October 7th 2023 was a dark day for the Jewish people and all who believe in humanity. Not only did Hamas stage a bloody pogrom in Israel, but the Islamists’ useful idiots around the world—including in Western capitals—celebrated the antisemitic massacres as a blow for ‘liberation.’
It seemed to many that Israel, apparently caught unaware and unprepared, had suffered an historic defeat. Even those of us who immediately saw the war between Israel and Hamas as an existential struggle between “civilisation and barbarism” could not be certain if the forces of enlightenment would prevail over the darkness.
Yet a year of bitter fighting later, the loud and clear message from Israel to the world is: let there be light! The Israelis are winning the war against Hamas in Gaza and striking mortal blows against Hezbollah in Lebanon. They have rocked the terrorists’ sponsor, the tyrannical Islamic Republic of Iran, to its roots.
It should now be clear to all who care about Western civilisation that the fighting state of Israel, the sole democracy in the Middle East, deserves our full-throated support. And I don’t mean the sort of begrudging ‘I support Israel’s right to defend itself, But…’ equivocation we have heard far too often from our rulers.
Instead we should embrace the Israelis as an example of what is possible if you fight for your principles—a source of inspiration, a leading light showing the way in the struggle to turn back the darkness.
But while the war in the Middle East—though far from won—is going well, the Israelis are still effectively losing the political battle in the West and around the world. The United Nations has abandoned them, and even their traditional Western allies are fighting shy, telling them to calm down, not make trouble, demanding a ceasefire, aka surrender.
In short, a year after the horrors of October 7th, it should be clear that, given a free hand, the Israelis can handle their enemies in the Middle East. It’s their supposed friends in the West they have to worry about.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly last week that the world is now faced with “the same timeless choice that Moses put to the people of Israel thousands of years ago.” That choice being, whether our actions “bequeath to future generations a blessing or a curse.”
The blessing, suggested Israel’s leader, would be a Middle East shaped by Israel and those willing to make peace with the only democracy in the region and the world’s only Jewish state. The curse would be a Middle East dominated by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its Jew-hating allies.
Almost as soon as Netanyahu finished speaking, the Israeli Defence Forces put his words into action by assassinating Hassam Nasrallah, the infamous leader of Hezbollah, Iran’s terrorist proxy in Lebanon. Afterwards Netanyahu said that Nasrallah had been an arch-murderer, not just a terrorist but “THE terrorist”, responsible for the deaths of many Israelis and Westerners.
And he conjured another scriptural quote from the Torah, as a justification for Israel’s actions and a warning to its enemies: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill them first,” with everything from air-strikes to exploding pagers.
Now, I am not normally one to quote the prophets or ancient scripture as offering a solution to the political problems of today. But I’m with Prime Minister Netanyahu here. We need to make the right choice for our future.
Israel should be seen as a blessing to us in Europe and the West. Not because it is exceptional, or the Jews are God’s chosen people, but because the Israelis are setting an example to us all. If you fight for your national sovereignty, your democracy, your people with everything you have got, you have a chance. The key is to make no concessions to those who hate you and would destroy you and your civilisation.
This is no suicide mission, like those launched by the Islamist death-cult. As Netanyahu also said after the assassination of Nasrallah, “We are winning,” and striking fear into the hearts of their enemies.
That can surely only be a good thing. So why do so many in Europe and the West continue to view Israel as a curse? To single out the Jewish state as the evil that is somehow to blame for the problems of the region and the world?
Over the past 12 months we have witnessed how Israel is treated differently, judged with a double standard that somehow sees it as always on the dark side.
Listen to the current cacophony of voices demanding a ceasefire on the Lebanese border. Where were they when Hezbollah started the conflict by shelling Israel and driving thousands of its citizens from their homes? Why does everybody only start demanding a ceasefire when Israel counterattacks successfully?
