A report in the Jerusalem Post opens with this sentence on new arrivals coming to Israel: "Anti-Semitic attitudes in the UK are a leading factor in encouraging aliya for British Jews"
I believe there is no future for Jews outside Israel," said Yossi Vardakis, 19, while en route from London to Israel, where he plans to study rather than face hostility at a British university. "You don't feel really welcomed being Jewish [in England]. You're attacked for supporting Israel... You see this hatred coming out."
. . . Shachar Navon of the Jewish Agency's London branch said the influx of immigrants would contribute to an expected 550 British olim in 2006, the highest number in the last decade and a continuation of a trend which has seen about a 50 percent rise in British newcomers in the last few years.
She attributed that increase largely to antagonism felt by British Jews: "They say they are not fully secure here in the UK and that there are anti-Semitic acts all the time. They say they want to live in a place that welcomes them instead of looking at them as strangers."
Surely this is fascinating: Jews leaving Europe for an embattled nation whose existence now has itself become so uncertain and fragile. What does this say about Europe (and England?!) What does it say, further, about Israel as a magnet for the regathering of Jewish people from around the world? Can the United States resist the tide of anti-Semitism sweeping the globe? I think so, but I predict the Left will more and more agitate against the support of Israel. Already it is increasingly difficult for Jews on American university campuses.