Mitchell Silber, having served as the director of intelligence for the New York Police Department, and more recently provided security advice for Jewish communities throughout Europe, recommends some measures for combating anti-Semitic violence:

[D]eterrence is crucial. Would-be assailants need to be dissuaded from carrying out attacks. In recent days, the mayor’s office has committed to deploying extra law-enforcement resources to the most endangered communities, [mainly] in Brooklyn. This is a good start, but the commitment must go further. Increased police patrols, the establishment of fixed posts, and even the use of undercover officers, dressed as observant Jews, are tactics that should be deployed and sustained for the foreseeable future. Removing these resources after only a short time has proved to be ineffective; incidents return as patrols leave.

The data also show that almost two-thirds of the attacks in New York City are committed by juveniles who are local residents. This is deeply disturbing. After suspects are arrested, family-court judges have too few options. City Hall must develop an age-appropriate, restorative-justice option for those adjudicated as juvenile offenders for their participation in what could be a hate crime.

Lastly, there is self-defense. The need for this is unfortunate—in part, it’s a failure of the American promise of freedom and toleration that a minority group must learn to provide for its own defense; but we must confront the world as it is. The Jewish community must be proactive in protecting itself.

Analyzing the recent direct Iranian attack on Israel, and Israel’s security situation more generally, Michael Oren looks to the 2015 agreement to restrain Iran’s nuclear program. That, and President Biden’s efforts to resurrect the deal after Donald Trump left it, are in his view the source of the current crisis:

Of the original motivations for the deal—blocking Iran’s path to the bomb and transforming Iran into a peaceful nation—neither remained. All Biden was left with was the ability to kick the can down the road and to uphold Barack Obama’s singular foreign-policy achievement.

In order to achieve that result, the administration has repeatedly refused to punish Iran for its malign actions:

Historians will survey this inexplicable record and wonder how the United States not only allowed Iran repeatedly to assault its citizens, soldiers, and allies but consistently rewarded it for doing so. They may well conclude that in a desperate effort to avoid getting dragged into a regional Middle Eastern war, the U.S. might well have precipitated one.

While America’s friends in the Middle East, especially Israel, have every reason to feel grateful for the vital assistance they received in intercepting Iran’s missile and drone onslaught, they might also ask what the U.S. can now do differently to deter Iran from further aggression. . . . Tehran will see this weekend’s direct attack on Israel as a victory—their own—for their ability to continue threatening Israel and destabilizing the Middle East with impunity.

Israel, of course, must respond differently. Our target cannot simply be the Iranian proxies that surround our country and that have waged war on us since October 7, but, as the Saudis call it, “the head of the snake.”