As Yom Kippur drew to a close, I drove past a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Northeast Philadelphia and spotted a police van parked out front, a half-mile from my apartment.
Comforting that this shul was protected, but not so comforting for what else the Jewish world endured. Two days before the Day of Atonement, The New York Times reported that Jeremy Corbyn had advanced a signficant step toward becoming Britain’s prime minister. Yom Kippur itself was consumed by fatal shootings outside a synagogue in Germany; a military earthquake in Syria that could easily extend to Israel; and two scary incidents in Elon, North Carolina, and White Plains, New York.
This confluence of events cast a bleak shadow for 5780, the new Jewish year. It makes one wonder what else can happen.
It would be far worse if Jeremy Corbyn moves into 10 Downing Street, once home to such respected prime ministers as Winston Churchill and Tony Blair. Whoever thought that a cult-like political organization that demonizes 300,000 Britons could ever be acceptable to govern. However, the Times reported on Monday that voters may be willing to accept Corbyn and the party he leads – Labour – because of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s determination for a no-deal Brexit.
“The scale of economic chaos the Tories are promising means that any of Labour’s policies pale in significance…the public have a clear appetite for change,” said Tom Kibasi, director of the left-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research, as quoted in the Times.
Labour’s prominence has deteriorated in a short time span after anti-Semites and Israel-bashers seized control and named Corbyn its leader, the post held not long ago by the popular Blair. At best, Corbyn is blamed for failing to control the party’s anti-Semitic actions, and that has driven out or alienated many Labour voters.
Corbyn’s prospects brightened in August when Johnson suspended Parliament and planned an abrupt split with the European Union, which in turn panicked jittery British markets, according to the Times. Corbyn has proposed transformative concepts such as nationalizing the railways and creating a state-owned pharmaceutical company, whatever their merits, but Johnson would cut adrift an export market of half a billion people, the Times reported. Johnson replaced Theresa May in July as prime minister and Conservative leader; the Conservatives are also known as the Tories.
Corbyn would likely be reined in by smaller parties he needs for backing because Labour is not expected to win a majority in any future election. He can thank himself for driving Labour Members of Parliament into the hands of a revamped Liberal Democrats Party. Both the LD and Scottish National Party will be at odds with Labour on some issues assuming they win seats in Parliament.
Two days after the Times article appeared, two people were murdered after a gunman attempted to break into a synagogue in Halle, Germany, 100 miles south of Berlin, but was blocked by the shul’s doors which were secured shut during the services, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Others were shot near the synagogue and at a kebab shop by the gunman, who said that Jews are “the root of all problems.” A suspect was arrested by German police.
The first thought that jumped to mind was gun control, and then I quickly remembered that this was not America, where 11 were shot to death at a Pittsburgh synagogue nearly a year ago and a woman was murdered inside a shul in Poway. I am not familiar with firearms laws in Germany, but such laws here are sorely lacking.
Complaints were quickly raised about lack of police protection. The Times reported that synagogues in major German cities are subject to protection around the clock.
“If police had been stationed outside the synagogue, then this man could have been disarmed before he could attack the others,” said Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, according to JTA. He called it “scandalous that the synagogue in Halle was not protected by the police on a holiday like Yom Kippur.”
Oliver Malchow, who heads Germany’s police union, retorted, “We’d have to guard every synagogue, every church, every mosque, every holy place in Germany around the clock, so I don’t know if this was a mistake or if this really couldn’t have been foreseen.”
What Malchow fails to mention is that this occurred on Yom Kippur, the most solemn day of the year for Jews. Whether or not there should be round the clock coverage on a daily basis, Yom Kippur is an obvious exception.
Along the Syria-Turkey border, 60 Kurdish and 17 Turkish civilians were killed as of Saturday afternoon, and up to 100,000 civilians have fled northern Syria, according to the Times.
President Trump cleared the path for Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria and Kurdish counter-attacks when he ordered American troops removed from that area. If he had not done so before, Trump endangered national security with this move. What ally can trust America now after Trump tossed the Kurds under Turkish tanks? Kurdish and American soldiers fought together to virtually defeat ISIS.
Whenever the pot is stirred in the Middle East, Israel is vulnerable. Columnist Thomas L. Friedman warned in Wednesday’s New York Times that a military conflict in northern Syria would raise tensions for Israel. Publication of Friedman’s commentary coincided with Turkey’s invasion on Wednesday, the day of Yom Kippur.
“If you think Trump’s withdrawal of U.S. troops will make the Middle East more explosive, you’re correct,” Friedman wrote. “Those troops were also interrupting Iran’s efforts to build a land bridge from Tehran to Beirut to tighten a noose around Israel – and their removal could help bring the Iran-Israel shadow war out into the open.”
He stressed that the accuracy of the missile attack on Saudi Arabia oil fields is especially alarming. He quotes Israeli scientist Uzi Even, who wrote in Haaretz, “Drone wreckage discovered in Saudi Arabia shows that the Iranians are manufacturing and operating drones so advanced that they do not lag behind Israeli capabilities in this field…The Iranians, or their proxies, showed that they can hit specific targets with great precision and from a distance of hundreds of kilometers.”
Friedman noted that all Middle East powers are reconsidering their strategy on Iran, writing, “The Gulf Arabs can and will find a way to buy off the Iranians. Israel can’t. Israel has a real Iran problem.”
Back home, American Jews endured at least two serious incidents during Yom Kippur, according to media reports. In Elon, North Carolina, northeast of Greensboro, gunshots damaged a car outside a Chabad house. A Holocaust memorial was vandalized in White Plains, a New York suburb 25 miles north of Times Square.
Whether close to home, or 3,500 miles from here, or 5,400 miles away, these are ominous omens. We can hope that the worst is over, and we can at least work to prevent a repeat of such events.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World