We heard this week that European foreign ministers from Germany, France, and the UK had bravely stepped forward to demand that Israel surrender, sorry, I mean “immediately stop its strikes in Lebanon” and allow Hezbollah to go about its business unmolested. The German minister even felt entitled to lecture Netanyahu that waging retaliatory war on the Islamist terrorists “is in no way in Israel’s security interests.” The woke West still thinks it knows what’s best.
Just before Iran launched its failed rocket attack on Israel, EU foreign ministers held an emergency meeting to agree a formal ceasefire statement. But they could not agree on the words. The Czech Republic, one of the few staunchly pro-Israel member states, explained that the draft declaration they were offered would have “unilaterally limited Israel’s right to self-defence against Hezbollah terrorists who have been shelling civilians in northern Israel for months.” When the Czechs “demanded to add text on the withdrawal of Hezbollah from Israel’s borders,” others refused. After the foreign ministers failed to agree on a statement, the anti-Israeli EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, simply issued his own ceasefire demand anyway.
The underlying message from the fearful, morally bankrupt Western elites to Israel is stop fighting, don’t make trouble, don’t take risks. As Brendan O’Neill, author of the new book After the Pogrom: Israel, 7 October and the Crisis of Civilisation points out, “We are now in the truly surreal situation where privileged Westerners seem distressed over the death of Nasrallah while Muslims in Lebanon, Syria and Iran are dancing in celebration over it.”
The same double standard that treats Israel as a special case ‘curse’ is evident in the recent discussions of sovereignty. We all know that Brussels treats the principle of national sovereignty with contempt, and punishes member states such as Hungary which try to put national democracy ahead of EU diktat.
Yet as soon as Israel counter-attacked against Hezbollah in Lebanon, EU leaders somehow suddenly rediscovered the importance of this principle, with Brussels foreign affairs chief Borell denouncing the attacks as “a violation of the sovereignty of an independent country.”
Never mind that Lebanon is less a sovereign, independent state than a sectarian mess where the dominant political players are the antisemitic Iranian proxies of Hezbollah. The EU will use the fiction of Lebanese sovereignty as a weapon to undermine the ability of a truly sovereign state, Israel, to defend its borders and its people.
Indeed, while Israel is fighting for its life, EU leaders are plotting to give away Israeli sovereignty. They have joined a new international coalition for a ‘two-state solution,’ considering whether to follow the lead of anti-Israeli member states such as Ireland in recognising the fictitious state of Palestine. (Hamas, we should always remember, is not fighting for any independent Palestinian state, but for a global Islamic caliphate.)
Asked whether there was any prospect of the new global coalition succeeding without Israel’s involvement, Borell (yes, him again) said they knew “the Netanyahu government … will do everything to prevent a Palestinian state,” but regardless of what Israelis want, “we have to start” selling out the Jewish state’s national sovereignty.
Yet despite their international isolation (and despite the fact that the Western media only shows Israelis protesting against the government), within Israel itself Netanyahu’s political popularity has soared with success in the war. Whatever they think of the prime minister, most Israelis are united behind the existential struggle to defend their nation. Israel’s war, as we have noted before, is an example of democracy in action.
The little state of Israel has shown that you can win against the odds if you fight for what you believe in. Yet in the powerful West, our leaders equivocate over making a stand for democracy and instead make concessions to the enemies at home who are part of the same darkness as the Islamists.
Israel’s traditional ally the UK is now led by a Labour prime minister who apparently puts Israeli hostages on a par with sausages. And if Kamala Harris becomes U.S. president, Israel will no longer be able to count on the (already-wavering) backing of its biggest international ally.
So, as the enemies within of Western democracy try to celebrate the anniversary of the October 7th massacres, let us make clear that we stand with the Israeli people against their genocidal enemies, and that Israel is a blessing, not a curse, to all who value freedom and democracy.
To end where we began, with the ancient scriptures: in the book of Isiah, God told the prophet that Israel would not only be a Jewish promised land, but also “a light to the gentiles.” In October 2024, even some of us gentile non-believers might well think that he had a point.
