I wish the attack on the Manchester synagogue had never happened. I also feel weird about even talking about it while dozens of Palestinians are killed today whose individual names I’ll never know and whose individual deaths I’ll never see decried in western media headlines.

Caitlin Johnstone

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

 

Two people were reportedly murdered on Thursday while attending a Manchester synagogue in what the British government has labeled a terrorist incident. Four others were seriously injured. Police say they shot and killed the suspect, a British citizen of Syrian descent.

After the attack an Arab-Israeli hasbarist named Jonathan Elkhoury jumped on Twitter to tell me that “When you dehumanize Israelis and Jews to this level, you end up with a terrorist attack in a synagogue in the UK,” adding, “You’re as complicit as the terrorists attack you sick psycho.”

Whenever western Jews get hurt these days you always see the Israel supporters having a big parade where they go “Okay that’s it, wrap it up, nobody gets to criticize Israel’s behavior anymore because you’re causing terrorism!” And then everyone ignores them and goes back to protesting the genocide, because that’s ridiculous.

 

I don’t know whether the Manchester attack had anything to do with Gaza. It could have just been some guy having a mental health crisis. It could have been something else. But the fact that so many Israel apologists are jumping out of the woodwork to say this means everyone needs to stop defending Palestine is very revealing in and of itself.

Some thoughts:

Murder is wrong. Israel should stop committing it.

Antisemitism is wrong. Israel should stop fomenting it by massacring children under the banner of the Star of David while claiming to represent all Jews.

Terrorism is wrong. Israel should stop perpetrating it by deliberately targeting civilians with mass scale violence for the purpose of advancing a political objective.

Attacking places of worship is wrong. Israel should stop bombing mosques and churches.

 

I wish the attack on the Manchester synagogue had never happened. I also feel weird about even talking about it while dozens of Palestinians are killed today whose individual names I’ll never know and whose individual deaths I’ll never see decried in western media headlines.

Their lives didn’t matter any less than the two people who were murdered in the synagogue attack. They’re just not white westerners, so their lives aren’t treated as significant. Their violent deaths aren’t seen as horrific. Their murderers aren’t denounced as monsters.

I’m seeing Israel supporters claiming that this attack means everyone needs to stop protesting against the ongoing genocide in Gaza, just like they claimed after two Israeli embassy staffers were killed in Washington back in May. Their demands will be ignored just like last time, because they are stupid. Even if a double homicide is directly motivated by opposition to Israel’s extermination campaign in Gaza, that is not a valid reason to stop opposing an active genocide. This shouldn’t even need to be said.

Last I heard it is unknown whether the synagogue attacker was motivated by Israel’s actions in Gaza, but if he was I’d say that’s one more reason to oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza. If you are too racist or apathetic to oppose a genocide on principle, then you should oppose it because it is fomenting violent extremism which could end up hurting people who look like you and live where you live.

 

Back in December 2023 I wrote that “Actually, what fuels antisemitism is murdering children by the thousands under the banner of the Star of David while adamantly insisting that your actions are inseparable from all Jews and the totality of Judaism.”

In April of this year I said that “If you believe that all the violence and destruction in Gaza is the fault of Hamas then by your own logic you must also accept that the coming wave of antisemitism and violent extremism which is going to ensue from the incineration of Gaza will exclusively be the fault of Israel.”

I note this because if it turns out that this was yet another instance of someone flipping out about Israel’s criminality in Gaza and attacking Jewish civilians in a misguided attempt at retaliation, it’s worth pointing out that it was entirely foreseeable and preventable. 

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