Anti-semitism was motive for synagogue attack

While Dr Kevin McCarthy (Letters, November 24 ) may well be correct that “Israel will respond to synagogue attack”, one aspect is not widely known.

The synagogue is in the district of Har Nof, which is mainly inhabited by Orthodox Jews who are exempt from compulsory service in the Israeli army so as to devote themselves to religious study.

But this is not a new aspect of Palestinian policy, as the similar attack on non-Zionist Jews in Hebron in 1929 demonstrated.