On October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out the worst attack on Jewish life since the Holocaust, murdering approximately 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Over the ensuing two years, widespread protests broke out across the Western world against Israel’s retaliatory war in the Gaza Strip. The two-year anniversary of the horrific October 7 attack comes just days after an attack on a British synagogue left two people dead and four injured. The attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, followed two years of chants to “Free, free Palestine!” and “Globalize the Intifada!”

While Hamas’s leadership has been decimated and its infrastructure in Gaza has been crippled, Hamas has succeeded in globalizing the intifada and normalizing antisemitic violence.

Let us examine some major recent attacks against Jewish targets.

Manchester, England

On October 2, 2025, coinciding with Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement and the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, a British man of Syrian descent named Jihad Al-Shamie rammed his vehicle into the front gates of Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester, England. He then exited the vehicle and attacked the synagogue’s security guard and congregants with a knife, leaving two dead and four others wounded before police shot and killed him. During his attack, Al-Shamie reportedly shouted, “This is what they get for killing our children.”

Boulder, Colorado

On June 1, 2025, Egyptian national Mohamed Sabry Soliman allegedly shouted “Free Palestine!” “End Zionists!” and “They are killers!” as he threw two Molotov cocktails at a group of over 30 people participating in a local Run for Their Lives walk in Boulder, Colorado. The attack killed one and left many others wounded. Run for Their Lives is a national walk to raise awareness of and call for freedom for the Israeli hostages in Gaza. Police recovered 16 unused Molotov cocktails following Soliman’s arrest. Soliman faces dozens of state and federal hate crime charges, as well as attempted murder and murder charges. According to the indictment, Soliman intentionally sought out Zionist events. He told police that he viewed “anyone supporting the exist (sic) of Israel on our land” to be “Zionist,” and he decided “to take his revenge from these people.” According to the FBI, Soliman planned the attack for a year.

Washington, D.C.

On May 21, 2025, Elias Rodriguez shot and killed Israeli embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim—who were soon to be engaged to each other—outside of the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington during an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee. As he surrendered, Rodriguez told police, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.” As police escorted Rodriguez out, he chanted, “Free, free Palestine.” Rodriguez had been active in far-left causes and protests prior to the shooting. His social media accounts reportedly included posts supportive of Hezbollah and its deceased leader Hassan Nasrallah. A scheduled post on his X account, which went online after his arrest, praised “the morality of armed demonstration.” Rodriguez also wrote that he took “satisfaction” from the attack. He claimed that the “perpetrators and abettors have forfeited their humanity.”

Conclusion

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism defines antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

The IHRA definition then provides a list of examples of antisemitism, including:

• Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
• Applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
• Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
• Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
• Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel.

Does anti-Zionism inherently mean antisemitism? No. IHRA specifically notes that criticism of Israel is not in itself antisemitic. But specifically targeting Israel with standards that are not universally applied, comparing Israeli actions to those of the Nazis, holding Jews collectively responsible for Israeli government policies, and claiming Israel’s very existence is racist are manifestations of antisemitism.

Opposition to Israel, its government, the war in Gaza, etc., is an excuse to justify violence that would otherwise be unacceptable. The synagogue Al-Shamie attacked on Yom Kippur was in Manchester, England, not Israel, Gaza, or the West Bank. He wasn’t targeting Israel or Israel’s policies, he was targeting Jews. In Washington, Rodriguez didn’t identify Lischinsky and Milgrim specifically as Israelis or Israeli embassy staffers. He identified them as attending a Jewish event at a Jewish museum. In Colorado, Soliman declared that he wanted to “take his revenge from these people”—by attacking Americans.

These statements and actions do not support a free Palestine. They excuse violence against Jews. Since October 7, 2023, antisemitism watchdogs have recorded record levels of antisemitic incidents, including harassment and violence. According to a new study by the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish Federations, almost one in five American Jews were the victim of an assault, threat, or verbal harassment due to their Jewish identity over the last year. Antisemitism is now a “normal” part of the U.S. Jewish experience, according to 57 percent of those polled.

There should be nothing normal about this. But here we are.

Hamas did not invent antisemitism. And antisemites have used Israel as an excuse for as long as the Jewish State has existed. But Hamas propaganda made antisemitism OK through a doctrine that enshrined violent opposition to Israel as heroism, painting a black-and-white picture of good vs. evil, the oppressed vs. the oppressor. Later this month, we will mark the anniversary of the Tree of Life synagogue attack, during which Robert Bowers murdered 11 people in the worst attack on Jewish life on U.S. soil. Prior to the attack, Bowers accused Jewish organizations of aiding foreign immigrants in invading the United States to destroy the dominant culture. “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics. I’m going in,” he wrote.

Bowers justified mass violence as defense of his culture. Just as others have justified horrendous violence over the past year as defense of the Palestinians. Hamas didn’t succeed in freeing Palestine or improving the lives of Palestinians—Hamas invariably made the lives of Palestinians far worse. Hamas succeeded in blurring the line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism and convincing others that violence against Jews could be justified as the pursuit of Palestinian liberation.

That is Hamas’s victory.