The Dictatorship

Rising antisemitism in Britain is a frightening preview of America’s future

Published

3 hours ago

May 9, 2026

May. 9, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT

Great Britain saved my family from Nazism.

On the eve of World War II, many countries, including the United States, still limited Jewish immigration. But in July 1939, my grandparents were able to flee Germany for England. They settled in London, and two years later, my mother was born. Eight years after that, they emigrated to the United States. The family they left behind died in Hitler’s death camps.

Most European Jews were unable to escape — in part, it must be pointed out, because of British policy. Many of them would have gladly taken refuge in Palestine, then a British colony. But in May 1939, the British government effectively ended Jewish immigration to the territory. Still, for my family, Britain will always be viewed fondly as a safe haven from the horrors of the Holocaust.

That fondness makes the current situation for British Jews uniquely painful. Once a nation that welcomed victims of the Nazis, today the U.K. is increasingly a place where Jews are forced to look over their shoulder and hide their Jewishness. For American Jews, what’s happening across the Atlantic offers a disquieting preview of our possible future.

Last year, violent assaults against American Jews reached the highest level since 1979.

Over the last 2 1/2 years, but particularly in the last few weeks, antisemitic violence and harassment have become the new normal for British Jews. Last week, in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Golders Green in London, two Jewish men were stabbed by a knife-wielding attacker. This violence follows multiple arson and attempted arson attacks on synagogues, Jewish businesses and a Jewish ambulance service in London. And last fall, two Jewish men died after a man attacked worshippers at a Manchester synagogue.

In 2025 there were 3,700 antisemitic incidents in the U.K.according to the Community Security Trust, which reports on antisemitic activity. That’s an extraordinary number considering that there are fewer than 300,000 British Jews.

As British Prime Minister Kier Starmer (whose wife and children are Jewish) said last week, “People are scared to show who they are in their community, scared to go to synagogue and practice their religion, scared to go to university as a Jew, to send their children to school as a Jew, to tell their colleagues that they are Jewish.”

The situation is so bad that in response to the violence Britain raised its national terrorism threat level from “substantial” to “severe.”

The oft-heard explanation for this increase in antisemitic hate is that it’s a response to anger over the war in Gaza. Even if one accepts the argument, someone attacking a Diaspora community because they don’t like the actions of the world’s only Jewish state is collectively blaming all Jews for the actions of other Jews. That would be akin to targeting Russian emigres because of the war in Ukraine. Of course, no such attacks have taken place. Jews, however, have not been so lucky.

The more accurate explanation for the increase is that antisemitism is the world’s oldest and most enduring hatred — and Jews are being targeted because of anti-Jewish hatred. Indeed, the largest spike in antisemitic incidents in Britain came right after the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. There was “an immediate and significant spike in recorded cases of anti-Jewish hate,” CST reports, before the thrust of Israel’s military response to the horrors of that day. There were close to 4,300 antisemitic incidents in the United Kingdom in 2023 — an increase of 2.5 times over the previous year.

It wasn’t Israel’s actions that led to increases in antisemitism. It was the murder of Israeli citizens that put Diaspora Jews in harm’s way.

Jewish politicians are increasingly finding themselves under attack, targeted with antisemitic slurs and death threats.

This wave of antisemitic violence is not limited to the United Kingdom. A new report out this week by the Anti-Defamation League shows that even as there was an overall decline in antisemitic incidents in the U.S. last year, violent assaults against American Jews reached the highest level since 1979. Three people were killed in antisemitic attacks, the first such deaths since 2019. More recently, a man inspired by the terrorist group Hezbollah who was armed with a gun drove a car into a Jewish community center in Michigan.

Every day, it seems, comes word of a new incident. Data compiled by the New York Police Department showed that Jews were targeted in 60% of confirmed hate crimes in the city in April — even though Jews make up a mere 10% of the population.

