Sir Tom Stoppard, the British playwright, said what others among us feel about the war between Israel and Hamas. “Before we take up a position on what’s happening now,” he cautioned, “we should consider whether this is a fight over territory or a struggle between civilisation and barbarism.”
If you doubt this is an existential struggle between civilisation and barbarism, look at this week’s reports of the bloodbath bodycam footage gathered from the Hamas terrorists who massacred more than 1,400 Israelis on October 7th.
On Monday, October 23rd, Israel showed the shocking video compilation to a few battle-hardened journalists, some of whom wept. The reporters tell not just of watching footage of children, young festival-goers and grandmothers being brutally slaughtered, but also of a Hamas butcher using a murdered mother’s phone to call his own parents and boast that “I killed ten Jews with my own hands. Father, be proud of me.” His proud mother replies, “May God protect you.”
These Jews were not accidental civilian casualties, killed as a tragic side-effect of war. They were deliberately slaughtered in the most horrific ways, on the orders of Hamas commanders. Far from keeping their dirty work a shameful secret, the overjoyed antisemitic mass murderers videoed it, and spread it across the worldwide web.
Barbarism is the word. Which means, as Tom Stoppard says, that whatever anybody might think of old issues of ‘territory’ in the Middle East is entirely irrelevant today. Israel against Hamas and their allies is now a war between civilisation and barbarism. It is a stark, clear-cut choice. Anybody who values our civilised society, warts and all, needs to come out unequivocally on the side of embattled Israel and of besieged Jews worldwide.
Which brings us back to Tom Stoppard. As a child, Stoppard fled Czechoslovakia with his Jewish family the day that the Nazis invaded in 1939. He later learned that all four of his grandparents and other family members had perished in Auschwitz and other death camps.
Now he is the leading signatory of the October Declaration, signed first by 200 UK public figures and then thousands of other Brits. It declares that the signatories “stand in solidarity with British Jews and condemn all forms of antisemitism, whether in Britain or elsewhere.” It continues:
We unequivocally condemn all acts of terrorism against civilians in Israel, especially the massacre on 7 October 2023.
(Emphasis in original.) Of course I have signed it, along with my wife, friends and colleagues. Anybody with a UK address can sign it HERE. But, some might ask, how come such a declaration is even necessary? Shouldn’t it go without saying that all decent people stand with Jews against antisemitism, and “unequivocally condemn” the bloody pogrom against Israeli civilians carried out by genocidal Islamists?
Well, maybe it should go without saying. But then you see what is happening now in Europe and across the West; you see how many are refusing to side with civilisation against barbarism, from the streets to the European Parliament, from the newsrooms to the universities. Then you know that it needs saying more loudly than ever.
As one organiser of the October Declaration, Daily Telegraph columnist Alison Pearson writes, “None of us ever imagined such a thing would be necessary in this country in the 21st century but, sadly, here we are.” And we are here, on the precipice of a dark pit, not just in Britain but all the civilised nations of Europe.
Why did the Israelis decide to show that terrible bodycam footage to journalists? Because they were so shocked and frustrated at the speed with which the Western media had moved on from reporting the all-too-real massacres of civilians in Israel to breast-beating about possible Israeli crimes against humanity in Gaza.
As the Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy tweeted, “I can’t believe I am saying this, and I can’t believe that we as a country are having to do this. We are witnessing a Holocaust denial-like phenomenon unfolding in real time as people are casting doubt on the magnitude of the atrocities Hamas committed.”
A “Holocaust denial-like phenomenon in real time” just about sums up much of what has been happening in Europe and the West. Judging from the reactions, anybody might be forgiven for thinking that Jews had launched an Islamophobic pogrom, rather than the other way around.
Last weekend, thousands of angry Islamist supporters and their useful idiot allies on the Islamo-Left took over the centres of our capital cities. At ‘best,’ they were chanting that Palestine will be free “from the river to the sea”—a thinly-disguised call to wipe Israel off the map—at worst, openly screaming support for Hamas and for jihad against the Jews, sometimes in Arabic, sometimes in English. The placard held up by a masked woman in London, which said “Please keep the world clean” next to an image of the Jewish Star of David being thrown into a dustbin, needed no translation.
