According to the most recent report by the UK’s Community Security Trust, 2021 saw a 34-percent increase in hate crimes against Jews, yielding the highest number of cases ever recorded. Jake Wallis Simons reports on how the trend has reached the highly ranked public school in his genteel neighborhood:

A few months ago, a boy picked up his books and declared, “I’m not sitting next to the Jewish girl,” before moving to another seat. When she told me about it, my daughter, who is fourteen, said the kid had just been seeking attention. It was a one-off, she said. She didn’t want me to contact the school. So I decided to let it go; the lesson for her, perhaps, was that this stuff happens in life.

These days, apparently, a favorite school trick is to ask my twelve-year-old son if he’s “a Jew.” When he nods, the kids reply, “Heil Hitler.” It happens about three times a week, my son told me. Sometimes they simply ask, “is your sister a Jew?” and laugh. Or they hoot, “Jew, Jew, Jew,” when they see my kids in the corridor.

The school has a problem with swastikas. People think it’s funny to scratch them into tables and walls, and the teachers don’t do anything about it. There was a craze recently to draw a swastika on your hand in chalk and slap somebody on the back, so the imprint is left on their blazer.

When speaking to my son, I asked him if the kids behaved this way towards other minorities at school. Black children, for example. His eyes widened. “Of course not,” he said, a note of irony in his voice. “That would be racist.”

Between December 27 and January 6, terrorists in Gaza fired rockets at Israel almost every night. On Monday, one rocket struck a home in the much-bombarded town of Sderot, although no one was injured. The rocket fire had largely halted last spring, and for some time barrages were often the result of Israeli forces closing in a Hamas unit or munitions depot. But the truth—which gives credence to Ran Baratz’s argument in his January essay that the IDF is struggling to accomplish its mission—is that Hamas has been able to rebuild. Yoni Ben Menachem writes that the jihadist group has been “producing hundreds of new rockets using lathes smuggled into tunnels that remain operational in Gaza.” Moreover, it has been replenishing its ranks:

According to Israeli security officials, Hamas has recruited approximately 4,000 new fighters over the past month. This rapid expansion bolsters its fighting capabilities and complicates Israel’s efforts to apply military pressure on Hamas to expedite a hostage deal. Hamas’s military recovery has allowed it to prolong its war of attrition against the IDF and adopt tougher stances in hostage negotiations. The funds for this recruitment effort are reportedly from the sale of humanitarian-aid packages, which Hamas forcibly seizes and resells in Gaza’s markets.

In fact, Ben Menachem writes, Hamas’s rocket fire is part of the same strategy:

By firing rockets, Hamas seeks to demonstrate its resilience and operational capability despite the IDF’s prolonged offensive. This message is aimed at both Gaza’s residents and the Israeli public, underscoring that Hamas remains a significant force even after enduring heavy losses [and] that Israel cannot easily occupy this region, currently a focal point of IDF operations.