Earlier in the week, Nazi swastikas were spray-painted on a Jewish community center in Queens. At New York’s New School, the university’s student senate voted to end funding for Hillel, a religious and cultural institution that serves Jewish students on campuses across the country. This is part of a larger nationwide effort to target Jewish institutions on university campuses and demand that American Jews end their support for Israel.

Today, Jewish politicians are increasingly finding themselves under attack, targeted with antisemitic slurs and death threats. According to a recent New York Times article“Protesters have called members of Congress ‘dirty Jews’ during town hall events and thrown red liquid — meant to look like blood — on their front lawns.”

Even a tweet put out by the children’s show “Sesame Street” marking Jewish American Heritage Month was inundated with antisemitic and anti-Israel messages. Anyone who argues that this wave of anti-Jewish hatred is driven by opposition to Israel’s policies is kidding themselves.

In short, what has risen to crisis levels in the U.K. is increasingly becoming the norm in the United States. But while Starmer finally spoke out publicly about the wave of violence — after months of pleading from Jewish leaders — most political leaders in the U.S. are silent. President Donald Trump has had little to say about the antisemitic spike. Democratic politicians put out the usual “thoughts and prayers” statement, solemnly condemning anti-Jewish hatred when violence occurs, but few do more than that.

As the Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland plaintively asked last week, “Where are those who are usually so vocal in their opposition to racism, now that one of Britain’s oldest minorities is facing a violent, murderous threat on the streets? Where are the actors and celebrities who ordinarily waste no time in declaring their solidarity with the oppressed, even those many thousands of miles away, now that British Jews are stabbed in London for no reason other than that they are visibly Jewish?”

The same should be asked of American cultural and political leaders. Where is the sympathy and concern for a vulnerable minority group in America? Where is the outrage that American Jews are under assault and living in fear?

Just as my mother views Britain as her refuge from antisemitism, for me it is America, which welcomed my family and gave us the opportunity to live out the American dream as Diaspora Jews.

For my family and millions of other Jews, the U.S. and Britain gave us not just a home but an opportunity to live our lives as Jews, free from fear and intimidation. That sense of belonging is increasingly under assault. Our American dream is slowly morphing into a nightmare.

Does anyone aside from American Jews care?

Michael Cohen is the publisher of the newsletter Truth and Consequences and hosts the weekly podcast “That ‘70s Movie Podcast.”

The Dictatorship

US lifts hold on immigration applications for doctors, but leaves others waiting

Published

1 hour ago

May 10, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

US lifts hold on immigration applications for doctors, but leaves others waiting

Libyan Dr. Faysal Alghoula needs to renew his green card to continue caring for roughly 1,000 patients in southwestern Indiana. But he hasn’t been able to do that since the Trump administration stopped reviewing applications for people from several dozen countries it deemed high-risk.

Alghoula has lived in the U.S. since 2016, and his current visa will expire in September if his application is denied.

But last week, Alghoula and doctors like him got a potential lifeline when the administration quietly made an exemption for physicians with pending visa or green card applications. It’s a move physicians, organizations and immigration attorneys had sought for months, citing widespread shortages and a high proportion of foreign-trained doctors, who disproportionately work in underserved areas, according to the National Library of Medicine.

The lack of doctors is top of mind for Alghoula, a pulmonologist and Intensive Care Unit doctor who serves a mostly rural population spanning parts of Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.

“It is about four to five months wait to get the pulmonologist here,” he said.

Still, applicants and immigration attorneys say it’s unclear how big a difference the exemption will make. The change means doctors can have their cases reviewed, but it doesn’t guarantee their green cards or visas will be renewed. It is also unclear whether U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will be able to process those applications in time to meet immigration deadlines like Alghoula’s — especially as many doctors with pending applications still haven’t heard any updates from the federal government directly since the announcement was first made.

Despite his qualifications, Alghoula said he is still concerned about his upcoming appointment, given stories circulating about immigrants being detained at appointments to renew their paperwork.

