The Manchester Attack: An Antisemitic Terror, Not Political Violence

Ron Cantor
5 days ago
5 min read

Tonight at sundown, Sukkot begins, which is a happy holiday and we will share more about it tomorrow. But first, we need to address the recent horrific attack at the synagogue in the UK.

Jews were murdered in Manchester — not because of Gaza, not because of Israel, but because they were Jews. Until we name antisemitism for what it is, we will keep confusing hatred with politics.

On October 2, 2025 — Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar — a man carried out a brutal terrorist attack outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation in Manchester.

He drove his car into pedestrians, then leapt out and began stabbing worshippers. Police arrived within minutes and shot him dead at the scene. By the end, two innocent people were killed, and several others were wounded. The attacker was identified as Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian origin.

This was not a political protest. It was an act of antisemitic terror — born of hatred, not policy. The people he attacked were not Israeli soldiers or politicians. They were simply Jews in Manchester — praying, walking, and living their lives before God.

This Was About Jews, Not Israel

In the days following the attack, some voices rushed to frame it as a response to the war in Gaza — as though this violence were “understandable” or “provoked.” That framing is not only wrong; it is wicked.

The Jews targeted in Manchester had nothing to do with Gaza. They were British citizens — not soldiers, not policymakers, not part of any government. They were mothers and fathers, children and grandparents, neighbors and friends. They were targeted for one reason alone: they were Jews.

When a terrorist murders worshippers outside a synagogue in England, it has nothing to do with foreign policy. It reveals the oldest hatred in human history — antisemitism — the same ancient evil that pursued our people from Pharaoh’s Egypt to Haman’s Persia, from the Inquisition to the Holocaust, and now, tragically, into the streets of modern Europe.

Why This Distinction Matters

If we allow this act to be described as political, we hand the murderer a moral shield he does not deserve. We turn a hate crime into a protest. We allow evil to disguise itself as justice. But there is nothing just about slaughtering innocent people for their faith.

When a man kills Jews on Yom Kippur in Manchester, he is not fighting for freedom — he is warring against God’s image in humanity. Think about it, on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar — the day when Jews are commanded to gather in repentance before God — they were not even safe to walk to synagogue.

And the irony is bitter: his actions did not help the oppressed, nor the refugees, nor the cause of any people. Instead, he brought fear, division, and shame upon those he claimed to represent. His violence wounded not only Jewish hearts but the very cause of peace (Not that his goal was peace!).

The victims of this attack were not political symbols. They were sacred souls, each bearing the image of the Creator. To reduce them to pawns in someone else’s ideology is to desecrate their memory.

The Spiritual Reality

For centuries, antisemitism has changed its language but never its nature. In one generation it cloaked itself in religion; in another, in race; today, in politics. Yet beneath every mask, the same venom flows — the hatred of God’s covenant people.

Antisemitism is a shapeshifting virus, infecting hearts on the left, the right, and within parts of the Islamic world. It finds new hosts wherever lies about the Jewish people are tolerated.

Today, media figures amplify this poison. Just last month, Tucker Carlson interviewed a so-called “historian,” Darryl Cooper, praising him as “the best and most honest popular historian in the United States.” Cooper claimed that the U.S. fought on the wrong side of World War II — and that the Nazis didn’t kill Jews; they simply “lacked the resources to care for them.” This grotesque denial of evil flies in the face of every survivor’s testimony. Yet the interview reached 34 million views. Lies, when given a platform, multiply like fire.

And then there is Candace Owens — a woman so consumed by delusion she now insists Brigitte Macron is a man and that Israel assassinated Charlie Kirk for his views. (If Israel kills its critics, how is she still alive?) Yet her podcast ranks among the top 50 in the world, fueling conspiracy, resentment, and violence. Even some believers have fallen for the lie that Netanyahu or the Mossad were behind Kirk’s tragic death.

When voices like these sow hatred, violence is never far behind. Words become daggers. Lies become weapons.

We must name this for what it is. When a man kills Jews in England, it is not about land or policy — it is about hatred. Ancient, relentless hatred. And hatred, when unnamed, always returns stronger.

A Call to the Followers of Yeshua

As followers of Yeshua, we cannot be silent. To defend Jewish life is not to endorse every action of Israel’s government. It is to stand with the people whom God calls His own — against the darkness that seeks their destruction.

While I have never believed that followers of Jesus must blindly approve every decision of the Israeli government (I certainly don’t!), there is a biblical mandate to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), to bless Israel for bringing the gospel to the world (Genesis 12:2–3; Romans 15:25–27), and to contend for her salvation (Romans 10:1; 11:11–12; Isaiah 62:6–7).

We are called to speak truth, to expose lies, and to stand with those whom the world despises — as our Jewish Messiah Himself was despised, rejected, and crucified.

Many believe that the parable of the sheep and the goats shows that the nations will be judged by how they treated the least of Yeshua’s physical brothers and sisters—the Jews. Scripture also warns that all nations will turn against Israel in the last days (Zech. 12:3). Ask yourself this: just five years ago, could you have imagined such global antisemitic rhetoric being openly accepted? Today, vile slurs against the Jewish people flood social media — and few even blink.

When I wrote Birth Pangs, I had a strong sense that the spread of evil would accelerate rapidly. During the pandemic, I discerned a global spiritual shift—one connected to the end of days. I rarely use such language, but it was something I genuinely sensed and reflected in the book. And look where we are today! Consider all that has unfolded over the past five years: from the widespread exposure of sexual sin among church leaders to the war between Russia and Ukraine, to the October 7 massacre and the two-year conflict that followed. And that’s only part of the picture. Chief among these signs is the alarming rise of antisemitism, which has now become a cultural norm.

If our hearts do not break for the Jewish people in their pain right now, how can we say we share the heart of the Jewish Messiah who wept over Jerusalem? Paul, seeking to help the Roman believers grasp God’s eternal call upon Israel, said he was willing to be “accursed and cut off from Messiah” if it meant the salvation of his people (Romans 9:3). In this, he revealed the very heart of God for Israel — a heart that still beats today.