What it's like to be a Jew today....

This is from Melanie Phillips blog from one of her readers...

It was shocking to hear on Radio 4 at about 7:15am a Muslim woman called Fatima supposedly representing some 'moderate' Muslim organisation who basically said that the threat of Muslim radicalisation should force Britain to shift its foreign policy direction in the Middle East. This was followed by a poor rabbi in Paris speaking about the awful situation with attacks on Jews and their property. What shocks me most is that the BBC is prepared to recognise that these things are happening in European cities but not right here at home! They report on their website about a synagogue in Toulouse being fire-bombed, but what about the similar incident that happened this week in Brondesbury? [The attempted fire-bombing of a London synagogue].

From my own experience as an identifiably Orthodox Jew, since the beginning of the operation in Gaza I have had things shouted at me like ‘death to the Jews’, ‘Hamas should finish where Hitler left off’ along with the usual spitting and angry looks which I've become accustomed to. However, yesterday it went a bit further. I attended the demo in Kensington High Street. Walking back to Gloucester Rd tube as was suggested by the Community Security Trust and Metropolitan Police, there was visibly high security on the route. I saw two friends to the tube station and decided I would walk to a friend's house a mere 3 or 4 minute walk away since he had told me to stop by to say hello to him and his wife.

As usual, I wasn't holding any kind of political symbol, flag, banner or placard and was just wearing my yarmulka. As I was about to ring on the doorbell I was set upon by two Asian youths (one wearing a keffiya and one wearing a badge with the Palestinian flag on his jacket) who punched me in the head, threw me to the ground and continued to kick and punch me in the head and other parts of my body until I managed to shout loud enough causing them to flee. I bashed on the door of my friend’s house, sat on the kitchen floor with blood coming out of my head and badly bruised elsewhere. Thank G-d, my injuries were not serious and the paramedics were happy for me to go and stay at a friend's house until the morning so someone would be able to keep an eye on me. As for my friend who is living with his wife and 10-month old baby, the police have suggested that they go away for a couple of days since there are lots of 'unknown' people in the area who could make the place unsafe.

Anyhow... this is what it is like to be Jewish in Britain today. The BBC wants to portray that it is only places like France or Belgium that have problems with crazy Muslims attacking Jews. In classic BBC myopia, they can't see that London is no different.