/features-april-2017-michel-gurfinkiel-france-... Prevent anti-radicalisation programme is still anathema to the Left and many Muslims, but it has been successful in adapting to the evolving jihadist threat. Still, there is much more to be done in changing hearts and minds, finding out what is happening inside closed communities, and identifying those responsible for indoctrinating the young — who are not only or necessarily the terrorists themselves.

A new threat is now emerging, visible in the shape of Tayyip Recep Erdogan, the Turkish president who is seeking dictatorial powers in a plebiscite. He has been appealing to European Muslims of Turkish origin, regardless of citizenship, over the heads of the Dutch and German governments. He denounces the latter as “Nazis” and calls on Turks to defy them. No less dangerously, he seeks to sow division by also playing on the fears of host populations, urging his compatriots to have “not three but five children”. Never before has the Islamist head of an Islamic state drawn attention to the issues of divided loyalties and demographic takeover, which have the potential to be toxic for Europe’s relations not only with Turks but with other Muslim minorities. To make matters worse, Erdogan is also blackmailing the EU over refugees from Syria, whose access to Greece and the Balkans he can restore at any time. Standpoint has warned that he would choose the moment of maximum impact on European politics to reignite the migration crisis. That day may now be fast approaching.

Here in Britain we can no longer feel insulated from such demagogy in the Islamic world, nor from the reaction that terrorism provokes in the West. This is not a time for tweets and anger: we must be as cold-blooded as those who seek to harm us. It is better to be demonstratively supportive of our friends than to waste words on our enemies. It was significant that Theresa May’s first phone conversation after the attack was apparently with President Trump, whom so many at home and abroad have treated as a pariah. For all his faults, Mr Trump has proved himself a true friend in need.

Her government has also indicated that it intends to mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration in November with the first official royal visit to Israel. Such a visit — long advocated by Standpoint but stubbornly resisted by the Foreign Office — would send a powerful message of solidarity to one of the most valuable of our allies. It would also signal that a post-Brexit Britain does not intend to be bound by UN or EU attempts to bully the Jewish State into compromising its security. We should never forget that Israel plays an essential part behind the scenes in defeating the threat that brings death to the streets of London.