There were chants of ‘Allahu Akbar’—God is the Greatest—right outside the European Commission in Brussels, days after an Islamist terrorist shot dead two Swedish football fans in the city while shouting the same cry of Islamic devotion. Meanwhile the London police reassure us that ‘jihad’ can have peaceful meanings; while the mayor of Brussels promises “no value judgements here” on the demonstrations. Little wonder that Europe’s Jews feel under siege and many others don’t feel safe.
Yet even if you put together all the hardcore Islamist loons and their allies on the braindead European Left, these people still amount to a small minority. How then have they become so seemingly powerful and threatening?
The secret of their success is that, in the war between civilisation and barbarism, far too many among Europe’s political and cultural elites have equivocated—or effectively gone over to the other side. The bodies of Jewish children and grandmothers slaughtered by Hamas had not all been identified, never mind buried, before the liberal elites identified the real villain: Israel, of course. Their supine attitude has emboldened and empowered the Jew-hating Hamas fans and their West-despising fellow travellers.
The problem runs from the top of European politics where, as reported on The European Conservative, far too many EU officials and MEPs have refused to side with the Israelis. When Ursula von der Leyen, the unelected head of the European Commission who does not receive much praise in Democracy Watch, did the right thing by coming out in defence of Israel, she was widely attacked in Brussels for failing to warn the Israelis to play by the rules when retaliating to genocidal attacks. Now we learn that no fewer than 850 EU employees worldwide (how many of them are there in total?) have signed a letter criticising von der Leyen for giving “unconditional support” to Israel’s “disproportionate reaction.” A disproportionate attack to a pogrom? It’s almost as if Hamas have a fifth column within the institutions of the EU.
The same stench of rotting from the head down has been evident in mainstream media coverage. The BBC, as often, set the tone for the liberal news establishment; first by refusing to call Hamas terrorists, well, terrorists, and then by immediately reporting the explosion at Gaza’s al-Ahli hospital with the banner headline: “LIVE: Hundreds killed by Israeli strike on Gaza hospital—Palestinian officials.” For “Palestinian officials,” of course, read Hamas propagandists, who now appear to be writing headlines in European newsrooms. Even once it was clear that the explosion was caused by an Islamist rocket, the overall working principle of liberal journalism has remained ‘Blame-Israel-first-and-ask-questions-later.’
There are countless other examples of this cultural and moral putrescence: the luvvie artists and celebrities queuing to sign letters that condemn Israel without even mentioning the massacres or Hamas (let them try to ply their ‘diverse’ artistic trades in Hamas-run Gaza); Western charities plastering social media with their one-sided Gaza appeals; and students and academics in the liberal universities of Europe and the U.S., celebrating the antisemitic massacre as a ‘victory’ for the ‘Palestinian resistance’ while declaring that ‘decolonisation’ is not just about banning incorrect books, but also destroying the politically incorrect state of Israel.
Under the guise of pro-Palestinian posturing, many among Europe’s liberal elites have taken the wrong side in this existential war. If left unchallenged that will have real consequences, not just for Israel but for Jews everywhere—and for the future of European democracy and civilisation itself.
The Islamists can at least claim, however perversely, to be fighting a holy jihad for their faith. Europe’s Left now believes in little or nothing. These nihilists are motivated by self-loathing for their own Western societies and history, which leads to the moronic conclusion that any ‘anti-colonial’ terrorists must be on ‘the right side of history.’ Their globalist, elitist contempt for national democracy and sovereignty (because they fear and loath the demos, the people) means they have more in common with the zealous advocates of a global caliphate than with Israelis fighting to defend the borders of the only democracy in the Middle East.
Those demanding a ceasefire tell us Israel’s response must be ‘proportionate.’ As legendary Israeli leader Golda Meir put it, “You cannot negotiate peace with somebody who has come to kill you.” The only truly proportionate response to a war for barbarism is surely to give unconditional support to those fighting for civilisation. More power to their elbow.