“I’m still scared to go to my interview,” Alghoula said Wednesday. That uncertainty intensified on Friday when he learned that his interview, scheduled for early June, had been canceled without any explanation. He said he doesn’t know what that means for his application.

Meanwhile, the pause remains in effect for thousands of others, including researchers and entrepreneurs from 39 countries, including Iran, Afghanistan and Venezuela. While they’re on hold, many can’t legally work, get health insurance or a driver’s license. If they leave the U.S., they won’t be let back in.

Immigrants unable to work or see family

The Trump administration decided last year to stop reviewing green card and visa applications for people from a list of countries deemed high-risk and this year stopped reviewing visa applications for citizens of more than 75 countries over concerns they would seek public assistance. The moves came amid the U.S. government’s broader crackdown on immigrants.

The pause followed the shooting of two National Guard troops by an Afghan citizen, which the administration said highlighted “what a lack of screening, vetting, and prioritizing expedient adjudications can do to the American people.”

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration officials, didn’t answer questions about the pause or recent changes to exempt physicians but said in an email it wants to ensure applicants are properly screened after determining the prior administration failed to do so.

“There are lots of bans and lots of pauses that are happening right now,” said Greg Siskind, an immigration attorney based in Memphis, Tennessee. “It is all about making life miserable for people who are here legally so they will choose other countries.”

It isn’t clear how many doctors have been affected by the pause, according to a spokesperson for the American Academy of Family Physicians, who said several doctors have reached out to the organization asking for help.

Some doctors have already been denied

Before the exemption, many immigrants filed federal lawsuits demanding that the government issue decisions on their cases.

One of them was Iranian Dr. Zahra Shokri Varniab, who came to the United States three years ago to conduct radiology research. She was waiting for a green card to attend a residency program but her application got stuck in the pause. She filed a lawsuit demanding an answer to her application and a federal judge ordered immigration officials to review her case.

They did — and denied her. The 33-year-old doctor said she believes it was in retaliation for her lawsuit.

“I feel completely confused,” Shokri Varniab said.

In court filings, U.S. government lawyers wrote that Shokri Varniab’s application contained inconsistencies about whether she plans to become a practicing doctor or researcher. She said she plans to do both.

She said the exemption doesn’t appear to apply to her since her case was decided but is seeking relief in court.

Immigration policy compounding war abroad

Immigrants who hold prestigious jobs in science and technology said they currently can’t work due to the pause because they’re waiting on employment authorization documents. Some said they are running out of money for rent and groceries and worry their careers could be thwarted if they’re forced to leave the country.

Those from Iran are especially worried about returning home during the ongoing war with U.S. and Israeli forces. They said they can’t regularly reach family due to the Iranian government’s internet blackout or count on them for financial support.

Kaveh Javanshirjavid came to the United States from Iran seven years ago to study for his doctorate in agriculture. He was supposed to start a lab job in January but needs employment authorization and his application is on hold.

The 41-year-old said he’s borrowing from friends to pay rent and relying on his wife’s doctorate stipend for basic necessities. But he doesn’t know how long that will last because she’s also Iranian and will need work authorization to get a job after graduating this summer.

“The whole of my life is on hold,” he said.

The Dictatorship

Democrats lose edge to retake House after Virginia redistricting ruling

Published

3 hours ago

May 9, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

May. 9, 2026, 2:13 PM EDT

Virginia Democrats entered the redistricting fight believing that redrawing the map would tilt the state decisively in their favor and give them control of the U.S. House.

Instead, the party’s aggressive push to reshape congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterms spiraled into a political and legal headache that stands to boost Republicans after the Virginia Supreme Court blocked their redistricting plan on Friday.

In fact, the Cook Political Reportwhich has been closely tracking developments in the mid-decade redistricting war, says the GOP now holds an advantage because of rulings from the Virginia Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. Republicans are likely to gain six to seven seats, according its newly updated analysis.

