"A terrorist just tried to stab Jews at my work" - This was the text Joseph received in January 2024, moments after a Muslim terrorist walked into his local Kosher supermarket in London and tried to stab Jewish shoppers. The only reason no one was killed was because a heroic worker held the terrorist off with a shopping cart until his arrest.
The attack itself was terrifying, but what followed was worse. The perpetrator, Gabriel Abdullah, was arrested, charged, and convicted - but didn’t serve a day in prison. To Jews, the message was clear: Britain tolerates violent antisemitism.
A few months later, Joseph experienced this ‘tolerance’ firsthand when an antisemitic mob surrounded and threatened him, as seen in the video below. The police were present, but instead of intervening, they just watched.
For Alex, the turning point came during the 2014 Gaza war. That year, Alex and Joseph began filming Palestinian protests together, and he quickly realized the antisemitism they were witnessing wasn't an aberration; it was the tip of the iceberg.
While the spike in antisemitic incidents in the UK was alarming, it was what Alex saw in France that truly disturbed him. During the 2014 Sarcelles riots, a synagogue was besieged, and Jewish-owned businesses were targeted in scenes reminiscent of a darker era, signaling a complete collapse of public order for the Jewish community. Witnessing the speed at which this hatred manifested in France, he concluded that it was a contagion: the turmoil he saw in Paris would inevitably reach Britain, and the patterns established in London would eventually reach America and Canada.
The Ratchet Effect
After the conflict ended, Alex identified a recurring pattern he termed the ‘ratchet effect.’ During the conflict, antisemitic incidents surged, but with the toxic combination of social media and changing demographics, the baseline of hatred never retreated to previous levels after the conflict ended - it just ratcheted up. He realized then that this was a cycle without a ceiling. From Gaza and Lebanon to the catastrophe of October 7, each flare-up has made these incidents increasingly violent and uninhibited.
As the number of attacks on Jews increased, the British authorities consistently failed to protect Jewish citizens. The failure reached a nadir during the May 2021 Gaza war; on the same day that Islamic extremists were hunting Jews on streets with a police escort, a convoy of cars drove through Jewish neighborhoods with a megaphone, calling to rape Jewish women. No one was jailed for these offenses.
This British "stand-by" policy is a haunting echo of the Mandate era. In December 1947, when an Arab mob looted and burned the commercial center of Jerusalem, British troops nearby made no effort to intervene and even formed barriers to prevent Jewish defenders from approaching the scene. Similarly, in 1948, a convoy of doctors and nurses was slaughtered just 200 yards from a British police station while the authorities did nothing for seven hours.
The pattern was clear: as antisemitism ratcheted up, state protection ratcheted down.
>> Joseph Cohen talks to antisemites on his popular YouTube channel
Alex returned to Israel in late 2014, convinced that Jewish life in Britain was entering a dangerous new phase.
A decade later, following the Corbyn crisis and October 7, Joseph and his family joined him.
For those still in the UK, the writing is on the wall: it is time to return to our ancestral homeland, where we are protected, visible, and free. No one will protect the Jewish community in the UK or anywhere else.
Joseph Cohen runs the Israel Advocacy Movement and previously founded the Campaign Against Antisemitism. His videos are watched by millions every week.
Alex Carson is an Investigative Researcher at the Israel Advocacy Movement.