They're On The Other Side, Jonathan....

...and in the Green Party. 

For me, it’s mostly sadness. Among others, the overriding emotion is fear. For some, it’s anger. It was certainly anger that was most vividly on display in Golders Green after the stabbing on Wednesday of two men, both Jews, in the broad daylight of a spring day – much of that fury directed at the government. When the prime minister came to visit, they shouted: “Keir Starmer, Jew harmer.” I understand that fury, even if I think it’s aimed at the wrong address.

Do you? Oh, silly me. Of course you do. 

Ministers say the right things and pledge more money for the security measures that have been necessary at Jewish buildings for decades – the guards who stand outside Jewish schools and synagogues, the reinforced glass in our windows – and, of course, community organisations are grateful. But no one wants to live in a fortress. The solution cannot be to confine ourselves behind ever-higher walls.

I wouldn't mind, actually. After all, the ones who direct our lives do, after all. Look at all the protection around Downing Street and the Mayor of London's bulletproof Range Rover.  

There are some indications that these attacks could be orchestrated by Iran, paying local people with a history of violence or criminality to attack Jews. Hence the demand for the government to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation. It would be comforting to tell ourselves that this is all the work of foreign actors, that we have no homegrown problem of our own. But let’s say Tehran is involved: that it could recruit Britons so easily to the task of attacking Jews would tell its own story.

Indeed, if it did originate in Iran, they found themselves pushing on an open door, thanks to our encouraging of the scum of the earth to settle here: 

Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, who this week described the recent attacks on Jews as a “massive national security emergency”, has also said that talk of Jews and Israelis as “if they are demonic, as if they are the source of the world’s problems” has been “very present on the streets” and “it’s painting a target on Jews’ backs”. He has suggested a moratorium on the marches.

And surely you agree?  

Still, I’m uneasy about a ban.

Oh. Of course. 🙄

Part of my objection arises, obviously, from a belief in free speech. It’s also clear from the Palestine Action precedent that it would never work: the marches would still happen, almost certainly bigger than before.

In other words, we have no control over them. And that doesn't worry you?