Just over a year ago, in mid-February of 2006, British Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks called for calm "in the face of recent, highly disturbing events" indirectly affecting the Jewish community in Britain. To most British Jews an act against the state of Israel is an act against themselves.

Rabbi Sacks wrote in The Jewish Chronicle: "The strength of a people is tested in troubled times. Events have succeeded one another at a breakneck pace. The Iranian threat to wipe Israel off the map; the election by the Palestinians of Hamas, a group committed to the destruction of Israel . . . [and] locally there was the vote of the synod of the Church of England to heed a call to divest from companies associated with Israel" (Feb. 17, 2006, emphasis added throughout).

These negative events against the state of Israel have not ceased to affect the British Jewish community. The latest evidence is the publication of the "Anti-Semitic Incident Reports 2006." It shows that the number of such incidents has nearly quadrupled since 1984, totaling 594 last year, up sharply from 455 in 2005.

According to the Daily Mail, "There were 112 violent assaults, 37 per cent more than in 2005; 70 cases of damage to Jewish communal property; 27 threats, including death threats against individuals and organisations; 365 cases of abusive behaviour; and 20 incidents in which mass-produced anti-Semitic literature was distributed" (Feb. 1, 2007).

The Community Security Trust produces the Incident Report annually. Trust spokesman Mark Gardner stated: "Today's anti-Semitism is a wave of hatred, intimidation and abuse against British Jews, who are stupidly blamed and randomly attacked over international tensions for which they bear no responsibility" (ibid.)

Beyond being irrational, animosity toward Israeli Jews or the Jewish community at large violates the spirit of the Ten Commandments and other biblical commands such as "you shall not hate your brother in your heart" (Leviticus 19:17).

However, considering what the Bible reveals about end-time events, neither growing anti-Semitism nor hatred of Israel is surprising. (Sources: The Jewish Chronicle, Daily Mail.)