“The biggest national security emergency” is how it has been described.
Benjamin Netanyahu, as usual, attacked the “weakness” of the British government in defending Britain’s Jewish community.
Meanwhile, have you heard of the ‘Shomrim‘? You’d be forgiven for saying no. But we’ll get to that: because this is the main thing I want to examine.
But the violent incident in Golders Green on Wednesday has triggered the exact responses you’d expect – and that we’ve seen before. TV and radio airwaves have been filled again with talk about Jews being under attack and not being safe.
From some of the coverage, you would think a new ‘Kristallnacht’ had just unfolded in the UK.
The language is definitely ramping up. It was government terrorism adviser Jonathan Hall KC who led the call for the UK to be put into a state of national emergency. We’ll come back to that too.
All of this concerning an incident that – as disgusting as it was – was basically a lone individual with known mental health issues carrying out a stabbing in Golders Green.
Even the classification of this horrible act of violence as a terrorist act is arguably questionable: the lunatic in question doesn’t belong to any terror organisation and has made no statement to imply allegiance to any such group or ideology.
It was knife crime, violent crime, attempted murder, probably also hate crime. But is it terrorism?
There is a broader problem with knife crime and violence. And definitely an issue with mentally ill people with known records of violence being allowed to roam the streets.
Of course I’m not making light of the attack: all violent crime is unacceptable, and this person is obviously a maniac.
But while it probably was an antisemitic attack in nature, it’s clear that the way this has been portrayed and discussed is as part of a broader and ongoing management of perception that sits on a timeline with things like the Manchester synagogue attack (which I covered here) and the recent Golders Green ambulances incident (or even the Bondi Beach attack, if we expand the scope a bit).
The idea seems to be to make Jewish communities outside of Israel feel unsafe, while also shaming countries that have been less than obedient to the Israeli government lately.
We’ve discussed these things many times (here, for example), so I won’t cover that same ground again here.
Instead, let’s focus in on something that caught my eye with this latest Golders Green incident.
The BBC reported: ‘It was not yet known at the time on Wednesday morning, but a volunteer of the Jewish security group Shomrim was dispatching their members to what would later be formally declared a terrorist incident by the Metropolitan Police…’
‘…”We were first on scene, and we apprehended him together with the police,” Ben Grossnass from the organisation adds…‘
The report informs us that ‘Shomrim carries out civilian security patrols through Jewish communities in north London.’
If you’ve never previously heard of it, the organisation has a known presence in at least the UK, Australia, the US and Belgium, and they generally have close ties with the local police forces, though they also operate independently of them.
Now, a security patrol group that protects a specific minority community (particularly one that perceives itself to be frequently under threat) isn’t in itself necessarily questionable.
But there are some questions concerning the Shomrim.
Firstly, about whether an ethnic security group should be partnered with the police at all or able to operate with any degree of autonomy. And then more broadly whether something like the Shomrim might be part of a bigger operation in the long term. One involving potential foreign infiltration of domestic law enforcement operations.
Jewish writer Alon Mizrahi, for example, described not long ago how ‘Netanyahu and his network of international Zionists are working to establish a policing force with powers surpassing those of national law enforcement agencies…’
Journalist David Miller went much further and described an ‘effort to revive Jewish supremacist militias in the UK and the US.’
I am going to quote quite a bit here from this article over a year ago by Miller. I recommend reading his piece in its entirety, because it goes into more detail in relation to the ‘Betar’ Jewish militia and its activities, and making the connection to the Shomrim.
But I want to just focus on the Shomrim itself here.
In the UK, Shomrim claims that “Volunteers have completed training from the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) in assisting to identify potential security threats and suspicious activity.”
So is Shomrim part of the wider counter-terrorism structure? I’m not sure.
The UK Shomrim group was reportedly founded in 2008 by a Gary Ost.
If we look at how this incident in Golders Green is being discussed in the British media, it’s worth noting Miller’s point that ‘Shomrim plays a key role in shaping the narrative around the widespread antisemitism claims that Israel relies on to justify its genocidal actions…’
It’s interesting too that these antisemitic incidents occur most commonly where Shomrim has a presence: particularly in Australia (Bondi Beach was only the most extreme in a string of questionable antisemitic incidents in Australia) and the UK.
Apparently, the police haven’t always been entirely happy about the Shomrim. As Miller’s piece from a year ago points out, ‘Initially, UK police were resistant to Shomrim’s activities. In 2008, Chief Superintendent Steve Bending, then Hackney’s borough commander, stated, “I do not support the concept of any community having its own form of patrol service”…’
The possibility of these Jewish volunteers being mistaken for (or posing as) actual police officers has also been raised.
As Miller’s article explains, ‘As late as 2015, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe expressed his preference that Shomrim volunteers avoid uniforms resembling those of official officers…’
So, there’s clearly some issues here. And some ambiguities.
But there’s worse.
