With antisemitism rising and Iran looming, only a coordinated, strategic, empirically grounded strategy will do
Dr Jonathan Boyd
Call me a masochist, but I have the Tzofar-Red Alert app on my phone. For the uninitiated, it’s widely used in Israel – it delivers real-time alerts about impending rocket attacks, so Israelis know when to rush to their safe rooms or bomb shelters. Even though I haven’t been in Israel recently, the app makes me feel connected; as if in some small way, I have a sense of what people there are going through.
The app went into overdrive recently. Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and assets prompted a vicious response, albeit one that was thankfully rather less destructive than Israeli military experts had feared. Still, over the twelve days of war, 28 people were killed in Israel, including 27 civilians. Over 3,000 were injured, and over 13,000 were displaced following missile damage to their homes.
Israelis supported an attack on Iran, but do not trust Netanyahu
Nonetheless, Israel Democracy Institute data show that 70% of all Israelis, and 82% of all Israeli Jews, supported the decision to attack Iran. Yet we see little change in levels of trust in Prime Minister Netanyahu as a result. Whilst he appears to have accomplished his key objectives in the extraordinary attack, current evidence suggests that his Likud Party still wouldn’t win enough votes today to come close to being able to form a coalition.
Data from our ‘Jews in Uncertain Times’ Survey – which is currently in fieldwork phase – will likely show that British Jews feel similarly. JPR research from both 2010 and 2024 demonstrates that about nine in ten British Jews believed that ‘Iran represents a threat to Israel’s existence,’ so most are likely to have been supportive of Israel’s attack. Yet many have long disapproved of Netanyahu overall, so I would be surprised to see a bounce back for him after this. Perhaps a little – as in Israel – but not much.
That’s because many Jews here remain troubled by much of what they have witnessed in Israel in recent times. Rightly or wrongly, there is considerable discontent among them over how the Israeli government has managed the humanitarian aid issue, and a not uncommon sense that the IDF should have done more to protect Palestinian civilians. There is also growing concern about the state of Israel’s democracy, and widespread disapproval of the hard-right government ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitic hate
So whilst the Tzofar app has quietened down a little after the twelve days of war with Iran, these types of alerts continue to sound in significant parts of the Diaspora as well as in Israel.
And here in Britain, other alarm bells keep ringing. JPR data show that levels of trust in the BBC among British Jews were already remarkably low. Still, the BBC-televised cries of ‘Death, death to the IDF’ from Bob Vylan at the Glastonbury festival in late June seem to have plunged the Corporation into even deeper water and many Jews into deeper despair. But public confusion over where the line lies between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitic hate remains alive and well, even as one of the victims of the recent firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado – 82-year-old Karen Diamond – succumbed to her injuries earlier this week.
Speaking in Poland last month to all the government representatives responsible for combating antisemitism in the 27 countries of the EU, I discussed how anti-Israel sentiment is morphing into dangerous, even murderous antisemitism in Europe today. I shared JPR data on how that is affecting Jewish life. And I showed them the Tzofar app. The question today, I think, is how to respond to the alerts we hear around us. I’m struck by how Netanyahu has tackled the Iranian threat: with tremendous investment in intelligence gathering, technological expertise, and meticulous strategic planning by experts over many years. If we want to tackle the growing threat of antisemitism worldwide, it seems to me that a very similar level of long-term coordinated and disciplined strategic research, analysis and planning is required.
Dr Jonathan Boyd
Executive Director
Dr Jonathan Boyd
Executive Director
Jonathan has been Executive Director of JPR since 2010, having previously held research and policy positions at the JDC International Centre for Community Development in...
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