Last week, former MI6 chief Sir John Sawers gave a stark warning. He cautioned that Hamas and Hezbollah could shift their focus from fighting Israel, to international acts of terrorism, therefore increasing threat levels in the UK.
The ability of both terror groups to threaten Israel has been greatly diminished by effective Israeli warfare. Frustrated by their limited ability to harm Israelis in Israel, it’s plausible that they’ll turn to international targets, particularly Jewish and Israeli, but also against Israel’s allies.
Hezbollah isn’t new to international terrorism. Examples include killing 18 American soldiers in Spain in 1984; bombing the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992, killing 29; bombing a Jewish organisation in Buenos Aires in 1994, killing 85; and bombing a housing complex in Saudi Arabia in 1996, killing 19 American Air Force personnel.
The threat of Iranian terrorism might also increase. Iran’s large-scale missile and drone attacks on Israel failed to cause much destruction or leave many casualties, so they may turn to easier Jewish targets internationally. Agents from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) have been carrying out hostile activities in the UK, and will continue to do so – particularly against Iranian dissidents and Jewish targets.
Although Islamist terrorism is the most significant threat, it isn’t the only one security services should be worried about. When it comes to targeting Jews, or political targets associated with support for Israel, including Members of Parliament, there’s a risk of single-issue left-wing terrorism too.
Anti-Jewish racism has always been a gateway into radical ideologies that lead to violent extremism and terrorism. It is unique in being the one ideology that plays into the narratives of multiple extremist movements in far-left, far-right and Islamist circles. When it comes to targeting Jewish or Israeli targets in the UK, there is therefore a risk that deepening antisemitic beliefs related to the war in Gaza could be exploited by Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran, who might try to recruit activists from the radical Left into assisting in or executing acts of terrorism.
Since the war between Israel and Hamas started, Jews have been subjected to unprecedented levels of antisemitic hate crimes – many emerging from the Left.
Underlying antisemitic attitudes play a role in extreme anti-Israel views that go beyond political criticism and delegitimise Israel’s right to exist and its right to defend itself from terrorists who seek to annihilate it. These have been particularly prevalent in left-wing circles since the start of the war, including in pro-Palestinian protests and on university campuses, where support for terrorism and calls for ‘jihad’ have not been uncommon.
Although those on the Left self-style themselves as ‘anti-racist’, some have a blind spot for anti-Jewish racism. Antisemitism has existed on the Left for centuries, and included state-backed institutional antisemitism, in the Soviet Union for example, and left-wing terror plots against Jews in Europe.
Even before the war in Gaza, left-wing perpetrators were responsible for over 20% of antisemitic incidents. In the past year, antisemitism has been normalised and moved from the fringes to moderate left-wing spaces. The repetitive exposure to narratives that demonise Israelis and Jews have helped to incite and radicalise people into more extreme views about Jews, explaining the dramatic rise in antisemitic attacks.
Islamists and leftists have had a long-standing intellectual alliance, much of it based on anti-capitalist and anti-universalist beliefs. These are now used to construct a false narrative that calls Jews colonialists in their ancestral homeland. Some on the Left view Zionism as the embodiment of evil Western imperialism. Many of them don’t consider Hamas or Hezbollah as terror organisations, but as legitimate resistance movements. Jeremy Corbyn famously referred to members of Hamas and Hezbollah as his ‘friends’, and many in similar circles share his view.
The Stop the War Coalition, which brought together the Muslim Association of Britain, the Socialist Workers Party and the Communist Party of Britain, is one example of the symbiosis between left-wing and Islamist movements, who share similar attitude about Israel and Jews. This close relationship could aid in ideologically-based recruitment to terrorism. British nationals, able to fly under the radar of security agencies, can be a useful tool for gathering intelligence for an attack, or even carrying out an attack on behalf of terror groups.
Far-right antisemitic-motivated terrorism is also a risk, but when considering the possibility of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran expanding their terrorist activity to the international arena, their natural allies come from the far-left. The Government and security services would be wise to keep in mind the risk of recruitment from this milieu.
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