This not so beautiful liberal democracy is looking very Nazi in the radical world: You said What is going on with those purity tests on Jews Gemini said The term "purity tests" for Jews is currently being used in two very different ways. Depending on whether you're seeing this in the context of campus politics or Israeli religious law, it refers to two separate controversies. 1. Ideological "Purity Tests" (Social & Political) In the U.S. and Europe, this term is increasingly used by Jewish advocacy groups to describe a social phenomenon where Jewish individuals are being asked to denounce Zionism or the State of Israel as a condition for being accepted into progressive spaces. The "Condition": Jews in student organizations, professional circles, or activist groups report being told they are only "acceptable" if they explicitly identify as anti-Zionist. The Criticism: Critics call these "purity tests" a form of modern antisemitism, arguing that they force Jews to renounce a core part of their identity (their connection to their ancestral homeland) just to participate in public life. The Trend: As of February 2026, reports indicate this is spreading beyond universities into professional fields like psychology and the arts.

The ‘anti-Zionist’ inquisition comes for Matt Lucas Anti-Israel zealots are now subjecting British Jews to ideological purity tests. Alex Hearn 17th February 2026 The ‘anti-Zionist’ inquisition comes for Matt Lucasi Share Topics Politics UK Want unlimited, ad-free access? Become a spiked supporter. Comedian Matt Lucas was harassed by a phone-wielding activist on the London Underground last week. It seems Lucas had committed the unforgivable sin of being Jewish in public. Pro-Palestinian activist Thomas Abdullah Bourne filmed himself pursuing Lucas up an escalator, repeatedly bellowing ‘Free Palestine’ at him. Lucas, who has avoided commenting on the Israel-Gaza conflict, tried to politely defuse the situation. It made no difference. Bourne muttered ‘Zionist’ to camera as Lucas walked away, the accusation hanging in the air like a medieval verdict. Welcome to Britain in 2026, where purity tests are administered on the Tube. This is the kind of ideological harassment that British Jews now navigate daily. It’s a pattern that’s becoming impossible to ignore, growing like a societal fungal infection. Needless to say, such harassment isn’t confined to public transport or even just to Jews. It’s coming to all of our doorsteps, too. Do you hate Jews enough? Some people want to check, and they could be knocking on your door next. Just days before Lucas was targeted, volunteers calling for an ‘apartheid-free zone’ in Brighton and Hove fanned out across the city, knocking on doors with clipboards and pledge forms. According to local Jewish resident Vicky Bhogal, who observed the campaign, activists were systematically visiting households, ‘finding out who has got Zionist leanings and who hasn’t, and where they live’. When challenged, the campaign organiser insisted it was ‘no different from the actions of a political party like the Conservative Party or the Labour Party who also go door to door’. Enjoying spiked? Why not make an instant, one-off donation? We are funded by you. Thank you! £5 £10 £20 £50 Choose an amount This comparison is, of course, obscene. Political canvassers don’t demand ideological loyalty oaths. They don’t ask you to publicly renounce a foreign nation. They don’t create lists marking who passes the test and who fails. Cabinet minister Peter Kyle, who is also the MP for Hove, immediately grasped what was unfolding. He described ‘the appalling scenario of a vulnerable Jewish resident being door-knocked by a gang of people wanting to harangue them’. The great revolt against greenism Recommended The great revolt against greenism Brendan O'Neill The door-knocking campaigns and Tube confrontations share the same DNA. Both operate on the grotesque assumption that Jews – regardless of their actual views on Israel – must answer for the supposed actions of a foreign government. And everyone else must publicly declare where they stand, too. The door-knockers aren’t just harassing Jews – they are mapping entire neighbourhoods for ideological purity. The statistics tell the story these activists desperately want to hide. According to the Community Security Trust (CST), Israel-Palestine rhetoric is routinely weaponised to intimidate random Jewish people in public. As the CST notes, slogans like ‘Free Palestine’ become anti-Semitic when deployed to harass, intimidate and alarm Jewish people and institutions, simply because they are Jewish. That’s what happened to Matt Lucas. He wasn’t challenged because of anything he had said or done. He was challenged because he had the temerity to exist as a Jew in public space. The Brighton door-knockers predictably insist they’re ‘not anti-Semitic, but anti-Zionist’, as if the semantic gymnastics provide moral cover. But when your campaign involves compiling lists of residents based on their presumed views about the world’s only Jewish State, you’ve crossed a line that should horrify anyone with even a cursory understanding of 20th-century history. Similar ‘boycott’ campaigns in both Europe and the Middle East were followed by the wiping out of entire Jewish populations. It’s a familiar reality for Jews, so we recognise it when it arrives in British cities carrying clipboards. It is chilling how institutions bend to these demands. Sussex Police initially saw no problem with activists compiling neighbourhood lists of suspected Zionists. They only reversed course after sustained pressure from Peter Kyle and others. Green MP Sian Berry wrung her hands about the tactic being ‘confrontational’, while rushing to assure everyone the door-knockers were ‘well intentioned’. Her colleague, Carla Denyer, Green MP for Bristol Central, dispensed with even that fig leaf. She joined a similar door-knocking campaign herself in Bristol, and proudly signed its pledge to boycott Israeli goods. Spain’s woke autocracy Video Spain’s woke autocracy spiked When elected officials participate in campaigns that leave Jewish constituents feeling unsafe in their own neighbourhoods, and police forces need to be arm-twisted into recognising obvious harassment, we’re witnessing the normalisation of something profoundly ugly. This is a worldview that demands public declarations of political allegiance as the price of acceptance. That sees Jews not as individuals but as collectively accountable to a righteous group of activists. When stripped of its ‘progressive’ veneer, it is indistinguishable from age-old anti-Jewish racism. Matt Lucas kept his dignity on that escalator, but he shouldn’t have had to. No British Jew should have to navigate public transport wondering if they’ll be the next person filmed for an ideological litmus test. No Jewish family should open their door to find activists with clipboards asking them to renounce Israel. This is what the new inquisition looks like. It comes with clipboards instead of torches, and the show trial now takes place on Instagram. But it’s the same question Jews have been asked for centuries: do you really belong with us? And in Britain in 2026, that question should have no place at all. Alex Hearn is director of Labour Against Anti-Semitism.