The West Should See Israel as a Blessing, Not a Curse
Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP
October 7th 2023 was a dark day for the Jewish people and all who believe in humanity. Not only did Hamas stage a bloody pogrom in Israel, but the Islamists’ useful idiots around the world—including in Western capitals—celebrated the antisemitic massacres as a blow for ‘liberation.’
It seemed to many that Israel, apparently caught unaware and unprepared, had suffered an historic defeat. Even those of us who immediately saw the war between Israel and Hamas as an existential struggle between “civilisation and barbarism” could not be certain if the forces of enlightenment would prevail over the darkness.
Yet a year of bitter fighting later, the loud and clear message from Israel to the world is: let there be light! The Israelis are winning the war against Hamas in Gaza and striking mortal blows against Hezbollah in Lebanon. They have rocked the terrorists’ sponsor, the tyrannical Islamic Republic of Iran, to its roots.
It should now be clear to all who care about Western civilisation that the fighting state of Israel, the sole democracy in the Middle East, deserves our full-throated support. And I don’t mean the sort of begrudging ‘I support Israel’s right to defend itself, But…’ equivocation we have heard far too often from our rulers.
Instead we should embrace the Israelis as an example of what is possible if you fight for your principles—a source of inspiration, a leading light showing the way in the struggle to turn back the darkness.
But while the war in the Middle East—though far from won—is going well, the Israelis are still effectively losing the political battle in the West and around the world. The United Nations has abandoned them, and even their traditional Western allies are fighting shy, telling them to calm down, not make trouble, demanding a ceasefire, aka surrender.
In short, a year after the horrors of October 7th, it should be clear that, given a free hand, the Israelis can handle their enemies in the Middle East. It’s their supposed friends in the West they have to worry about.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly last week that the world is now faced with “the same timeless choice that Moses put to the people of Israel thousands of years ago.” That choice being, whether our actions “bequeath to future generations a blessing or a curse.”
The blessing, suggested Israel’s leader, would be a Middle East shaped by Israel and those willing to make peace with the only democracy in the region and the world’s only Jewish state. The curse would be a Middle East dominated by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its Jew-hating allies.
Almost as soon as Netanyahu finished speaking, the Israeli Defence Forces put his words into action by assassinating Hassam Nasrallah, the infamous leader of Hezbollah, Iran’s terrorist proxy in Lebanon. Afterwards Netanyahu said that Nasrallah had been an arch-murderer, not just a terrorist but “THE terrorist”, responsible for the deaths of many Israelis and Westerners.
And he conjured another scriptural quote from the Torah, as a justification for Israel’s actions and a warning to its enemies: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill them first,” with everything from air-strikes to exploding pagers.
Now, I am not normally one to quote the prophets or ancient scripture as offering a solution to the political problems of today. But I’m with Prime Minister Netanyahu here. We need to make the right choice for our future.
Israel should be seen as a blessing to us in Europe and the West. Not because it is exceptional, or the Jews are God’s chosen people, but because the Israelis are setting an example to us all. If you fight for your national sovereignty, your democracy, your people with everything you have got, you have a chance. The key is to make no concessions to those who hate you and would destroy you and your civilisation.
This is no suicide mission, like those launched by the Islamist death-cult. As Netanyahu also said after the assassination of Nasrallah, “We are winning,” and striking fear into the hearts of their enemies.
That can surely only be a good thing. So why do so many in Europe and the West continue to view Israel as a curse? To single out the Jewish state as the evil that is somehow to blame for the problems of the region and the world?
Over the past 12 months we have witnessed how Israel is treated differently, judged with a double standard that somehow sees it as always on the dark side.
Listen to the current cacophony of voices demanding a ceasefire on the Lebanese border. Where were they when Hezbollah started the conflict by shelling Israel and driving thousands of its citizens from their homes? Why does everybody only start demanding a ceasefire when Israel counterattacks successfully?