In some cases, in New York for example, police have expressed concerns about Shomrim’s actions, which have included use of excessive violence. Accusations have also been levelled about the Jewish patrols withholding information from the NYPD.
This Gary Ost person who set up the London Shomrim interestingly was accused of obstructing police investigations into an alleged child sexual offender.
As Miller’s 2025 article explains, ‘In 2013 Police dropped their investigation into Ost, who had been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice in relation to an investigation of an alleged child sexual abuser, Rabbi Chaim Halpern…’ He added, ‘new allegations against Rabbi Halpern have resurfaced a decade later, and the trial for these offences is still pending.’
This problem has appeared elsewhere too, such as with the New York based Shomrim group. Again, from the same article: ‘On October 11, 2023, the United States Department of Justice issued a press release that Jacob Daskal, former head of the Boro Park Shomrim Society—a private Orthodox Jewish crime-patrol group associated with the NYPD—was sentenced to 210 months in prison and fined $250,000 for transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity…’
The point being, can an organisation like the Shomrim be entirely trusted to present an accurate account of incidents like this Golders Green attack?
And how high is the likelihood of shenanigans?
As the reports say, it was Shomrim that initially identified and confronted the knife attacker on Wednesday – the police arrived later.
And, as expected, the entire thing has been blown up into another nationwide antisemitism debate, with lots of talk about Jews not feeling safe and condemnation of the government and police for not doing enough to protect the Jewish community.
I’ve heard conversations about how pro Palestinian marches should be banned. In fact, the same terrorism adviser who suggested a national state of emergency also recommends a ‘mortarium’ on pro-Palestine marches.
I’ve watched Prime Minister Keir Starmer being verbally abused in Golders Green by angry members of the Jewish community – despite Starmer’s entire rise to leadership of the Labour Party being centered around his perceived purge of the leftists and their alleged antisemitic tendencies.
The real reason people are angry with Starmer is because of his lack of support for the Iran War and his recognition – performative though it may have been – of a Palestinian state. A few years ago when Starmer pushed Jeremy Corbyn out of the Labour Party over alleged antisemitism, they loved him.
But it wouldn’t be surprising if this current antisemitism crisis – real or manufactured (probably a mix of both) – is partly being used to pressure Starmer and his government into changing some of his stances concerning Israel, Iran and the Middle East (a point I examined here recently in terms of the push to get Britain involved in the war).
Watching this uncomfortable footage of the Prime Minister being abused in Golders Green with chants of “traitor!”, I can’t avoid wondering if this whole thing is being manufactured to rattle or coerce the government.
It is also, as I have discussed multiple times, Israeli policy to inflame antisemitism (or to amplify it) abroad: firstly to maintain the narrative of Jews as perpetual victims, and secondly, to encourage more Jews to go to Israel.
The latter is key: it’s about the numbers. More ‘unsafe’ Jews going to Israel is necessary for the numbers needed to accelerate the process of complete annexation and ethnic cleansing. In other words, new arrivals means more illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank to accommodate new settlers.
So perceived antisemitic attacks abroad are incredibly useful – all the time. It’s that simple.
As for the rather extreme call for a state of national emergency, it’s worth noting that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she did not agree that attacks against Jewish people amounted to a national emergency.
What’s especially important to note is why: as the BBC highlights, it’s because ‘the phrase “national emergency” had particular connotations, including suspending elements of democracy…’
“I don’t believe this is where we are today,” Mahmood said.
I mean, yeah, we should certainly hope not.
Returning to the subject of the Shomrim more broadly: what are the implications of a parallel police-like force operating in foreign cities?
What are the possibilities for manufacturing desired events, including false flag type incidents?
Miller’s article links the Shomrim to the broader question of the Betar Zionist militia and its overseas operations, for example. And Mizrahi, as referenced earlier, talks about ‘a policing force with powers surpassing those of national law enforcement agencies‘.
In that same quote, he actually went further, saying ‘It is being done more and more openly. They start with Jews as a deception: all of you are next.’
And what are the chances of Mossad or Israeli intelligence utilising things like the Shomrim overseas to facilitate its operations? Reasonably high, I would say.
In terms of the Metropolitan Police, there’s also a parallel question I’ve been asking for years now: which is why have British police officers have been going to Israel for training? It’s weird, right? I asked that question as far back as 2015 here.
As highlighted back then, at least eighty of London’s Metropolitan Police staff had gone to Israel for unknown purposes. The Metropolitan Police would not reveal the purpose of the trips, nor would it identify the ranks of the police personnel involved. A reason given for withholding the information was that it would “have the effect of compromising law enforcement tactics and strategies”.
As I asked way back then, what “law enforcement tactics and strategies” specifically? We still don’t know.
I’m surprised the media hasn’t raised any questions about this. Actually, no, what am I saying – of course it’s not surprising the media simply plays along.
