On August 19, 1991, in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights, a young Lubavitch Ḥasid lost control of his car, causing the death of a seven-year-old child of Guyanese immigrants. The accident—thanks in part to the incitement of Al Sharpton and other anti-Semitic agitators—sparked a three-day pogrom in which Jewish shops were destroyed, Jews were physically attacked, and one young Jew was fatally stabbed. Charles Fain Lehman notes what has changed since then, and what hasn’t:

[T]he three-decade interlude has not brought an end to anti-Semitic attacks against Crown Heights residents. Since 2019, there have been twenty anti-Jewish hate crimes in the surrounding 71st precinct, the fourth most for any single NYPD precinct. That includes multiple incidents of aggressive harassment, three robberies, two assaults, and one instance of “terroristic threats.” As before, gangs of roving teenagers still feel comfortable beating Jewish men in broad daylight.

[Yet] the reality of anti-Semitic crime continues to receive little notice. Even as tens of thousands rally against other forms of hatred, anti-Semitism remains the blind spot. In New York, anti-Semitic hate crimes surged this summer after a year of abeyance, with over 120 offenses reported by the end of June. A recently released repeat offender attacked an Orthodox family with a knife; a minivan driver tried to run over five ḥasidic men; and four synagogues were vandalized in the Riverdale neighborhood.

New York City, though home to the plurality of anti-Semitic hate crimes, was not alone in seeing a new wave of anti-Jewish hate over the past three years. The Anti-Defamation League found that 2019 was the worst year for anti-Semitic incidents since it began keeping records. Nationwide, such offenses increased in all but one year between 2014 and 2019. FBI data show that Jews are the religious group most likely to be victimized by hate crimes; only gay men and transgender people have a higher rate of victimization relative to their share of the population.

Anti-Semitic violence, in other words, has risen everywhere. Coming after a year in which more Americans than ever expressed vocal opposition to prejudice, one would expect a media bonanza, protests nationwide, and congressional action. . . . Just as apathy toward their views gives cover to anti-Semites on the left and right, so too does denial of the continuing reality of anti-Semitic violence give permission to the mob to keep beating and killing Jews just for the crime of being Jewish.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.