Leo Pearlman is a London based producer and a loud and proud Zionist. His most recent film about the Oct 7 Nova Music Festival massacre, ‘We Will Dance Again’ has won the 2025 Emmy of the 46th Annual News & Documentary Awards for most ‘Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary’.
You think you know where the line is? You think there are things that simply wouldn’t happen here in the UK?
Last night, that illusion disappeared.
Four ambulances were set on fire in Golders Green.
So let’s ask the question properly. Where is the line?
Was it crossed when minority students felt they had to hide who they were on British campuses? Was it crossed when parts of central London became places where a minority no longer felt safe to walk openly? Was it crossed when places of worship and schools required security just to function? Was it crossed when those places were desecrated? Was it crossed when members of that same minority were attacked and murdered while attending prayers on their holiest days?
Or did none of that quite meet the threshold? Did each moment get explained away, contextualised, softened?
An exception, an outlier, simply not representative of who we are as a nation.
So here we are, this is where we now find ourselves.
Ambulances burned, vehicles designed for one purpose only, to save human life. Available to anyone, funded by a minority, manned by volunteers, here to offer, care, comfort and connection across the North West London community, to those who are Jewish, Muslim, Christian and those of other faiths or none.
And here is the part we still struggle to say out loud: These acts are obvious, they are racist, they are unacceptable in any functioning society. But after the performative empathy boxes are ticked, they are dismissed, diluted, and allowed to repeat, over and over again.
Why? Because of who the victims are.
Hatzola exists to save lives, all lives. It does not ask who you are before it arrives. It does not discriminate, it simply shows up.
When I was seriously ill with Covid, my wife called 999 and she called Hatzola. Hatzola were the first to arrive. They stabilised me, cared for me, they bought us time.
I will never forget it and I am just one of thousands. Across North West London, almost everyone has a version of that story, whether it involves a child, parent or grandparent, we all have a story of what Hatzola has done for us.
Last night, ambulances that would have come for anyone, regardless of faith, background or identity, were burned.
Because of who paid for them.
That is where we are.
I’ve always expected the worst, maybe it’s down to nature, maybe nurture, but over the past few years, something has shifted. What once felt like pessimism now feels like pattern recognition and I’m tired of being told that pointing out those patterns is the problem.
I’m tired of the soothing phrases, empty reassurances, tired of the slogans that are meant to comfort rather than confront.
“The silent majority."
“The inherent good of people."
“Never again."
“What starts with the Jews doesn’t end with the Jews."
They are not strategies, they are sedatives, the last one in particular.
“What starts with the Jews doesn’t end with the Jews."
It is repeated as if it is profound, a warning, a call to action. It isn’t any of these things, it is an excuse.
It suggests that the only reason you should care about injustice is because, eventually, it might affect you. That empathy or principle are not enough. That unless your own safety, your own freedoms, your own family are directly under threat, action is optional, that staying silent is excusable
Maybe that is how we got here, but if that is true, then what is your excuse now? Because it is happening to you, whether you choose to see it or not.
This did not start last night, our country has been on this trajectory for more than a decade. External influence shaping our institutions for even longer. A national broadcaster that too often amplifies narratives that increase hostility towards Jews. A political system increasingly comfortable with division, extremism and sectarianism. A culture where hate is repackaged as activism, and intimidation reframed as expression.
And all the while, we are told not to overreact.
Then came October 7th and whatever pretense remained collapsed. What was once whispered now shouted, once fringe now mainstream, once deniable now undeniable.
Yet still, we are told this is separate from what is happening globally, that the conflict with Iran is “over there," that it has nothing to do with us. That Israel and now America, have somehow dragged the world into something avoidable.
This is pure ideologically driven fantasy. Iran has been waging war on the West for years, including here.
The Prime Minister confirmed that more than twenty terror plots, funded by the IRGC, have been foiled in the UK in the past year alone. What do you think that is? If individuals are being arrested in London, allegedly plotting attacks against a minority community, what is that, if not a war being waged on British soil?
And if that community is part of British society, as it still just about is, then understand the implication clearly: This is not someone else’s problem.
This is a confrontation with a regime that funds terror across the world. That murders its own citizens when they speak out. That openly calls for the destruction of Israel and of America, two of this country’s closest allies and who just last night committed an act of terror on British soil.
Yet we are encouraged to treat this as distant, abstract, disconnected. It is not disconnected. It is the same pattern, same direction of travel, same refusal to confront reality until it becomes unavoidable.
So, now we are here.
Ambulances burned in London by an Iranian terror group, because they are funded by Jews.
You can continue to explain it away, to soften it, to tell yourself this is temporary, isolated, manageable.
Or you can accept the reality of where we are and act accordingly.
If you care about what happened last night, prove it. Support the people who save lives and help rebuild what was destroyed. https://hatzola.org/donate/
They burned ambulances and if that still doesn’t force clarity, then there is no line for you.
Only a point at which it finally becomes yours.