Having lived in Britain for much of his life, Jonathan Foreman wasn’t surprised that the current war in Gaza prompted anti-Israel protests and the like. But even he was surprised by their intensity, the fact that they began immediately after the October 7 massacres (rather than after the IDF’s military response), and the way they have drawn in people like his middle-aged neighbors, who on October 10 hung Palestinian flags and banners outside their house:

This felt different, more disturbing. My neighbors—the wealthy, white, haut-bourgeois banner-hangers—were, whether they would admit it or not, celebrating October 7, rejoicing in the targeting of civilians for rape, murder, and mutilation, cheering the murder of Jews for being Jews.

Every Saturday since 10/7, London has endured large anti-Israel demonstrations. At each one, students, Palestine-obsessives, Islamists, and hard-left extremists march shoulder to shoulder with tens of thousands of people from Britain’s Arab and Muslim communities. They wind their way from Parliament through central London to the Israeli embassy in Kensington, where police in riot gear keep them back from the gates. As in past years, some of the demonstrators let off flares, scream anti-Jewish slogans, and break various minor laws that the police choose not to enforce.

As British Jews have begun to realize, it is only a small step from these kinds of selective inaction by the police to turning a blind eye to the beatings of Jews in the street, Weimar-style—if carried out by passionate young men from certain highly sensitive communities. It would be a different story if the assailants came from the miniscule “far right.”

Below, today’s newsletter will return to some other reflections on the one-year anniversary of the outbreak of the current war, but first something must be said of its recent progress. Israel has kept up its aerial and ground assault on Hizballah, and may have already killed the successor to Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader it eliminated less than two weeks ago. Matthew Levitt assesses the current state of the Lebanon-based terrorist group, which, in his view, is now “a shadow of its former self.” Indeed, he adds,

it is no exaggeration to say that the Hizballah of two weeks ago no longer exists. And since Hizballah was the backbone of Iran’s network of militant proxies, its so-called axis of resistance, Iran’s strategy of arming and deploying proxy groups throughout the region is suddenly at risk as well.

Hizballah’s attacks put increasing pressure on Israel, as intended, only that pressure did not lead Israelis to stop targeting Hamas so much as it chipped away at Israel’s fears about the cost of military action to address the military threats posed by Hizballah.

At the same time, Levitt explains, Hizballah still poses a serious threat, as it demonstrated last night when its missiles struck Haifa and Tiberias, injuring at least two people:

Hizballah still maintains an arsenal of rockets and a cadre of several thousand fighters. It will continue to pose potent military threats for Israel, Lebanon, and the wider region.

How will the group seek to avenge Nasrallah’s death amid these military setbacks? Hizballah is likely to resort to acts of international terrorism, which are overseen by one of the few elements of the group that has not yet lost key leaders.

But the true measure of whether the group will be able to reconstitute itself, even over many years, is whether Iran can restock Hizballah’s sophisticated arsenal. Tehran’s network of proxy groups—from Hizballah to Hamas to the Houthis—is only as dangerous as it is today because of Iran’s provision of weapons and money. Whatever Hizballah does next, Western governments must prioritize cutting off Tehran’s ability to arm and fund its proxies.