The murder of two Jews at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue on Yom Kippur was not just another terrorist outrage. It was the tragic embodiment of a climate of Jew-hatred that has been legitimized, mainstreamed, and enabled by the very government charged with protecting Britain’s Jewish citizens.
At the center of this failure stands Prime Minister Keir Starmer. His recent reckless recognition of a Palestinian Arab state sent an unmistakable message: murdering Jews pays.
This is not hyperbole. It is cause and effect.
When Hamas stormed into Israel on October 7, raping, murdering, and burning families alive, the world witnessed the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Israel reeled. Diaspora Jews mourned. And Britain’s response under Keir Starmer? Within two years of that atrocity, his government recognized Palestinian Arab statehood — precisely the “reward” Hamas and its sympathizers demanded.
Starmer’s defenders claim this recognition was about “peace” or “justice.” But to Hamas, and to the legions of anti-Israel activists marching weekly through London, it was proof that terrorism works. Commit the unthinkable, hold a gun to Israel’s head, and the West will deliver political concessions.
This is why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned at the United Nations that recognizing a Palestinian Arab state so soon after October 7 “tells the world that murdering Jews pays off.”
He was right. And in Britain, Jews are now paying the price.
The Yom Kippur massacre at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation did not happen in a vacuum. It occurred in an environment where antisemitism has been normalized, where the cries of “intifada” echo on Britain’s streets, where posters of kidnapped Israeli children are torn down with impunity, and where Jews are told by police to hide their school uniforms for safety.
Jewish worshippers in Manchester were stabbed and run down outside their synagogue, while hundreds more were barricaded inside in terror. On Friday, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy faced Jewish parents who shouted him down: “Shame on you!” and “You allowed this to happen.” Their fury was not abstract. One parent accused Lammy’s government directly of enabling “Jew hatred.”
This fury flows directly upward, past Lammy, to his boss. For it is Starmer, not Lammy, who set the moral tone by granting legitimacy to Palestinian Arab statehood as a prize for terror. Starmer’s gesture gave cover to extremists in Britain who already believed that Jewish bloodshed is a step toward “justice.”
Labour under Jeremy Corbyn was investigated by Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission for antisemitism. Starmer pledged to purge that legacy. But gestures matter more than words. And by recognizing a Palestinian Arab state so soon after October 7, Starmer signaled that Labour’s underlying indulgence of anti-Israel extremism endures, merely dressed in more polished rhetoric.
Jewish patience is exhausted. For many British Jews, the memory of Corbyn’s sneering indifference to antisemitism remains raw. Now, watching a Labour government reward Palestinian Arab nationalism in the wake of a pogrom, that trauma has been reawakened. The synagogue killings on Yom Kippur were the horrifying proof of where this indulgence leads.
Starmer’s defenders will object: he did not incite the Manchester killer. But leaders do not need to give orders; they need only create climates of permission. And that is exactly what Starmer has done.
By embracing Palestinian statehood in the shadow of Hamas’ atrocities, he validated a narrative that casts Jews as colonial oppressors, and Palestinian Arabs — including their terrorist factions — as freedom fighters. That narrative, shouted ad nauseum on Britain’s streets, now inspires individuals to take knives and cars to terrorize Jewish neighborhoods.
-When protesters scream “Death to the IDF” or “From the river to the sea,” do they not hear an echo of Starmer’s own decision to hand recognition to a movement that refuses Israel’s right to exist?
-When Jewish schools are forced to close in fear, when parents beg their children to hide mezuzahs, is this not the inevitable consequence of a political culture that rewards terror rather than condemning it?
In the aftermath of the Manchester synagogue massacre, Starmer pledged more police protection for synagogues. King Charles III and Queen Camilla expressed shock. So? These gestures, though welcome, ring hollow when set against the broader betrayal. Jewish leaders are clear: “statements of sympathy are no longer enough.”
Because what use are extra police for a weekend when the government itself has signaled that Hamas’ violence leads to political gain? How can Jews feel safe in their synagogues when their prime minister has handed legitimacy to the very ideology that fuels violence against them?
Britain’s recognition of Palestinian Arab statehood also isolated it from allies. Israel condemned the move as appeasement. The United States expressed unease. Across Europe, governments debated whether Britain had handed Hamas a propaganda victory.
As media outlets have meticulously chronicled, antisemitism has surged globally since October 7. In Spain, Jewish communities face vandalism and political scapegoating. In France, synagogues are under constant guard. Britain’s recognition of a Palestinian Arab state poured fuel on this fire. It told antisemites across the West: your violence is working.
There is a straight line from Westminster to Manchester. From Starmer’s recognition of Palestinian Arab statehood, to Hamas’ emboldened propaganda, to Britain’s radicalized streets, to the knife of a terrorist at the doors of Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation.
To deny this line is to deny reality. Starmer created a moral equivalence between victim and aggressor, between Israel and Hamas. That moral equivalence metastasized into antisemitism, until it claimed lives in a synagogue on Yom Kippur.
If Britain is to reclaim its moral clarity, Starmer’s government must be held accountable. The first step is to reverse the recognition of Palestinian Arab statehood, making clear that terrorism will never be rewarded.
The second is to commit to robust security for Jewish institutions — not as a token gesture, but as a permanent policy.
The third, Starmer must abandon the cowardly equivocation that casts antisemitism as merely one form of prejudice among many. The Manchester synagogue massacre proves that antisemitism is unique, lethal, and urgent. It must be confronted not with platitudes, but with the full force of the state.
Finally, Britain must reaffirm its alliance with Israel not as a matter of expediency, but as a moral imperative. Israel’s fight against Hamas is not merely its own; it is a frontline battle against the very ideology that led to Jewish blood being spilled on Yom Kippur in Manchester.
The Manchester synagogue attack was not only the act of one terrorist. It was the product of a climate — a climate in which antisemitism flourishes, in which Jewish schools are closed for fear, in which worshippers must barricade themselves behind synagogue doors. That climate has been enabled by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s reckless decision to reward Palestinian statehood in the shadow of Jewish suffering.
For Britain’s Jews, this was the final straw. As the cries of “Shame on you” hurled at Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy revealed, trust has been shattered. No amount of police patrols or royal condolences can erase the betrayal.
Starmer’s legacy is already written: he is the prime minister who told Hamas that mass murder yields political dividends, and who left British Jews to pay the price.
Ronald J. Edelstein is the son of Holocaust survivors and a lifelong Jewish activist, writer and speaker. He is the chairman of Ron Properties, a real estate company in New York.