The punk rap duo, both of are imaginatively named Bobby Vylan (apparently as far as I can tell, one spells their name with an ‘ie’ and the other with an “y’) performed at Glastonbury. Here is a clip of what their performance sounded like: (audio) In 2025, in the UK, one of the so-called progressive societies in the western world, the level of antisemitism is still astonishing. And yes, you can hear thousands of people slavishly repeating his chant - it is truly truly reprehensible. 

JPost Op-ed by Jonathan Lieberman, 5th July 2025

If this is happening in the UK, what’s it like in the rest of the world? Bob Vylan had already been on record saying appalling things about Israel and the IDF. For example, a new clip has emerged, filmed at Alexandra Palace in May, before Glastonbury, showing Bob Vylan’s frontman calling for the ‘death’ of ‘every single IDF soldier out there’. The very fact that he was given such a huge platform at Glastonbury  is a testament to how little modern society cares about the Jewish people. Now its true that this week there has been lots of lipservice by the media and leaders around the world, condemning Bob Vylan. However, the really disturbing thing about this was that as the camera pans around the audience, it becomes apparent that thousands of people joined in with chant. These are normal British people, waving Palestinian flags high and calling for the death of Jewish soldiers. Perhaps an interesting question to ask Bob Vylan and the people who joined in his little chant would be - exactly which IDF soldiers do you want to be killed? Are you including British-born Jews who have served in the IDF previously or are in the reserves and now live in the UK? Should the UK Jewish communities such as Golders Green be worried? Since last weekend there have been photos posted on social media of graffiti (mostly in Germany), repeating the same slogan - Death to the IDF!

Earlier today, the Spectator magazine published an article with the caption: Why is Bob Vylan free but Lucy Connolly is in prison? Lucy Conolly is in prison for some pretty terrible tweets made about immigrants in the UK - but nothing anywhere near the scale of literally calling for the death of Jewish soldiers in front of a huge crowd of people.  Why the double standard? Is it possible that the demonisation of the Jewish state is more socially acceptable than it should be? 

In 1895, Theodor Herzl writes about going to the public event when a Jewish-French soldier was stripped of his army rank for a crime he didn’t commit. He was convicted because he was Jewish. After the event, the crowd began chanting - death to the Jews. So shocking was this to Herzl that this was the moment when he is said to have realised that a Jewish state was the only answer to antisemitism. In the 21st century how far have we come? Well nowadays, rather than calling for the death of Jews, its more politically correct to call for the death of Jews who protect other Jews. The Israel defence forces - the only force on the ground that stands between the Jewish people and mass extermination in the middle east is the IDF. The last fifty years have demonstrated that beyond a doubt. 

Antisemitism has always focussed on the collective identity of the Jewish people. Whether that be their religion, in the middle ages, their race in the 18th and 19th centuries or the state of Israel in modern times. Why has the Jewish state been vilified to such a huge extent since it came into existence? Is it really because they murder Gazan children for fun? Is it because they have supposedly set up concentration camps for no apparent reason? Is it because they are committing genocide? Or is there a simpler explanation? Is there a more plausible explanation? The obsession with and vilification of the world’s only Jewish state is because the world (in large part) hates the Jewish people. This may not be said that out loud today. It may be packaged in more progressive, acceptable euphemistic terms. But has anything really changed? When people fly their rainbow flag and then call for Palestine to be free from the river to the sea, then we know that nothing has really changed. 

The Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York

Well, across the pond, things haven’t gone much better for the Jews in New York City. The Democrats have just held their primary for their nominee for New York Mayor - a pretty important job considering the population of NYC is over 8 million people. This also gives an indication as to where the Democratic Party is leaning in America following their defeat in the last election at the hands of Donald Trump. The candidate picked by the Democrats is a man called Zoran Mamdani - a self proclaimed socialist who is radical about the Palestinian cause and the vilification of the state of Israel. For example, the day after the terrorist attack on Oct 7th, where over a thousand Jews were horrifically murdered, he tweeted: “peace can only begin by ending the occupation and dismantling apartheid”. More recently, he has also said that he would arrest Bibi Netanyahu, Prime minster of Israel if he came to New York City, following the lead of the antisemitic International Criminal court. This was Mehdi Hassan asking him about this: (audio). There can be no doubt that one of the most momentous signs of our times is the rise in antisemitism that we have seen in recent years. The old hatred spoken of by scripture and taken up by many, from Haman to the false Christianity is still alive and well today. Some of the lies spread about the Jewish people (e.g. the libel that they purposely kill children), and actions taken against them (for e.g. October 7th) along with protest slogans, could just have easily have come from medieval Europe as opposed to so-called progressive societies in the 21st century. 

Dedicated Wholly to the Hope of Israel

The scriptures are clear about the gospel message. It is centred around the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to restore again the Kingdom to Israel. Perhaps a verse that Bob Vylan should consider is Zechariah 2:8, “For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye”. 

The apple of the eye is the ‘pupil’ of the eye - touching God’s people for harm, calling for the death of Jews is like touching the pupil of God’s eye. The Jewish people are beloved for the fathers sakes (Romans 11:28) and the future people of the kingdom. Paul described the gospel message as the “Hope of Israel” and that is equally true today as it was two thousand years ago. This Hope is something that we should be dedicated and separated towards through baptism and in our discipleship in Christ. This is why the citizenship of the believer in Christ, in God’s great mercy, is tied to the future restoration of Israel and not to any human political movement. 

We should be aware of how the antisemitism of the mainstream media can affect us, and all the more as the nations gather against God’s chosen people. 

Join us again next week for another edition of Bible in the News. This has been Daniel Blackburn joining you.