Three years after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, columnist Angela Epstein argues that Britain has become weaker, more divided, and more helpless, while Israel has grown stronger. Writing for the Daily Express, she says the atrocity should have made the UK more united and tougher on extremism, but instead it has become a "touch paper for hatred."
A nation unbowed
Epstein, who was on holiday in Israel on October 7, 2023, describes waking to what sounded like distant thunder, only to realise it was gunfire and grenades as Hamas terrorists killed the largest number of Jewish people in a single day since the Holocaust.
Three years on, she writes, Israel remains unbowed. Despite the consequent and unwanted war, the economy is rocketing, with GDP forecast to outperform all G7 countries in 2026. Visiting again this week, she saw promenades buzzing with joggers and cyclists, soaring skyscrapers, and overflowing cafes, with a palpable sense of ambition and vitality.
Britain's decline
In contrast, Epstein says Britain has descended into a "cesspit of racism, terror plots and dangerous zealotry." She points to the Greens as the first mainstream party to adopt a racist policy, and to those who organised an anti-Israel protest on October 7, as well as the Free Palestine marches that have overrun town centres. Public bodies from universities to the NHS, she adds, have become places for antisemitism to fester.
She notes that friends in Israel express concern for her welfare in the UK, not least because the country's authorities "by default or design" do nothing. Britain is already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, a massive tax burden, illegal immigration, youth unemployment, an anaemic defence budget, and a crippling welfare bill.
A climate of antisemitism
Epstein argues that instead of spending three years on a war footing as Israel has, Britain has a Prime Minister whose political calculus is driven by appeasing an Islamist and hard-Left vote, creating a climate in which antisemitism can flourish.
She concludes that this is not simply a matter for Jews, as permission for any form of racism diminishes all decent people. For a country she and many others love, this is not just a source of sorrow, but "terrible, terrible shame."
