On October 7th, 2023 the war in Gaza broke out after Hamas terrorists launched a savage attack on Israel. Today marked the 2nd anniversary of what Mark Birbeck, founder of ‘Our Fight’ calls “The most significant date in the 21st century.”
In a short film produced by MCC Brussels, released on the anniversary, Birbeck explains that October 7th is not just a singular event. On that day, multiple pogroms happened on the same day, leading to the loss of many lives along the way.
Deepening the crisis, the international response is not only underwhelming, but sometimes outraging. Birbeck says the West “hasn’t looked to try and solve the problem of Hamas, in fact it tried to brush Hamas under the carpet.”
MCC Brussels Director Frank Furedi highlights the importance of support for the Jewish state in the film. “If Israel gives in and is not able to defend itself effectively, in many respects, Western civilization itself is called into question.”
Furedi also notes the paradoxical narrative surrounding Israel. As he explains, the West has endorsed the “settler colonialism” narrative, implying that Israeli Jews are a settler nation that will inherently look to exterminate the local native population. Also, while the Nazi Germany’s genocide against the Jews is not denied, and the West bet on education and the “denazifying” of Germans, when it comes to atrocities like the Hamas pogrom a different attitude prevails. The decades-old idea of Jews being settlers in the Holy Land while Palestinians the native victims, coming from Islamist propaganda, has been adopted by the West. What follows is that the only option for the ‘victims’ is wiping Israel off the face of the Earth. “Israel has been called genocidal for a long time before the current war in Gaza,” points out Furedi, stressing that “Israel is called genocidal because of its very existence.”
The shocking reality of the aftermath of October 7th was that not only did the West side with Hamas, but at pro-Palestine protests in Western cities people celebrated the massacre, says Birbeck.
Journalist and author Daniel Ben-Ami also points to the progressive idea of ‘decolonization’, which comes down to eliminating any Western influence and Western values like freedom and democracy, is also applied to Israel.
“Israel is doing the world’s dirty work,” political commentator Rawan Osman says in the film, adding
Israel is left at the forefront to fight an unprecedented wave of Islamism, that unless countered might consume not only the Middle East, but your beloved West as well.
Osman stresses that the West has a moral obligation to support Israel not only for their own safety, but for everything Israel stands for in terms of values, and to rescue European civilization.
However, the reality is different. On October 7th the Bundestag decided not to hold a minute of silence in commemoration of the pogrom, while Palestinian demonstrators were allowed to take to the streets on the anniversary, chanting antisemitic slogans.
