Alex Scheepens

Ph.D. Candidate @UWMadison I @Claimscon Fellow
Modern Europe, Jewish History, Holocaust Studies, Israel and Zionism

[Hen Mazzig @HenMazzig]

HEROIC: A civilian stopped one of the terrorists and took his gun, saving countless lives.

What a hero!

[Hen Mazzig @HenMazzig]

2,000 people were peacefully and joyfully celebrating the beginning of Chanukah on a beach in Sydney.

2 shooters arrived and brought chaos and hate with them.

Two years of idolizing Hamas. Of excusing terrorists. Of contextualizing the murder of Jews. Of justifying the unjustifiable.

And now, that hate, and that gunfire, are spreading across the world.

[Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧 @JChimirie66677]

Four people were wounded in Manchester today - one stabbed, three mown down by a car - outside a synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish year. The attacker was shot dead by police.

The attack is the result of years in which antisemitic rhetoric has been allowed to fester and grow unchecked - on our streets, in our schools, on our campuses, across social media, and from within politics itself. It is fed every weekend by pro-Palestinian marches that exude raw Jew-hate: chants of "From the river to the sea," cries of "Khaybar, Khaybar," placards likening Israel to Nazi Germany, and the relentless drumbeat that frames the Jewish state as a genocidal pariah. Words like these do not evaporate harmlessly. They embolden. They license hatred. They teach that Jews are fair game.

The danger today was so clear that police launched Operation Plato - Britain's emergency response to marauding terror attacks. That protocol isn't triggered lightly; it exists for the nightmare scenario of roaming killers on the hunt. Police feared Jews gathering to pray might be prey. That alone should shake this country to its core.

Yet while the immediate threat was contained, the climate that produced it was built over years by cowardice and indulgence. Instead of drawing a line between legitimate criticism of Israeli policy and the demonisation of an entire people, our political class blurred it beyond recognition. The casual use of the word genocide - repeated by left-wing MPs, echoed by ministers, amplified by media desperate for moral theatre - has consequences. If you tell the public over and over that Israel is exterminating people, do not feign surprise when men with knives and cars see Jews themselves as fitting enemies.

Adding fuel is the long courtship between the Left and Islam. This isn't conspiracy; it's political fact. Since the late 1990s, when the term "Islamophobia" was engineered and pushed into policy, a shield has silenced scrutiny of Islamist ideology by branding it bigotry. Under that cover came decades of looking away - from misogyny, grooming gangs, radical preaching, and now the antisemitic undercurrents spilling out of pro-Hamas networks. Universities have become test beds for this alliance: campuses where Jewish students are isolated, abused, told to answer for Israel's existence, and abandoned by staff and unions who parrot slogans reducing a living people to a colonial sin.

All the while, British institutions have shrunk from the fight. Police look for "balance" when there is none to find. Party leaders issue tepid condemnations sandwiched between affirmations of protest. Social media companies act with speed against unfashionable speech but leave posts glorifying violence against Jews to fester. The result is a culture where hate thrives, intimidation is normalised, and knives find their mark outside a synagogue.

If this continues unchecked, Jewish life in Britain will wither. Parents will hesitate before sending children to Jewish schools. Synagogues will harden behind concrete and steel. Ordinary families will live with fear as a constant companion. And Britain itself will be diminished - because a country that cannot protect its Jews is a country that has lost its moral spine.

It's time to break with cowardice. The government must draw a clear line: protests with antisemitic chants or terror glorification are not "free speech" but incitement and must be shut down. Universities tolerating Jew-baiting should lose funding until they enforce their codes. Social media must act on the high-visibility hate they let spread. And leaders who cried "genocide" must own the permission they gave to hate.

Britain stands at a crossroads: today's blood in Manchester echoes the hate we've excused - name the antisemitism, confront it, or watch the darkness spread.

"The government must draw a clear line: protests with antisemitic chants or terror glorification are not "free speech" but incitement and must be shut down."

[Simon Schama @simon_schama]

not good

[Simon Schama @simon_schama]

I don't want to hear any anti-Zionist tell me " oh but we love Jews"

[David Frum @davidfrum]

Well, at least we can retire that faded and false line, "antisemitism has no place in New York City."

[Eylon Levy @EylonALevy]

Israel was by far the European public’s favorite tonight. Don’t listen to the small minority of haters. 🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮�

[Aviva Klompas @AvivaKlompas]

🔴IDF: “Ariel and Kfir were not killed in an airstrike. Ariel and Kfir Bibas were murdered by terrorists in cold blood. The terrorists did not shoot the two young boys. They killed them with their bare hands. Afterwards, they committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities. This assessment is based on both forensic findings and intelligence.”