The Cook Political Report maintains Democrats are still positioned to retake the House. “But they are no longer overwhelming favorites,” it said.

Democratic political strategist and pollster Cornell Belcher agrees, saying his party wasn’t harmed by the Virginia court decision — it just wasn’t helped.

The ruling, he told MS NOW, “certainly makes it more difficult for Democrats to win because Republicans are rigging the system in real time.” But Belcher said Republicans run the risk of overreaching and making themselves “more vulnerable to a wave.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries condemned the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision as an assault on voting rights, telling MS NOW’s “Velshi” on Saturday, “This isn’t just Black people’s fight. It’s certainly everybody’s fight. It’s going to take an all-hands-on deck effort, and everybody has a stake in preserving a multi-racial democracy as part of the effort to preserve American exceptionalism.”

Still, some conservatives, pointing to a Fox News redistricting tracker, are now touting“massive seat gains” for Republicans as the battle over congressional maps intensifies.

The controversy in Virginia centered on a Democratic-backed proposal that would have dramatically reshaped the state’s congressional districts, potentially turning the state’s current 6-5 Democratic edge in the House into a near 10-1 advantage.

Republicans denouncedthe plan as an extreme partisan gerrymander, calling it a “desperate grab for power.” Virginia Democrats drew backlash because they had previously championed an independent redistricting processin 2020 as a safeguard against partisan mapmaking. Critics argued the party abandoned those principles once it saw an opportunity to expand its congressional advantage.

The redistricting fight in Virginia consumed months of political oxygen while lawsuitsmounted before Virginia voters ultimately approved the redistricting proposal in an April referendum in what would become a short-lived victory for Democrats.

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones immediately filed a joint motionasking the high court to delay its decision as Virginia Democrats vowed to fight what they described as an effort to overturn the will of voters.

While it may not be the redistricting wipeout Democrats had hoped for, they expressed confidence after the ruling that they will carve out a path to regain House control.

“Make no mistake, Democrats will not roll over while Republicans undermine our democracy to entrench their power. This is not over. Democrats will use every tool at our disposal — the courts, Congress, and public opinion — to fight back on behalf of all Americans who believe in and seek to uphold fair elections, democratic representation, and the sacred right to vote,” Democratic National Chair Ken Martin said in a statement.

“The will of voters of Virginia and California are being challenged by Republicans,” Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., told MS NOW’s “The Weekend” on Saturday. “It’s really unbelievable. We’re going to have to fight back because there is no alternative at this point.”

The Virginia battle also reflects a broader national reality: Both parties increasingly view redistricting not as a procedural exercise, but as a high-stakes weapon in the fight for control of Congress.

“It’s a really sad state that our country is in when both political parties are using redistricting as their main strategy to win midterms,” former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. said in a social media post Saturday. “Both parties are not presenting strong cases as to why their policies and accomplishments are why the American people should vote for them.”

In Tennessee, Republicans approveda new congressional map on Thursday that splits the state’s only majority-Black district into multiple districts, a move Democrats are denouncing as Jim Crow 2.0.

“This is an attempt to take away, to destroy, to silence Black majority community of Memphis and it is an attempt, in one of the most significant, probably since the end of deconstruction to take away Black political voice in the United States Congress,” Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson said Saturday on MS NOW’s “The Weekend.”

The nationwide redistricting fight began after President Donald Trump pushed Republicans in Texas to pursue an aggressive congressional redraw aimed at strengthening the GOP’s hold on the House ahead of the midterms. Democrats in blue states fought back with redistricting strategies of their own, most notably in California.

Trump has seen his approval ratings dip to new lows, according to recent pollsas the war with Iran drags on and gas prices continue to soar, causing political headaches for Republicans just six months ahead of the midterms.

Still, Republicans are counting the redistricting rulings in the South as victories.

“Democrats just learned that when you try to rig elections, you lose,” Republican National Committee Chairman Gruters in a statement. “We took them to court, and we won.”