We heard this week that European foreign ministers from Germany, France, and the UK had bravely stepped forward to demand that Israel surrender, sorry, I mean “immediately stop its strikes in Lebanon” and allow Hezbollah to go about its business unmolested. The German minister even felt entitled to lecture Netanyahu that waging retaliatory war on the Islamist terrorists “is in no way in Israel’s security interests.” The woke West still thinks it knows what’s best.
Just before Iran launched its failed rocket attack on Israel, EU foreign ministers held an emergency meeting to agree a formal ceasefire statement. But they could not agree on the words. The Czech Republic, one of the few staunchly pro-Israel member states, explained that the draft declaration they were offered would have “unilaterally limited Israel’s right to self-defence against Hezbollah terrorists who have been shelling civilians in northern Israel for months.” When the Czechs “demanded to add text on the withdrawal of Hezbollah from Israel’s borders,” others refused. After the foreign ministers failed to agree on a statement, the anti-Israeli EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, simply issued his own ceasefire demand anyway.
The underlying message from the fearful, morally bankrupt Western elites to Israel is stop fighting, don’t make trouble, don’t take risks. As Brendan O’Neill, author of the new book After the Pogrom: Israel, 7 October and the Crisis of Civilisation points out, “We are now in the truly surreal situation where privileged Westerners seem distressed over the death of Nasrallah while Muslims in Lebanon, Syria and Iran are dancing in celebration over it.”
The same double standard that treats Israel as a special case ‘curse’ is evident in the recent discussions of sovereignty. We all know that Brussels treats the principle of national sovereignty with contempt, and punishes member states such as Hungary which try to put national democracy ahead of EU diktat.
Yet as soon as Israel counter-attacked against Hezbollah in Lebanon, EU leaders somehow suddenly rediscovered the importance of this principle, with Brussels foreign affairs chief Borell denouncing the attacks as “a violation of the sovereignty of an independent country.”
Never mind that Lebanon is less a sovereign, independent state than a sectarian mess where the dominant political players are the antisemitic Iranian proxies of Hezbollah. The EU will use the fiction of Lebanese sovereignty as a weapon to undermine the ability of a truly sovereign state, Israel, to defend its borders and its people.
Indeed, while Israel is fighting for its life, EU leaders are plotting to give away Israeli sovereignty. They have joined a new international coalition for a ‘two-state solution,’ considering whether to follow the lead of anti-Israeli member states such as Ireland in recognising the fictitious state of Palestine. (Hamas, we should always remember, is not fighting for any independent Palestinian state, but for a global Islamic caliphate.)
Asked whether there was any prospect of the new global coalition succeeding without Israel’s involvement, Borell (yes, him again) said they knew “the Netanyahu government … will do everything to prevent a Palestinian state,” but regardless of what Israelis want, “we have to start” selling out the Jewish state’s national sovereignty.
Yet despite their international isolation (and despite the fact that the Western media only shows Israelis protesting against the government), within Israel itself Netanyahu’s political popularity has soared with success in the war. Whatever they think of the prime minister, most Israelis are united behind the existential struggle to defend their nation. Israel’s war, as we have noted before, is an example of democracy in action.
The little state of Israel has shown that you can win against the odds if you fight for what you believe in. Yet in the powerful West, our leaders equivocate over making a stand for democracy and instead make concessions to the enemies at home who are part of the same darkness as the Islamists.
Israel’s traditional ally the UK is now led by a Labour prime minister who apparently puts Israeli hostages on a par with sausages. And if Kamala Harris becomes U.S. president, Israel will no longer be able to count on the (already-wavering) backing of its biggest international ally.
So, as the enemies within of Western democracy try to celebrate the anniversary of the October 7th massacres, let us make clear that we stand with the Israeli people against their genocidal enemies, and that Israel is a blessing, not a curse, to all who value freedom and democracy.
To end where we began, with the ancient scriptures: in the book of Isiah, God told the prophet that Israel would not only be a Jewish promised land, but also “a light to the gentiles.” In October 2024, even some of us gentile non-believers might well think that he had a point.
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