The cities of Charlottesville and Barcelona are both steeped in history. They are also connected because this week outsiders ensured that innocent bystanders suffered horrific acts of violence. However, the links between the two go beyond these facts, drawing in Brussels and Jerusalem along the way.

Throughout much of August Thursday 17th, much of the free world was occupied in condemning President Trump for his seeming refusal to condemn outright the march of Nazi thugs in Charlottesville. Trump was understood to be appeasing the right-wing demonstrators, who had terrorised locals, shouting out racist and anti-Semitic expletives as they walked along undisturbed by the authorities.

The attack in Barcelona targeted tourists. And yet in a city full of visitors from overseas, few members of the foreign press have commented on the fact that the ISIS-linked terrorist chose to commit his act of multiple murder close by to a Jewish kosher restaurant, Maccabi.  (For the record, the manager of the establishment is a Turkish Muslim, whose immediate actions may well have saved the lives of many more.)

Is the Jewish connection a coincidence? Recall for a moment the awful incident in Brussels airport in March 2016. Of all the spots in the area to pick, the attack took place right close to the El Al check in counter.

Trump’s actions this week were interpreted as partially justifying the bigotry. They began to remind me how for years since the 1990s, Western leaders have partially excused Palestinian terror on Israeli citizens. In this case, the ‘get out of jail package’ seems to stem from an understanding that in some way Israel has been acting illegally / prohibiting peace.

What these pacifiers forgot and still forget is that terror is terror is terror. Terror breeds off funding, sensational and inaccurate reporting, and politicians who do not apply the rule of zero tolerance.

Trump’s response opened the door for poor coverage. He did not state that the Ku Klux Klan and its associates are an abomination. He did not condone as he should have done, unequivocally. As for the Barcelona tragedy, the press have failed to connect the dots. The act was perpetrated by a person indoctrinated in hatred., where he was bale to target Jews, Israel, Christianity and the West in one.

For over a decade now, the authorities in Jerusalem have hosted numerous delegations of politicians as well as senior police teams and emergency services from the West, who have come to learn how cope with terror. There are two themes to the visits  – how a democratic society should defend itself and how can authorities react speedily to any incident.

For all the repulsive hatred of ISIS inspired attacks, they can neither hide nor eliminate the fact that there is a reason why over 300 conglomerates have R&D centres in the Holy Land. There is a reason why Israel is the one country in the Middle East, where the number of Christians is rising or where the new senior doctor in the army is a Druze. And there is a reason why Israeli incubators increasingly provide room for Muslim centric start ups.

The acts of hatred in Charlottesville and Barcelona are a rejection of societies based on pluralism and mutual understanding. These are the key components of countries with strong economies and where opportunity is offered to almost all. Trump and Europe’s leadership are advised to recall how Israel has shown what can be gained by denying such forces of evil their supplies of ‘air and water’.