THE attack on a Manchester synagogue, which has left three people, including the apparent attacker, dead, and others seriously injured, is a shocking outrage.

All people of decency will stand in solidarity with Jewish communities across Britain in its wake.

At time of writing, the exact motives and intent of the attacker are not known. However, it is a fact that anti-semitic attacks and abuse have risen sharply over the last two years, in the wake of the Gaza war.

It must therefore be repeated that Jewish individuals and community organisations in Britain bear no responsibility whatsoever for the actions of Israel in Gaza or anywhere else.

Much of the Jewish communal leadership may stand in support of Israel more-or-less regardless of its conduct — but so too do a far larger number of non-Jewish organisations and politicians, and they are not subject to such violence.

And of course, Jews hold differing opinions on this and everything else.

To attack a synagogue and its worshippers can only be motivated by anti-semitism, a hideous and insidious form of racism, and it is evident that this attack falls squarely within that framework.

That it was carried out on the holiest day in the Jewish religious calendar, Yom Kippur, puts the matter beyond reasonable doubt. A more calculated and deliberate affront to Jewish people can hardly be imagined.

Anti-semitism is fuelled by conspiracism, ethnonationalism and sheer ignorance, and occurs in a context of rising political violence across many democracies, itself driven by a range of motivations. 

Anti-semitic ravings, whether drawing on traditional right-wing tropes or some expressions of Islamist ideology, are ubiquitous on social media, which is a fertile breeding ground for all forms of hatred.

The horror in Manchester will be used by those who want to poison community relations and restrict legitimate forms of democratic protest and speech, already menaced. 

It is predictable that the right will use the outrage to advance its own agenda of clamping down on voices it does not like, while allowing the social media giants to peddle poison with impunity.

That cannot be allowed to happen. Democracy must dictate the response.

The statement from the Manchester Council of Mosques saying that “any attempt to divide us through violence or hatred will fail — we remain united in our commitment to peace and mutual respect,” shows the way.

It is vital that all democrats come together in that spirit against racism, explicitly including anti-semitism, and against the incipient authoritarianism that feeds off it. 

That includes the entirely peaceful mass movement of solidarity with the Palestinian people, which has organised so many huge protests with the participation of thousands of Jewish men and women. 

Those who carry out attacks like this one are enemies, not friends, of the Palestinians — the fear they inculcate can only make liberation a harder task.

Unity and solidarity are the best tribute that can be paid to the victims in Manchester. 

And the whole labour and progressive movement should stand with Jewish people against this violence.

Right hysteria: accurate identification is not incitement

WHAT a trivial man Zia Yusuf is. Pretending that Keir Starmer is inciting violence against Nigel Farage because he has, accurately and belatedly, labelled some of Reform’s attitudes “racist” is absurd.

But it fits a pattern of the hard right around the world, who are quite willing to dish out threats and offensive statements themselves, but start complaining loudly if they are ever challenged.

They thrive on the politics of hatred and champion the right to give it lurid expression until the moment when they can pretend it threatens to blowback. Yusuf should grow up or shut up — preferably both.