Israel's Fight Is Already In Britain

Why the horrors of October 7 — and today’s Manchester synagogue stabbing — must be a wake-up call for Britain

In August I took a bit of time off. It had been a whirlwind few months establishing our Reform administration on Durham County Council — the first time in living memory that Labour’s grip on the authority had been broken. So naturally, I thought: where better to unwind than a warzone?

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First Visit: Awe

Joking aside, I’ve now been to Israel three times. The first, back in 2019, was as a tourist with a couple of good friends. Tel Aviv was buzzing, the Christian sites I’d only ever read about or heard said aloud in readings or lessons suddenly became vivid and real, and I came away grateful that the Jewish state exists to preserve them. Without Jewish guardianship, it is not lost on me that those sites would soon fall victim to the same barbarism that has dynamited temples, levelled churches, and smashed statues across the Middle East in the name of Islam’s supremacy.

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Second Visit: Fear

The second time was with the European Israel Press Association in 2023. That trip was different. I felt genuine fear as I toured the Hezbollah tunnels on the Lebanese border, dug for the sole purpose of kidnapping Jews as bargaining chips. When you visit all three fault lines — Hezbollah in the north, Hamas in the south, and the perpetual tension of the West Bank — you feel the permanent weight of living under siege. I met young IDF soldiers, including a lad from Gateshead — articulate, bright, and proud of his service. A month later came October 7th. I still don’t know if that boy is alive following the war that would come.

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Third Visit: Horror

This August, my third visit, was the most nerve-wracking of all. I was invited by Yoram Hazony, the conservative intellectual, to see not just Israel as a state but Israel as an idea. I hesitated. Yet, just as I once stood in awe at biblical sites made flesh, this time I wanted to see — with my own eyes, not through the sanitised abstracts of print or social media feeds — the sites of unadulterated horror from October 7th.

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“Zoomers Aren’t Zionists”

And here’s where I found myself agreeing with

Connor Tomlinson

’s observation: “Zoomers aren’t Zionists.” He points to polling showing younger generations increasingly sympathise with Palestinians. The right in the West is losing Israel’s moral advantage among youth. His warning is simple: if we don’t reframe the narrative, Israel’s fight will become alien to the West’s next generation.

That fragility matters here. Because the very same hatred that struck Israel is crossing borders. Today, a man attacked a synagogue in Manchester. That is not a local crime. It is part of the same wave of religious hatred and Islamist aggression. It is Israel’s war threatening us at home.

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Our Fight Is Israel’s Fight

We can’t pretend that antisemitic attacks on British soil are something distant or separate. When bombs fall in Gaza, swing votes shrink in Manchester synagogues. The same ideology animates them. Whether in London, Tel Aviv or Manchester, the logic is identical: Jews shouldn’t have a safe place, they shouldn’t have a state, they must be made uncomfortable — everywhere. And then do you really suppose they’ll stop when finished with the Jews? Why did the Manchester Arena bombing not animate us into this realisation?

I was reminded of the Manchester Arena bombing when at the site of the Nova Music Festival. Shani Gabay went to work at the festival, staying with friends to watch the sunrise when Hamas terrorists stormed the site on October 7. After surviving grenades thrown into a shelter, she was shot in the leg trying to escape. Still injured, she took cover inside an ambulance (pictured above), believing it offered safety. The terrorists targeted the vehicle directly with an RPG, setting it ablaze. Shani and 17 others were killed inside. Her family clung to hope she had been kidnapped to Gaza, only to learn weeks later that her remains had been recovered from the burned ambulance, identified by the crescent-moon necklace she wore that day.

I saw that burnt-out ambulance myself and felt overwhelmed with emotion. It was a stark reminder that what happens in Israel is not confined to Israel. The same ideology that turned a music festival into a killing field has also stained our own streets with blood.

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Import Israel’s Model, Not Migrants

The only thing we ought to import from the Middle East is its oil and Israel’s model for nationhood. We view ourselves as the Israelis view themselves: a nation with borders and a people with ideas, not as blank-slate multicultural experiments, a glorified internationalist arrivals lounge offering bed, board and benefits. As Margaret Thatcher said after 9/11, “We have harboured those who hated us, tolerated those who threatened us and indulged those who weakened us.” If Israel can hold a land in common memory, so can Britain. We too are an ancient project worth defending.

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The Urgency

And today’s stabbing proves the urgency. If we lose Israel’s war of reputation, then we lose the moral argument to resist Islamist violence in our own streets. If young people turn against Zionism, they turn against our defence of Jews here. If we abandon identity, we hand the ground to the ideology that justifies Manchester synagogues being bloodied.

So let this trip, these narratives, and today’s terror be fuel for our fight. Our version of patriotism, our version of national renewal, must be bold, unashamed, rooted in history and confident in self-defence. Because this is not someone else’s war. It is ours. That is what my three trips and countless meetings with the bravest and most spirited people I have ever met has taught me.