By Bruce S. Ticker
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — We can hope that President Trump’s Gaza plan will end the war between Israel and Hamas, but who will end the war against the Jews in the rest of the world?
Three days after Trump presented his plan, Jews worldwide observed Yom Kippur, but not in peace. In northern Manchester in England, a Jewish security guard was killed when he tried to stop a crazed assailant who was on a stabbing rampage outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation. A worshipper trying to block the suspect was possibly shot dead by police in the confusion, according to media reports.
Police killed the suspect, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent, and arrested three others in connection with the incident. The Yom Kippur episode was the 20th act of violence that police or judges declared as terrorism since 2017.
“Our challenge is to stop this hateful narrative,” said Mark Adlestone, the chairman of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Region, as quoted in The New York Times. “The conflation of anti-Zionism and Jew hatred cannot be allowed to continue.”
We have been telling ourselves that for years in America, long before the terrorist invasion of Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas and other groups massacred 1,200 people in southern Israel and kidnapped 250 more Israelis and others. Israel has since been hammered with condemnation after it killed thousands of Gazans in its attempt to eliminate Hamas, which controlled Gaza.
Reproach of Israel has been ongoing since the modern state was created in 1948, and it spread to America and other countries during the last 25 years. Institutions victimized by the right and the left have suffered attacks on a par with the force at the Manchester shul – the 11 worshippers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2018; the shooting death of a woman at a synagogue in Poway, California, a San Diego suburb; the murder of an Israeli couple in Washington, D.C.; and burning Jews marching for the hostages in Boulder, Colorado.
Many anti-Israel activists blame all Jews for what the Israeli government is doing in Gaza, whether its actions are right or wrong. Why else are they attacking and harassing Jews, and vandalizing synagogues and other Jewish institutions? Probably the majority of critics distinguish between the Israeli government and individual Jews, but the combined opposition produces severe tensions.
So the Jewish people are besieged on two fronts. We can support Israel, but we are limited in what we can do there. At this writing, Hamas announced that it will release the remaining hostages, which it conditions on more negotiations.
The 20-plus point plan, which is partly credited to ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is an ambitious proposal that would end the current hostilities if it is followed, but it barely touches the prospect of a two-state solution.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touted the plan on Monday last week as if we are on the verge of a breakthrough, but many observers are skeptical. It seems like a daily event that Arab groups issue vague promises and abruptly back off.
Hamas has lost most of its advantages. It had “all the cards” when its forces attacked Israel, as Trump once put it when discussing the Russia-Ukraine war. Hamas had overwhelming support from Syria, Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon combined with their dedication to destroy Israel. Now they have hardly anyone to turn to. Syria disappeared altogether and Iran and Hezbollah are too weak to help, but Hamas fighters may have well retained their resolve to eliminate Israel.
The Gaza plan provides up to three advantages for Jews in America and elsewhere. Peace in the Middle East will remove much of the pressure on the Jewish community.
Failing that, Netanyahu’s acceptance of the proposal might dilute his negative image, though that is highly doubtful.
Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition has done much to anger people outside of Israel who in turn cast Israel as a monster while they view Arabs in Gaza as pure, oppressed innocents. That’s where blame, or at least suspicions, of all Jews comes in.
I learned long ago that Israeli right-wingers do not care how their actions reflect on Jews in America, England, Australia and elsewhere. Moderate and liberal prime ministers were far more sensitive to our needs. Of course, the present government’s actions do not justify violence or unfair criticism against the Jewish people.
If the prime minister softens his position, the most conservative parties might break from the coalition and force early elections. Perhaps a more sensible government will replace the current regime. No guarantee of that.
On the same day as the Yom Kippur tragedy in Manchester, the Times reported that the Trump administration was slashing $187 million for counter-terrorism programs in New York state – home to 1.5 million Jews. Jewish facilities would be left far more vulnerable to resembling Manchester.
That would leave the state with $30 million to protect all New Yorkers, including large Jewish communities in New York City and suburbs like Great Neck and New Rochelle. That is an 86 percent reduction from what President Biden sent the state a year ago.
Some of the more right-wing supporters of Israel repeatedly dub Trump as Israel’s best friend ever in the White House. On a range of domestic issues like health care and gun safety, Trump has not been the best friend of American Jews.
I believe Trump has been serious about fighting antisemitism and in so doing make sure to protect Jews from terrorism. New York state officials recently learned that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will cut $100 million for the counter-terrorism programs. This was added to a previous funding reduction of $87 million announced last August.
White House officials claimed that Trump was blindsided by the cuts, and did not learn of it until New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, complained to him in a phone call the day before he met with Netanyahu.
“A Republican administration literally defunding the police,” Hochul said in a statement, “is the height of hypocrisy – and walking away from the fight against terrorism in the No. 1 terrorist target in America is utterly shocking.”
New York is among 10 other Democratic-led states or districts – such as California, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. – that are losing funding despite being the most vulnerable targets in the nation. A lawsuit filed by these states says that the administration regards them as “sanctuary states” while redirecting much of the money to North Carolina, Indiana, Tennessee and other Republican-led states.
The deprived states are home to a combined Jewish population of 3.5 million.
Trump also heard appeals from three Republican congresspersons in New York, and on Friday Trump confirmed in a Truth Social post that he was reversing the cuts. “It was my honor to do so,” he said.
The Times, quoting sources, warned that another $20 million for transit security in New York was threatened. Janno Lieber, chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, speaks for us all when he declares: “It’s unthinkable that Washington could be considering cutting transit security grants.”
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Bruce S. Ticker is a Philadelphia-based columnist.