There has been a recent surge in antisemitic attacks across North America and Europe, targeting synagogues, Jewish schools and Jewish community ambulances.

To understand what is driving this threat—and what can be done to neutralize it—Deutsche Welle (DW) interviewed Milo Comerford, ISD Senior Director of Policy & Research. 

Milo highlighted ISD’s continued monitoring of the threat landscape, and the downstream impact of violence in the Middle East on Jewish communities worldwide. 

“One of the sort of fundamental elements of modern-day antisemitism is that close association of the actions of the Israeli state with Jewish communities at large.” 

The recent antisemitic attacks are also emblematic of the rising hybrid threat methodology. The attackers do not represent past trends of a “long, slow transition of someone towards an extremist ideology.” Rather, there is a financial and opportunistic element to these attacks, as state actors recruit local individuals and pay them through cryptocurrencies. 

To combat this state-backed threat, Milo explained that governments must deploy “a spectrum of interventions,” ranging from addressing the conditions fostering violence to counter-messaging campaigns.

“There is a whole set of infrastructure that currently isn’t really being applied to these kinds of threats. And I think the plane is being built as it’s being flown as we’re seeing these new kind of risks emerging across Europe.” 

The full interview is available on DW.