Ebony Davis is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked at BLN as a campaign reporter covering elections and politics.

The Dictatorship

Black political power is under attack, again

Published

3 hours ago

May 9, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A nationwide campaign is underway to systematically dismantle Black political influence.

In Tennessee, Republicans are working to eliminate a congressional district that allows the majority-Black city of Memphis to choose its own representative.

In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed off on a new map that eliminates a South Florida district, which had a near-majority Black electorate.

And in Louisiana, Republicans threw out thousands of votes that had already been cast so they could pass a new map that eliminates a congressional district that includes the majority-Black city of New Orleans.

Following the Supreme Court’s lead, Republican lawmakers have cast these as mere partisan exercises or even an attempt to be “race neutral.” But the pattern is not subtle, and Americans should not pretend otherwise.

At every turn, we are told this is not about race, that it’s just politics, that they’re just respecting the process.

Please. This is not some theoretical exercise being debated in a classroom. This is a threat to the multiracial democracy that our ancestors built over the last 250 years, often at great cost to them and the country.

I don’t think Americans fully understand the emergency of this moment.

I don’t think Americans fully understand the emergency of this moment.

The Voting Rights Act, which the Supreme Court gutted last week, was not some symbolic achievement. People bled and died for that law. Entire generations organized, marched and fought in courtrooms and legislative chambers so Black Americans could fully participate in democracy and wield real electoral power.

Now we are watching that progress get chipped away in real time, while some who should be on the frontlines protesting continue to debate whether it’s actually happening.

Trust me, it’s happening. And what frustrates me most is that America has seen this movie before.

After Reconstruction ended, the 14th and 15th amendments to guarantee basic rights for formerly enslaved people were still in place. Black Americans were still citizens. On paper, Black men still had the right to vote.

But then states stopped enforcing those rights. Courts weakened them. Governors aided and abetted the rollback. Business leaders looked away. And slowly, methodically, rights that existed in theory stopped existing in practice.

That is the part of American history people love to skip over.

The collapse of Reconstruction was not just about Klan terror and white lynch mobs. It was about institutions. It was about statehouses. It was about courts. It was about people in power deciding they’d had enough of multiracial democracy.

And for nearly 88 years, between the end of Reconstruction and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Black Americans fought to claw back the electoral power that had been stripped away.

Eighty-eight years.

That should haunt all of us right now, because too many Americans have convinced themselves that democratic progress is permanent, that the arc of history, once it bends toward justice, cannot swing back.

But democracy is not a destination; it is a marathon with no finish line.

Rights are only as strong as the institutions willing to enforce them — and the people willing to defend them.

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act still exists today, on paper. But states have moved with extraordinary speed to dilute the voting strength of Black communities, redraw districts and weaken the electoral influence Black voters built over generations. And too often, the courts have responded by insisting Americans should ignore the obvious.

Again: trust your eyes.

I grew up a Black woman and a Democrat in Nebraska, a red state many people in national politics would probably write off entirely. But thanks to a quirk in state lawmy congressional district delivered electors for Barack Obama Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the Electoral College. I know what can happen when voters are actually allowed to build coalitions and choose representatives responsive to them.

That is what democracy is supposed to do.

Voters deserve the opportunity to select representatives of their choice, even if the broader state leans one way or the other. Their voices should not be diluted because the people in power dislike the outcome.

Anyone who believes in multiracial democracy needs to understand where power is actually built in this country. State legislatures draw the maps. Governors sign the laws. State courts interpret voting rules. Secretaries of state oversee elections. America’s democracy is shaped in the states.

That is where this fight is being lost right now. And that is where it has to be won.

Because history tells us what happens when attacks on voting rights are treated like ordinary politics instead of what they actually are: an assault on who gets to wield power in America.

We have seen rights survive on paper while disappearing in practice before. We don’t have another 88 years to fix this.

Trust your eyes, then refuse to look away.

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