Emphasizing as much, the U.K.’s terrorism alert status has now been raised to “severe.” This means authorities believe that another attack is “highly likely” in the near future. Authorities specifically referenced an “elevated threat to Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions.”

This diagnostic phrasing belies a simple fact: Incidents at the Israeli Embassy are increasingly serious. But today, in the U.K., being a Jew is in and of itself fraught with risk. Consider some recent history.

UKRAINE PLAYS PUTIN ON DISINGENIOUS VICTORY DAY TRUCE

In October 2025, two congregants were killed after a Synagogue in Manchester, northern England, was attacked by another knife-wielding terrorist. On March 23, ambulances belonging to a Jewish volunteer organization in London were set alight. On April 18, another attempted arson was carried out against a Jewish community center. More broadly, antisemitic attacks of all kinds have risen significantly. London’s Metropolitan Police service says that monthly antisemitic hate crimes were the highest in April since new reporting guidelines were introduced in 2024. Threatening harassment of Jews is a daily occurrence. One recent example can be seen in the video below (the suspect was later arrested).

This antisemitic criminality is mostly homegrown but, at the more violent end of the spectrum, also often directed and supported by Iran. Iran has replicated the Russian intelligence service strategy of using deniable officers/agents to recruit petty criminals via encrypted apps and then recruit them for specific attacks. This mercenary approach to terrorism enables an expanded attack capability, reduced opportunities for detection, and greater deniability for the organizing entity. Another major challenge is that attacks involving knives and cars provide little advanced warning time or planning indication to attract attention from the police or the U.K.’s excellent MI5 domestic intelligence service.

Regardless, the current situation is obviously untenable. Britons should not have to alter their lawful behavior, dress, or customs just because they fear an antisemite might see them, decide they are a Jew, and then attack them. So, what should be done?

The first requirement is a more robust response from the government.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has now pledged an additional $34 million in funding for police forces to support antisemitic crime-related operations. London’s Metropolitan Police has also established a 100-person unit specifically focused on antisemitic crime (though many of the officers assigned to the unit were already assigned to Jewish majority neighborhoods). These steps are positive. But there will be a continuing need for greater armed police (most U.K. police are unarmed) patrols on daytime patrol routes proximate to Synagogues, Jewish schools, and community centers.

On that point, the fear now afflicting Jewish Britons underlines an oft-discounted value of the Second Amendment. Namely, that it empowers law-abiding citizens with the confident means to defend themselves against an otherwise superior physical threat. Europeans love to talk about all the ills of the Second Amendment. Far less is their interest in discussing the plight of often impoverished or specifically targeted citizens (such as Jews) who live in sustained fear of violent criminals.

Second, harsher sentences must be applied to those who carry out antisemitic and other religiously motivated attacks. This should apply both to ideological terrorists and the aforementioned mercenary terrorists. If punching a Jew walking down the street doesn’t cause serious injury but still results in a multiyear prison sentence, day-to-day antisemitic criminality will be deterred. This will foster a greater sense of security, thus facilitating British Jews in the better pursuit of happiness. Starmer has rightly authorized fast-track prosecutions for antisemitic offenses.

These coercive actions are preferable to other strategies, such as new restrictions on free speech. Statements such as “globalize the intifada” might be repellent, but banning them is anathema to democratic health. Moreover, while anti-Israel speech is often also antisemitic in nature, the two are not necessarily the same thing. Attempting to blur these lines in all cases only fosters resentment and chills the most important free speech: political speech. The U.K. should not ban protest marches as a result of this crisis.

Instead, all Britons with a public profile should be pressured to make clear that just as it would be insane to blame a Palestinian in Washington, D.C., for Hamas atrocities in Israel, it is insane to blame a Jew in London for a murder committed by a fanatical Jewish settler in the West Bank. And that it is equally outrageous to hold British Jews responsible for the perceived injustices of the Israeli government. Speaking out against antisemitism must become a marker of the responsible citizen.

To build on that concern, it’s equally clear that the U.K. needs cultural corrections.

Many Britons believe that immigration levels have been and remain too high. That point notwithstanding, there is no question that immigrant assimilation has been far less successful in the U.K. (and across Europe) than in the U.S. This failure has been particularly significant in immigration from Muslim-majority states. This has helped cultivate both racism against immigrants who seek only to better the lives of their families and become successful Britons, but also in festering pockets of Islamist extremist ideology, which are insulated from expectations of British civil society.

U.K. law should now be changed to expel those, including asylum-seekers (even those at risk in their home nations), who engage in antisemitic (and other forms of serious) criminality. Those seeking lawful immigration should be better screened for their compatibility with the basic norms of civil society. Public figures, including the government, should also increase pressure on Islamic leaders to stand with their Jewish kin (it should be noted that some leaders, such as Imam Sayed Razawi, already do so).

SOLUTIONS TO SAVE THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP

The U.K. can fix its antisemitism crisis. But it will take time, resources, bolder action, and moral clarity. But one thing is clear. The time for responses predicated on condemnation and token action has passed.

What is happening to Jews in the U.K. is untenable with the sustained moral character of a great democracy.