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I am not an expert on the Middle East. I am not an expert on interfaith relations. But I do want to say something about the latest, horrifying Islamist attack against Jews, which this time has taken place in my former hometown of Manchester, England.
I wanted to say something because, to be frank, I cannot remember a time in my life when I have felt as ashamed in my country and our “leaders” as I am right now.
If you want a sense of just how lost our country has become then I would urge you to head over to Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Twitter/X and have a scroll.
Sometimes, I do this to remind myself of the enormous chasm that now separates the curious and bizarre world that many of our country’s leaders appear to be living in from what the rest of us are living in —reality.
Look, for example, at what Keir Starmer tweeted yesterday, in response to the deadly Islamist attack against Jews in Manchester, which pretty much everybody except Keir Starmer and his Labour Party could see was coming with a mounting sense of dread.
“To every Jewish person in this country”, he tweeted, “I promise that I will do everything in my power to guarantee you the security you deserve”.
Guarantee the security of British Jews? Seriously? Is Keir Starmer for real?
I ask these questions because, in recent years, Keir Starmer and his student union Labour government have seemingly gone out of their way to do the very opposite.
Consistently, for much of the last decade, Starmer and the Labour movement have enabled and emboldened anti-Semites in this country and around the world.
Most recently, and appallingly, they chose to openly reward the extremist Islamists Hamas by recognising Palestine in the middle of a war —a war, Labour clearly forget, Hamas started by murdering and raping their way through parts of Israel.
Astonishingly, with Jews still being held hostage underground, and Hamas making it crystal clear it would repeat the October 7th atrocities as many times as it could, Starmer’s Labour decided to publicly side with the Islamist terrorists. To be honest, in that moment, I no longer recognised my country.
At exactly the same time as Keir Starmer, David Lammy, Yvette Cooper, Shabana Mahmood, and countless other Labour MPs were warning about the supposed “Nazi”, “far-right” and “racist” tendencies among Nigel Farage’s Reform party —a charge I can say with total confidence, having known Nigel Farage for fifteen years, is utter nonsense—Labour was openly rewarding Islamists whose anti-Semitic charter is quite literally inspired by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
This is how truly absurd things in our country have now become.
While Keir Starmer talks about “guaranteeing the security of Jews”, in reality, his Labour government sent a very loud and a very clear message to every current and would-be Islamist terrorist around the world who wants to destroy that security, a message that can be boiled down to just two words —terrorism works.
If you kill and rape Jews, if you embrace violence and terror, if you pledge to eradicate Israel from the map, then you will, in the end, get what you want.
Western governments will recognise you. They will meet your demands. They will prioritise you. This is exactly why Hamas and other violent Islamists around the world celebrated when Labour made this truly idiotic decision.
But this is not all Keir Starmer and the Labour government have done to directly undermine the security and safety of British Jews —far from it.
For much of the last year, like the similarly hopeless Tories before them, Labour has further enabled and mainstreamed anti-Semitism on these islands by allowing anti-Semitic hate marches to go on month after month after month.
Can you imagine a world in which Keir Starmer and the Labour Party was confronted with tens of thousands of right-wing conservatives marching through England’s major cities on a weekly basis, calling for the eradication of a minority group and voicing their open support for terrorists? Can you imagine Labour politicians saying and doing nothing whatsoever about it?
Of course not.
Just look at the recent Labour Party conference, in Liverpool. While countless Labour politicians fell over themselves to call out the “far-right”, “toxic”, and “divisive” protest in London, led by Tommy Robinson, they said nothing at all about the anti-Semitic hate marches through our capital city and elsewhere that have been led by people with known links to a proscribed terrorist group.
Again, it is absurd, all of it —completely and utterly absurd.
It appears that holding controversial demonstrations, attending divisive protests, and implicitly endorsing terrorism is perfectly fine —so long as it’s directed against Jews. This is the only conclusion one can draw from Labour’s blatant two-tier approach.
Look, too, at Keir Starmer’s current talk about there being “a battle for the soul of our country” —a battle that clearly did not stop him, for years, urging the British people to select Jeremy Corbyn as their next prime minister.