[Susan Hall AM @Councillorsuzie]

So to all the demonstrators that love going out on a Saturday spouting their anti semitic chants and waving their flags please bear this in mind. You support the vile beasts that kidnapped and murdered these beautiful innocent children. There was not a war raging at this point. They were taken and murdered. Shocking.

[Eylon Levy @EylonALevy]

People like to mock the Red Cross as an “Uber service” but that’s unfair to @Uber. I’ve never seen Uber drivers willingly take part in terrorist propaganda like this.

[Hen Mazzig @HenMazzig]

Crimes against humanity.

[Heidi Bachram @HeidiBachram]

Or Levy can barely stand or walk and has to be held up by terrorists to get to the stage they parade these men on. Or is 33 years old. He is a young man who was at a music festival. Hamas murdered his wife and starved him. I am FURIOUS that the world let this happen.

[Rabbi David Schlusselberg @RavSchluss]

General Dwight D. Eisenhower had the foresight to realize that Holocaust denial would occur.

Eisenhower said, “Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history, some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.”

[Alex Scheepens @AlexScheepens]

Interesting, because they certainly didn’t have any moral dilemmas 80 years ago.

[The Mossad: Satirical and Awesome @TheMossadIL]

This headline should haunt your dreams. Every single one should be fired.

[Ritchie Torres @RitchieTorres]

The original NY Times headline reads: “Violence Tied to Soccer Game….” There is no mention of the unprecedented nature of the event—a pogrom in the 21st century. No mention of its motive: antisemitism. No mention of its victims: Jews and Israelis. No mention of the response it necessitated: an emergency rescue operation by the Israeli government.

The hollowness of the headline tells its own story about a deeper desensitization of the modern world to Jew hatred even when the hate metastasizes into violence.

[Yad Vashem @yadvashem]

YV stands in solidarity w/ the victims of last night's disturbing pogrom in Amesterdam. As we mark the anniversary of The November Pogrom of 1938, "Kristallnacht", YV urges leaders to combat rising antisemitism decisively.

For YV's full statement, https://t.co/56epLrRCNa

[Ritchie Torres @RitchieTorres]

The hysterical and hyperbolic demonization of Israel has led to a global outbreak of antisemitic vitriol, vandalism, and violence. The single most monstrous manifestation of antisemitism is a pogrom that is presently unfolding against hundreds of Jews who were cheering on the Tel Aviv Football Club in Amsterdam.

Those inciting antisemitism now have the blood of a 21st-century pogrom on their hands. The situation is so dire that the Israeli government is dispatching rescue teams for Jews in danger. I am sick to my stomach that a pogrom is happening in the 21st century.

[George Deek @GeorgeDeek]

As I hear a world leader reminding Israel that it “was created by a UN decision,” it’s a perfect moment to address why European elites seem particularly vexed by Israel’s independence— and why they expect obedience.

For those European elites, the right of self-determination of the French, Palestinians, or Chinese, is framed as a matter of justice: an inherent, unconditional right of a people to their land. But when it comes to the Jews, the narrative shifts. Their right to self-determination is not viewed as intrinsic, but as an act of European compassion—granted out of guilt for the Holocaust. In this view, Israel exists not because of a millennia-old connection to the land, or because of global rejection or because of Zionist activity, but because Europe, burdened by its conscience, graciously allowed the Jews a state through the UN.

This paternalist narrative strips Jews of their agency and their deep historical ties to Israel. But much worse, it turns their right to a homeland into something conditional—a “gift” from Europe. And like any gift, it can be revoked if the recipient misbehaves.

And this is where the obsession with Israel kicks in. If Europe believes it bestowed Israel’s right to exist, then it assumes the authority to judge Israel’s conduct. The Jews, unlike other nations, are expected to earn their right to sovereignty daily by conforming to the standards set by their “benefactors.” Fail to do so, and the right that was “given” can be questioned—or withdrawn.

[David Jacobs @DrJacobsRad]

Here is a proposed course outline from the University of Toronto that bans Jews from joining the class.

The word 'Zionist' was ultimately removed, but the professor was not.

How are we supposed to combat hate when we teach it at our universities?

[Simon Schama @simon_schama]

It's the historical and archaeological ignorance frog marching Jewish history into the lazy categories of anticolonial polemics that dooms this kind of ideological tourism. Israel is not going away because of the factual, historical reality of its formative roots in the land btw Jordan and Med. What Coates sophomorically supposes to be a "fairy tale" is belied by all kinds of archaeol and historical evidence. When does he think the word " Israel is first mentioned on a stele? Where does he suppose Hebrew came from? Where were Dead Sea Scrolls found? Poland? where the first synagogues? Who was living in 16c Sefad? Were Tacitus and Josephus making it all up? Who built that western wall anyway? Lithuanians?