To think that antisemitism now needs to be tackled in the strongest possible way?

I haven't read the thread, but you don't surprise me. These are dark times for sure.

In Ireland there is a long running and emotive support for the Palestinian cause because of a perceived affinity between Ireland's struggle against Britain and Palestine's against Isreal.

That, combined with the fact there is no Jewish population to speak of for anyone to get to know, means it can be an uncomfortable place to be Jewish, sadly.

Yep.

If there's something good that can come out of this awful event I hope it's some proper resources into tackling anti-Semitism

OP judging by the Bondi threads there are people posting who choose not to remember 7 October 2023.

The whole situation is really tragic. How the hell have we not learned anything?

It’s been like this for years. My DCs went to a Jewish secondary which is like Fort Knox in its level of security. They’re now in their 20s, it’s not a post Oct 7 thing, but security has been ramped up since.

Completely. Am Jewish and was appalled at that thread.
Do I feel safe? In my area, yes because I live in an area with many other Jewish people. Until recently I’ve worked in Jewish organisations or closely aligned charities so I was v much in a ‘bubble’.

In wider society, not really anymore - so much hate about and the UK is no where aw bad as some other countries such as Ireland and the Netherlands- u know people who live in both countries who tell me how awful it is.

Im just a normal middle-aged person going about her business like anyone else.

Antisemitism had been around much longer than Israel has existed - pogroms, kristallnacht, the holocaust, and even way further back in the Middle Ages. It’s endemic and needs to stop now.

We are a tiny minority and people are obsessed with us, why?

What some people are failing to see is that while it might be Islamists who have been killing Jews recently, blaming Islamists and claiming it's to do with Israel is being completely blind to the millennia-long hatred of Jews by pretty much everyone. Hitler wasn't an Islamist. When Edward I expelled all the Jews from England in 1290 (they weren't let back in till 1656) that wasn't anything to do with Israel. And the same old same old conspiracy theories about Jews are being repackaged and recirculated today simply replacing the word 'Jew' with Zionist', whether it's killing babies, controlling the media, influencing governments or secretly ruling the world. Zionist has long been used as a code-word for 'Jew' by anti-semites. The new 'I'm not antisemitic, I'm antizionist' lot should look up what it means in a dictionary. A lot of them seem to think that Zionist means rabid supporter of Netanyahu and his actions in Gaza and feel free to spout the most hateful bile about Zionists when it doesn't mean supporting Netanyahu at all, while people who use Zionist to mean Jew spout the exact same hateful bile.

You have the most dreadful antisemitism on the left being denied or covered up by the left because the left are meant to be the goodies. I've seen all sorts of bullshit antisemitic conspiracy theories on MN, holocaust denial, October 7th denial, Jews did 9/11, Keir Starmer is being controlled by his wife, just blatant stuff but whenever you call it out someone piously prattles 'criticism of Israel isn't antisemitism' as if that was all that was ever said.

So going on about Islamists (which I'm sure suits some people perfectly well) is completely missing the bigger, far wider and much more historical picture.

Yes. But not loudly because we are generally scared of the Muslim reaction.

1. UK and the rest of Europe were also anti-Semitic.
2. It was only after the war started and territory was taken that the killing truly began in earnest with the Einsatzgruppen and extermination camps. Wannsee conference and the industrialisation of murder wasn't really out in the open.

Sure, even before Kristallnacht there was obvious extreme anti-Semitic persecution but others' domestic policy needs to be really severe to propel other countries to take extreme action.

I agree that not enough is done. There is stuff that is plainly pure antisemitism that is just not dealt with (like the pp whose dd was attacked at school by kids saying ‘free Palestine’). This seems to be a case of either people can’t recognise anti semitism when they see it or they don’t know what to do about it. Either way it’s fairly straightforward to have more awareness and training.

Then there is the stuff that is dressed up as anti-Israel/anti-Zionist but is generally aggressive and hostile. That’s more difficult because (like a lot of historic antisemitism) it’s not immediately clear what’s going on. Imo the way Zionism has been rebranded by its enemies as an extremist movement, when until about 5 minutes ago it was generally understood as the desire for self determination, is a manifestation of a kind of underhand antisemitism that is very difficult to tackle in a society that values freedom of expression.

It is very telling that we have a progressive culture that is usually not tolerant of this sort of thing: it recognises things like microaggressions and respects that racism is about the perception of the victim for every group except Jews. It’s all about controlling what people say and think, but if Jewish people feel threatened it’s all about freedom of speech. Personally I think we need clear and firm leadership from the government on this.

yeah more shit. Quite unhinged shit. Not worth repeating

To quote you, shite.

NVM, I did it

I don't know how to report that idiotic comment above, if someone else could please?