On Wednesday, a neo-Nazi attempting to attack Jews at prayer in the German city of Halle with a gun and explosives found the entrance locked but killed two and wounded others outside. In Berlin a few days earlier, a knife-wielding Syrian refugee attempted to enter another synagogue while yelling “Allahu Akbar” and “F— Israel” before being stopped by security guards. The police released him from custody the next day. Eldad Beck comments:

Germany is once again a dangerous place for Jews. . . . Barely a week passes without violent assaults on Jews in the country. In Berlin alone, over 400 anti-Semitic attacks were reported in the first half of 2019. We can assume the actual figure is higher since not every attack is reported.

The attack in Halle is the result of the failure of German authorities; it is the result of the incomprehensible forgiveness that the country’s law enforcement chooses to show the perpetrators of attacks against Jews, which in recent years have been largely carried out by members of Arab and Muslim immigrant communities. Although the perpetrator of the Halle attack was a member of the radical right, the day-to-day physical threat to Jewish security in Germany is sacrificed at the altar of Germany’s policy of appeasement toward Arab-Muslim anti-Semitism. When they are able to attack Jews as they please, other radicals get the sense that the spilling of blood is permissible so long as the targets are Jews.

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.