Jonathan Sacerdoti

Now that the remaining live hostages have been freed, and the remains of those killed are slowly being located and returned to their families, we can think more on the details, the testimonies, and the traumas which we couldn’t fully comprehend as the war raged within our minds. Those former hostages now search for recovery and familiarity back home, as they emerge into a world vastly and for ever changed. The same is true for those of us who have never spent a day in a filthy, airless Palestinian tunnel. We didn’t experience the fear, the violence, the hunger or the torture they did. But our world, too, has shifted on its axis, jolted into a different rotation. It will never be the same again.

It is still early in the investigation, and key details remain unconfirmed. But what is already known about this morning’s attack in Manchester is horrifying. At least two people are dead, as well as the attacker. Three others are in a 'serious condition'. The attack occurred outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, shortly after 9.30 a.m., as members of the Jewish community gathered for prayers on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Let no one pretend this came from nowhere. Let no one feign surprise According to Greater Manchester Police, the attacker used a vehicle to ram into pedestrians before stabbing at least one individual. Armed officers responded within minutes.

Keir Starmer has justified Britain’s declaration of Palestinian statehood by insisting that it will keep open the path to a two‑state solution and ultimately lead to peace. He has emphasised that Hamas could play no role in such a state, and seems to assume the move would position Britain as a key player in shaping the future of the Middle East. Is any of this accurate? Hamas welcomed the move, as did Husam Zumlot, the PLO representative in London, who went on television to say that Starmer’s declaration (made in concert with Canada and Australia) was simply recognition of an already existing fact. He even described historic Palestine as ‘the cradle of civilisation’ and ‘the birthplace of Christianity’.

As Donald Trump visited the United Kingdom this week, the press seized the opportunity to confront both him and Keir Starmer about the issue of Hamas and Britain's posture towards Palestinian statehood. In a rare moment of lucidity, and perhaps influenced by the firm presence of the current US president, Starmer appeared, briefly, to align his moral compass. Faced with questions over why his government was proceeding with the recognition of a Palestinian state in the wake of the October 7th atrocities, Starmer delivered what may be his most unequivocal statement to date: "Let me be really clear about Hamas: They’re a terrorist organisation who can have no part in any future governance in Palestine. What happened on October 7th was the worst attack since the Holocaust.

On Saturday morning, I skipped synagogue and went to the Tommy Robinson march instead. By the time I arrived at Whitehall to collect my press pass for the Unite the Kingdom rally, the sun was shining and the stage was still being set up. I had optimistically planned to go straight to Shabbat prayers and return by 1 p.m., when the march was expected to reach its endpoint. But that proved unrealistic. So I stayed put, somewhat overdressed in a suit, and spoke with two Scottish women setting up tables of homemade cakes and snacks backstage. One told me she had been volunteering for Tommy Robinson ever since she first heard him speak about the Pakistani Muslim paedophile rings. Years earlier, her daughter had been raped.

When the government of Qatar condemned the Israeli airstrike in Doha as a ‘cowardly’ act, it revealed less about the operation itself than about the priorities of the state voicing the charge. In reality, the strike was an extraordinary and unprecedented move: Israel launched a precision airstrike inside Qatari territory targeting senior Hamas leadership, aiming to eliminate figures at the apex of the group’s external political and financial hierarchy. It was a direct and deliberate attack on the masterminds behind terrorism, carried out by Israeli fighter aircraft with exceptional range and accuracy. The operation marked a bold assertion of Israeli extraterritorial power and strategic doctrine.