of these outrageous attacks.
Stand Up to Racism, to its credit, immediately put out a message of solidarity. It should be echoed across the entire left and all progressive movements.
RK
This article was originally published by the Morning Star on Sat 28 Mar 2026. Read the original here.
When conspiracy replaces compassion
Why did so many self-described progressives respond to an antisemitic attack by questioning the victims?
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Julia Bard overeggs the pudding. It is difficult for people to have sympathy over the firebombing of the ambulances since the same people demonstrate no sympathy for the ambulances that Israel has targeted, with medics and patients inside, including the notorious execution of 15 medics of the Red Crescent last year.
The introduction to the article states that ‘Our entire existence has revolved around fighting such abuse.’ This is as Salo Baron once described it ‘the lachrymose version of Jewish history’. Jews historically have been both oppressed and oppressors at different times. The myth of eternal anti-Semitism is another version of the eternal Jew.
Yes the attack on the ambulances was anti-Semitic but it isn’t the worst instance of racism or anti-Semitism. What is worthy of comment is how the murder of Muslims, the arson at e.g. the Peacehaven Mosque near Brighton or the other attacks on mosques get absolutely no publicity at all.
In other words what is relevant is the way that such attacks are weaponised by liars and bad faith actors like Keir Starmer and Mark Rowley.
No one can be sure of the motives of those who attacked the ambulances but there have been suggestions that those who did it were paid to do it. The question is by whom?
The allegedly Iranian organisation which claimed credit for this and other attacks used some very strange language as Lowkey pointed out. No Arab or Palestinian organisation would use the phrase ‘Land of Israel’ so it is possible that the attack was a false flag operation at one stage removed.
One thing is for sure. No one benefits like the Israeli state which is alway eager to point to anti-Semitic attacks and then tell Jews that they would be safer going to Israel.
Indeed what has been missing …
[cut to our limit of 300 words – admin]
I have read this article earlier via the Jewish Socialist mailings, agreed with it and shared it. However I am concerned that certain other conspiracies have been mentioned right here on this site, in some of the Comments after certain JVL articles. I am wondering if it was right for JVL to publish them, or if I’m just being stupid. Of course there are conspiracy theories and actual conspiracies . (And I can remember the truth about the Baghdad synagogue bombings being dismissed by a progressive zionist back in the past, even though I had heard the story confirmed by a commando inside Israel itself). Although the conspiracies guessed at in some JVL Comments aren’t explicitly antisemitic like the social media stuff Julia has listed, they do declare that these attacks on UK Jewish targets could be a ‘false flag’ operation by Israeli intelligence. I’m embarrassed that JVL has let those comments pass. Prepared to be proved wrong, but it seems to me that there are enough mentally ill people in the UK not getting the help they need, and reading every day that the ‘leaders of the Jewish community’ believe that the IDF are heroes and still describe genocide as defence.
This exactly explains my experiences on social media and WhatsApp groups of people who should know better and who I previously thought had a broader generosity of spirit! This is just what I’ve been trying to argue with varying degrees of success. SUTR’s statement was a relief. No to Islamophobia and antisemitism cannot be suspended because we’re enraged by the Establishment weaponising anti semitism against us. A false dichotomy has been established on this- you’re either opposed to the antisemitism or angry about the endless coverage and weaponisation. It’s both! Thank you.