Amid the deadly ISIS terror wave, London Mayor Sadiq Khan is seeking help from Israel’s security experts.
By Ben Cohen/The Algemeiner and United with Israel
London Mayor Sadiq Khan told a UK Jewish newspaper that his office was in contact “with not only Tel Aviv, but other places as well” in his bid to boost security in the British capital amid a deadly spate of Islamist terror attacks.
Khan told the Jewish News on Tuesday that he and his colleagues, including Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley, had learned “lots of things” in their contacts with Israeli security officials, “things like putting in place the barriers we have done in London. There are other things and we are using the advice we receive.”
“Just like the terrorists evolve, we have to find new ways to protect ourselves,” he said.
Khan also acknowledged that hate crimes in his city have increased sharply in the wake of the London Bridge attack on June 3. Provisional statistics for June show a 40-percent increase in all racist incidents, including those of an antisemitic nature, compared to the daily average this year, and a five-fold increase in the number of anti-Muslim incidents, the mayor said.
Following the London Bridge atrocity — in which eight people were murdered by a gang of three Islamists who were shot dead by police — Khan became entangled in a Twitter battle with US President Donald Trump. After Khan announced on the morning after the attack that Londoners “should not be alarmed” by the presence of extra police on the streets, Trump attacked his choice of words with a trio of tweets:
“We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people. If we don’t get smart it will only get worse.”
“At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’”
“Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That’s because they used knives and a truck!”
A spokesperson for Khan responded that the mayor had “more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump’s ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks urging Londoners not to be alarmed.”
