U.S. security officials warned of unprecedented threats to Jewish communities following a series of recent attacks on shuls in the US and Europe, JTA reported.
We are in the midst of the most elevated and complex threat environment the Jewish community and this country has seen in modern history, said Kerry Sleeper, chief of threat management and information sharing for the Secure Community Network, a Jewish security organization.
Sleeper, a former FBI assistant director, added that the various motivations of the attackers appear to be affiliated with the war between the US, Israel and Iran.
Mitchell Silber, executive director of the Community Security Initiative, said in an interview that Jewish institutions may now need additional layers of protection.
This might be a bit of a tipping point where weve gone to a new level, where really whats required to secure a Jewish institution in the US starts to look like almost a Europeanization of security, Silber said, adding that that would include posting multiple armed guards outside entrances of Jewish institutions.
Unfortunately that seems to be where we are right nowthe Jewish community has to up its game in terms of the external security of its locations, he said.
Mike Jacobson, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who served in the State Departments Counterterrorism Bureau, said, “It’s not entirely shocking to those of us whove watched this space for a long time. I would think things would continue to ratchet up again, at least in the short term.
Theres also this mix that makes it really hard to sort out in the initial stages, where youve got people, not only who may be directly tied to Iran, but people who are so-called inspired by this, Jacobson said. Those are often really hard for law enforcement to get advance notice on.
Not always does the threat come from direct orders from Iran, he said. Its often difficult to tell: Is this something that is directly tied to the organization, or is this something that is more by someone inspired [by the IRGC]?
He added, They are trying to inflict pain in as many directions as they can.
(YWN Israel DeskJerusalem)
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2 Responses
At the intermarriage rate in some circles is as high as seventy per cent. What do you think of this wall of anti semitism has gone up in colleges and especially non religious communities. The loudest mouths are the secular groups like ADL and the American Jewish committee. Organizations whose leadership dont even wear yarmukas or eat kosher. Hashem is waking up the millions of assimilated Jews in America and the world. Their college friends are turning on them just as in Germany their non Jewish friends turned on them.
im sure theres a great deal of intellectual satisfaction in studying the motives behind antisemitic attackers, but thats a luxury at the moment. regardless of their origins or affiliations, an attacker with a knife or a gun or a car bomb, must be dealt with. we must concentrate on what needs to be done, now, to best protect ourselves and our communities. rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic can wait.