It’s Civilisation or Barbarism
The marble group of Hercules and the centaur Nessus was completed in 1599 by Flemish sculptor Giambologna (1529-1608). The sculpture was carved from a single block of marble and it sits in the open-air gallery Loggia dei Lanzi on the Piazza della Signoria in Florence.
Sir Tom Stoppard, the British playwright, said what others among us feel about the war between Israel and Hamas. “Before we take up a position on what’s happening now,” he cautioned, “we should consider whether this is a fight over territory or a struggle between civilisation and barbarism.”
If you doubt this is an existential struggle between civilisation and barbarism, look at this week’s reports of the bloodbath bodycam footage gathered from the Hamas terrorists who massacred more than 1,400 Israelis on October 7th.
On Monday, October 23rd, Israel showed the shocking video compilation to a few battle-hardened journalists, some of whom wept. The reporters tell not just of watching footage of children, young festival-goers and grandmothers being brutally slaughtered, but also of a Hamas butcher using a murdered mother’s phone to call his own parents and boast that “I killed ten Jews with my own hands. Father, be proud of me.” His proud mother replies, “May God protect you.”
These Jews were not accidental civilian casualties, killed as a tragic side-effect of war. They were deliberately slaughtered in the most horrific ways, on the orders of Hamas commanders. Far from keeping their dirty work a shameful secret, the overjoyed antisemitic mass murderers videoed it, and spread it across the worldwide web.
Barbarism is the word. Which means, as Tom Stoppard says, that whatever anybody might think of old issues of ‘territory’ in the Middle East is entirely irrelevant today. Israel against Hamas and their allies is now a war between civilisation and barbarism. It is a stark, clear-cut choice. Anybody who values our civilised society, warts and all, needs to come out unequivocally on the side of embattled Israel and of besieged Jews worldwide.
Which brings us back to Tom Stoppard. As a child, Stoppard fled Czechoslovakia with his Jewish family the day that the Nazis invaded in 1939. He later learned that all four of his grandparents and other family members had perished in Auschwitz and other death camps.
Now he is the leading signatory of the October Declaration, signed first by 200 UK public figures and then thousands of other Brits. It declares that the signatories “stand in solidarity with British Jews and condemn all forms of antisemitism, whether in Britain or elsewhere.” It continues:
(Emphasis in original.) Of course I have signed it, along with my wife, friends and colleagues. Anybody with a UK address can sign it HERE. But, some might ask, how come such a declaration is even necessary? Shouldn’t it go without saying that all decent people stand with Jews against antisemitism, and “unequivocally condemn” the bloody pogrom against Israeli civilians carried out by genocidal Islamists?
Well, maybe it should go without saying. But then you see what is happening now in Europe and across the West; you see how many are refusing to side with civilisation against barbarism, from the streets to the European Parliament, from the newsrooms to the universities. Then you know that it needs saying more loudly than ever.
As one organiser of the October Declaration, Daily Telegraph columnist Alison Pearson writes, “None of us ever imagined such a thing would be necessary in this country in the 21st century but, sadly, here we are.” And we are here, on the precipice of a dark pit, not just in Britain but all the civilised nations of Europe.
Why did the Israelis decide to show that terrible bodycam footage to journalists? Because they were so shocked and frustrated at the speed with which the Western media had moved on from reporting the all-too-real massacres of civilians in Israel to breast-beating about possible Israeli crimes against humanity in Gaza.
As the Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy tweeted, “I can’t believe I am saying this, and I can’t believe that we as a country are having to do this. We are witnessing a Holocaust denial-like phenomenon unfolding in real time as people are casting doubt on the magnitude of the atrocities Hamas committed.”
A “Holocaust denial-like phenomenon in real time” just about sums up much of what has been happening in Europe and the West. Judging from the reactions, anybody might be forgiven for thinking that Jews had launched an Islamophobic pogrom, rather than the other way around.
Last weekend, thousands of angry Islamist supporters and their useful idiot allies on the Islamo-Left took over the centres of our capital cities. At ‘best,’ they were chanting that Palestine will be free “from the river to the sea”—a thinly-disguised call to wipe Israel off the map—at worst, openly screaming support for Hamas and for jihad against the Jews, sometimes in Arabic, sometimes in English. The placard held up by a masked woman in London, which said “Please keep the world clean” next to an image of the Jewish Star of David being thrown into a dustbin, needed no translation.