Furthermore, where was all this talk and soul-searching when thousands of people were marching through our country singing anti-Semitic songs and showing support for Hamas? Where was all this intense angst when extremist Muslims were setting off fireworks on British streets to celebrate the October 7th attacks? Or when sectarian Muslims were elected to the House of Commons on pro-Gaza campaigns?
And where was all this concern about “racism” when major surveys found worryingly large numbers of Muslims in this country, who have been educated in our schools and universities, openly support Hamas and endorse anti-Semitic tropes?
Do Labour politicians not care about this? Is none of this relevant to the “battle for the soul of our country?” Or is this the kind of Britain, the kind of England, Labour want to live in —or are at least willing to tolerate if it means more Muslim votes?
And look too at Starmer’s endless talk about taking on “the politics of grievance”, by which he means taking on the legitimate and entirely understandable concerns that millions of people on these islands have about mass uncontrolled immigration, broken borders, the complete absence of any integration strategy, and two-tier justice.
Where in all this talk about “the politics of grievance” is there any mention at all about how Islamists and their supportive regimes around the world are cultivating grievances among thousands of extremist Muslims, here in Britain?
Where is there any mention about the fact we no longer have any strategy for integrating people at all in this country, while if you dare to suggest “multiculturalism is failing” then you are simply denounced as a “racist”?
Instead, all we get from Starmer and his allies is endless talk about the need to “reclaim the flag from the far-right”, while they say nothing at all about the one ideology that actually wants to destroy our civilisation and takeover our country —Islamism.
Ask yourself: why, even today, are we not having an intense national debate about how to eradicate Islamism in Britain? Because Labour MPs would much rather you think the primary threat posed to this country is Nigel Farage, not violent Islamists who are open about their desire to eradicate non-Muslims, especially Jews, through terror.
Even in the aftermath of the Manchester attack, Starmer could still not bring himself to mention Islamism by name. Of course, in the aftermath of the Southport protests, the rape gang scandal, and Reform’s conference, Starmer and Labour had no problem at all launching lazy and misleading attacks on the ideology of “the far-right”. But whenever the threat of Islamism rears its ugly head, they are conspicuously silent.
And look, too, at the total absurdity of Keir Starmer promising to “protect Jews” while at the same time running an open border policy that has, since 2018 alone, allowed nearly 200,000 unvetted, mainly young, Muslim men into Britain, some of whom we know are ISIS-sympathisers, Hamas supporters, and Iranian terrorists, and who Labour have then put in the heart of our communities —next to families, schools, children, synagogues, churches, and more. And this is the man who says he will “protect Jews”? Is he serious?
Again, it is simply absurd —all of it. Completely and utterly absurd.
If Keir Starmer and the Labour Party were serious about wanting to protect Jews and the British people more generally then they would be doing whatever is necessary to fix the borders, ending mass uncontrolled immigration, especially from Islamic nations, creating a much more muscular integration strategy, and reshaping our entire national and policy debate so that it is made crystal clear to everybody in this country that the primary threat to our security, culture, way of life, and indeed civilisation is not some mythical “far-right”, is not Nigel Farage and the Reform party, but is actually the violent, extremist Islamists who are open about the fact they hate who we are, they hate what we stand for, and who are now killing Jews on Britain’s streets.
But that would require Keir Starmer and the Labour Party to leave the bizarre, surreal world in which they are living and come back to meet the rest of us here in reality.
Britain, in short, has let British Jews down, time and time again. And Keir Starmer and the Labour Party are letting British Jews down, time and time again.
I only hope this country gets the radical change of leadership that is required to make it up them and start putting things right —not only for British Jews but also for the future of our country and our civilisation.
And I hope that radical change of leadership emerges as quickly as possible.
“I promise that I will do everything in my power to guarantee you the security you deserve”.
Jews don’t deserve security. What they deserve is to live in a safe country.
The fact that Starmer believes Jews deserve security, is an admission that our country is not safe.
Make our country safe again!!!
“I promise that I will do everything in my power to guarantee you the security you deserve”. I cut and pasted exactly the same comment as Donna! It’s truly absurd and utterly meaningless EVEN IF HE MEANT IT! And if he did, does his Home Secretary and Deputy Leader? They have previous of campaigning and demonstrating against Israel and in my book, by definition Jewish people.