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JEWISH DIVIDERS SOUND LIKE THIS: zee83 @LindseyGrahamSC and @MohamedBinZayed In fact, many Jews themselves stand firmly against the Zionist movement, asserting that it does not represent Judaism, but is rather a diabolical and extremist political movement. BUT WHEN HITLER IS CAUGHT WITH A KNIFE BEHIND HIS BACK JEWS COME TOGETHER AS ONE.

The Daily Signal @DailySignal · Feb 14 . @VDHanson : How the Trump Administration Could Rewrite the Midterm Rules With about nine months left until November’s midterm elections, “a pathway to save the Republican Congress, and thereby to save the Trump counterrevolution,” is forming. President Trump has a lot “in his favor.” He’s sanctioned a “radical economic revolution” and also “stopped illegal immigration.” “This is a whole new ball game. We’ve never seen politics like this, and you can win the midterms even though you’re an incumbent president.”

To be pure or not to be?

You’ve put your finger on something many people are struggling to name: the sense that a long‑standing social equilibrium for Jews in the West is shifting, and no one is sure yet whether it’s a temporary turbulence or the beginning of a deeper realignment. Let me give you a clear, structured take on where things plausibly go from here, without catastrophizing and without minimizing the very real anxieties people are feeling. Is this a new phase of renewed friendship—or a worsening trend? The honest answer is that both trajectories are possible, and the outcome depends on forces that are still in motion. But we can map the pressures pushing in each direction. 1. Why the Trend Could Worsen Cultural and Ideological Drivers Identity-based political frameworks (oppressor/oppressed binaries) tend to flatten Jewish identity into “white-adjacent,” erasing Jewish vulnerability. Anti-Zionism as a moral litmus test has become a powerful social sorting mechanism in elite institutions. Social media ecosystems reward outrage, simplify narratives, and amplify fringe voices. Institutional Drift Universities, NGOs, and cultural institutions often adopt ideological frameworks faster than they interrogate them. Many of these frameworks treat Jewish particularism as incompatible with universalist ideals—exactly the dynamic you highlighted. Historical Precedent Periods of rising antisemitism rarely reverse on their own. They usually require: political leadership, cultural pushback, or a major external shock. None of those forces are yet clearly mobilized. 2. Why the Trend Could Enter a New Phase of Repair Despite the bleakness, there are countervailing forces that shouldn’t be ignored. Backlash Against Extremism We’re already seeing: progressive thinkers publicly questioning the rigidity of decolonial frameworks, journalists and academics calling out antisemitism within their own circles, donors and alumni pressuring universities to reform. These are early signals of a potential course correction. Re-emergence of Liberal Universalism Many people who once embraced ideological purity tests are rediscovering the value of: pluralism, nuance, and the idea that minority rights must apply to all minorities, including Jews. Jewish Agency Jews are not passive in this moment. Across the West: Jewish students are organizing, Jewish intellectuals are reframing the conversation, Jewish communities are building new alliances outside traditional political homes. This is often how new phases of Jewish–non-Jewish relations begin. 3. The Most Likely Short-Term Outlook In the near term, the trend probably gets worse before it gets better. Not because hatred is exploding, but because: institutions change slowly, ideological movements resist self-correction, and the Israel–Palestine conflict remains a flashpoint. The “betrayal” you describe—felt most acutely in progressive spaces—will likely continue until those institutions confront the internal contradictions in their frameworks. 4. The Longer-Term Outlook Long-term, I’m more optimistic. Historically, Western societies eventually recoil from ideological extremes. The pendulum tends to swing back toward: liberal pluralism, individual rights, and skepticism of purity politics. When that happens, Jews often regain their place as a valued minority within the broader liberal project. But that shift is not automatic. It requires: sustained Jewish advocacy, allies willing to speak up, and a cultural re-evaluation of simplistic identity binaries. 5. The Converso Analogy—Useful but Limited Your comparison is sharp: the pressure to “convert” ideologically is real. But the analogy breaks down in one crucial way: Today’s pressures are social, not coercive. That distinction matters. Social climates can change far more quickly than state machinery. So where are we headed? We’re in a transitional phase. The old model of Jewish–liberal alignment is cracking, but a new model hasn’t yet formed. Whether this becomes: a new era of estrangement, or a recalibrated, more honest friendship, depends on how institutions respond to the contradictions in their own moral frameworks—and how Jewish communities assert their identity without apology.