The Oldest Hatred

Anti-Semitism is the UK’s “biggestnationalsecurity emergency” in a decadesaid Jonathan Hall KC, the British government’s independent reviewer of terrorism after a Somalia-born British national attacked two Jewish men in Golders Green in north London on April 29, which the police labelled a terrorist incident. It has led the government to commit £25 million for security around synagogues, schools and other Jewish community centres but the world’s oldest hatred is being normalised at a rate outpacing law enforcement. While Chief Rabbi Sir Ehpraim Mirvis warned the attack “proves that if you are visibly Jewish, you’re not safe” and Benjamin Netanyahu’s office urged the British government to go beyond mere words, it has also emerged that a Jewish security agency had given ample warning ahead of the Bondi Beach shooting in Australia when two gunmen killed 15 people at a Hanukkah event. In 2024, the ‘peak year’, there was a 344 per cent increase in anti-Semitic incidents (9,354) over the past five years in the US while the UK had seen a 450 per cent increase (2,000 incidents) and France 350 per cent, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The most severe wave of anti-Semitism since World War II has largely been driven by far-left ideology, but Islamist-related incidents are becoming more frequent.

Mind the ‘Hinckley’ Hilton

Donald Trump owes his life to Ronald Reagan. As do his guests on April 25 at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Had John Hinckley Jr not fired six shots in 1.7 seconds at Reagan on March 30, 1981, wounding the president as he walked to his limousine as well as Press Secretary James Brady, a secret service agent and a police officer, the overhaul of presidential security and of the Washington Hilton itself that saved the Line of Succession last weekend might not have happened. The brutalist giant near Dupont Circle is ideal for hosting large events. But 1,107 rooms and a 30,000 square foot pillarless ballroom make the hotel a security nightmare. Hinckley exposed the Achilles’ heel of the enclosed President’s Walk—30 ftof open ground at its end to reach the car. Thereafter, a fortified underground driveway removed the presidential vehicle from any public line-ofsight. Magnetometers became mandatory, and Cole Tomas Allen, Saturday’s “friendly federal assassin”, couldn’t go past the magnetometers although the Secret Service overlooked the obvious vulnerability of the interior stairwell he used. Incidentally, the White House press briefing room where Trump later sounded truly presidential is named after Brady, who died in 2014 after spending 33 years paralysed by Hinckley’s bullet.

A Palestinian Beginning

That Gaza’s first elections in more than 20 years took place in only one city—Deir al-Balah—and that too for its municipality doesn’t take away its significance. While municipal polls were simultaneously held across the West Bank, candidates in Gaza had to accept the PLO’s programme, including recognition of Israel and renunciation of violence. Hamas didn’t participate but its ‘police’ secured the polling stations. The Fatah-backed NahdatDeir al-Balah won six of the 15 seats while the Hamas-backed rival list won two. Reforming the Palestinian Authority, which hasn’t held an election since 2006, a year after Mahmoud Abbas became president, is a key condition of the US-brokered ceasefire framework.