There were chants of ‘Allahu Akbar’—God is the Greatest—right outside the European Commission in Brussels, days after an Islamist terrorist shot dead two Swedish football fans in the city while shouting the same cry of Islamic devotion. Meanwhile the London police reassure us that ‘jihad’ can have peaceful meanings; while the mayor of Brussels promises “no value judgements here” on the demonstrations. Little wonder that Europe’s Jews feel under siege and many others don’t feel safe.
Yet even if you put together all the hardcore Islamist loons and their allies on the braindead European Left, these people still amount to a small minority. How then have they become so seemingly powerful and threatening?
The secret of their success is that, in the war between civilisation and barbarism, far too many among Europe’s political and cultural elites have equivocated—or effectively gone over to the other side. The bodies of Jewish children and grandmothers slaughtered by Hamas had not all been identified, never mind buried, before the liberal elites identified the real villain: Israel, of course. Their supine attitude has emboldened and empowered the Jew-hating Hamas fans and their West-despising fellow travellers.
The problem runs from the top of European politics where, as reported on The European Conservative, far too many EU officials and MEPs have refused to side with the Israelis. When Ursula von der Leyen, the unelected head of the European Commission who does not receive much praise in Democracy Watch, did the right thing by coming out in defence of Israel, she was widely attacked in Brussels for failing to warn the Israelis to play by the rules when retaliating to genocidal attacks. Now we learn that no fewer than 850 EU employees worldwide (how many of them are there in total?) have signed a letter criticising von der Leyen for giving “unconditional support” to Israel’s “disproportionate reaction.” A disproportionate attack to a pogrom? It’s almost as if Hamas have a fifth column within the institutions of the EU.
The same stench of rotting from the head down has been evident in mainstream media coverage. The BBC, as often, set the tone for the liberal news establishment; first by refusing to call Hamas terrorists, well, terrorists, and then by immediately reporting the explosion at Gaza’s al-Ahli hospital with the banner headline: “LIVE: Hundreds killed by Israeli strike on Gaza hospital—Palestinian officials.” For “Palestinian officials,” of course, read Hamas propagandists, who now appear to be writing headlines in European newsrooms. Even once it was clear that the explosion was caused by an Islamist rocket, the overall working principle of liberal journalism has remained ‘Blame-Israel-first-and-ask-questions-later.’
There are countless other examples of this cultural and moral putrescence: the luvvie artists and celebrities queuing to sign letters that condemn Israel without even mentioning the massacres or Hamas (let them try to ply their ‘diverse’ artistic trades in Hamas-run Gaza); Western charities plastering social media with their one-sided Gaza appeals; and students and academics in the liberal universities of Europe and the U.S., celebrating the antisemitic massacre as a ‘victory’ for the ‘Palestinian resistance’ while declaring that ‘decolonisation’ is not just about banning incorrect books, but also destroying the politically incorrect state of Israel.
Under the guise of pro-Palestinian posturing, many among Europe’s liberal elites have taken the wrong side in this existential war. If left unchallenged that will have real consequences, not just for Israel but for Jews everywhere—and for the future of European democracy and civilisation itself.
The Islamists can at least claim, however perversely, to be fighting a holy jihad for their faith. Europe’s Left now believes in little or nothing. These nihilists are motivated by self-loathing for their own Western societies and history, which leads to the moronic conclusion that any ‘anti-colonial’ terrorists must be on ‘the right side of history.’ Their globalist, elitist contempt for national democracy and sovereignty (because they fear and loath the demos, the people) means they have more in common with the zealous advocates of a global caliphate than with Israelis fighting to defend the borders of the only democracy in the Middle East.
Those demanding a ceasefire tell us Israel’s response must be ‘proportionate.’ As legendary Israeli leader Golda Meir put it, “You cannot negotiate peace with somebody who has come to kill you.” The only truly proportionate response to a war for barbarism is surely to give unconditional support to those fighting for civilisation. More power to their elbow.
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