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On October 7 last year, ordinary civilians in Israel were the victims of extraordinary savagery. Hamas terrorists killed young people at a music festival, often in gruesome ways. Families were slaughtered in suburban homes. By any civilized moral standards, there ought to be overwhelming sympathy for a country subjected to such savagery.
Instead, throughout the Western world, we have witnessed endless anti- Israel protests. Why? Part of the reason is demographics. In Britain, for example, in 2001 there were one and half million Muslims. Today, there are almost four million.
That is not to say that every — or even most — British Muslims are anti- Israel. But it does explain the scale and size of some recent protests. So, too, on American university campuses. There have been frequent anti-Israel student protests, often at so-called elite universities. It is perhaps not a coincidence that there has also been a rapid rise in the number of students with Middle Eastern backgrounds at such universities.
Again, not every student from the Middle East is necessarily anti-Israel. But the reservoir of potential anti-Israel student protesters is certainly larger than before.
The rise in anti-Israel sentiment in the West clearly can’t only be about demographics. Many, if not most, of those protesting against Israel are not those with a Middle Eastern background, but those on the political Left.
Why then do those on the Left have such animus towards Israel? Why do they seem to suspend ordinary moral standards whenever Israel is involved? When it comes to Ukraine, for example, those on the political Left – correctly in my view – see Ukraine as a brave country, rightfully taking a stand against a vastly bigger aggressor.
So why don’t they see Israel that way? Israel wasn’t just attacked on October 7. From the Six Day War to the Yom Kippur War, Israel has been on the receiving end of relentless aggression. Israel, a country smaller than Vermont, is surrounded by larger foes intent on destroying her and eradicating her people, as Hamas showed us a few months ago.
Progressive opinion in America and Britain is of the view that the government of Ukraine must not try to accommodate Russia or make concessions. So why do they demand that Israel call a ceasefire? London, Washington and Berlin are full of leaders who want to supply Ukraine with weapons. Why then do many also demand that America and Europe stop giving Israel the tools to defend herself?
The last time there was unequivocal support for Israel in the West was during the Entebbe raid in Uganda in 1976. I remember the morning of the Entebbe raid well. A young child at the time, I happened to be living close by in Kampala. When Israel pulled off a daring rescue mission, freeing the trapped hostages from the hijacked Air France plane at Entebbe — where Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother Yonatan lost his life — there was rejoicing across the political spectrum.
Today, when Israel attempts to rescue her hostages in Gaza she is treated by many media outlets with scorn. Look at how posters of Israeli hostages held in Gaza have been torn down in cities throughout Europe and America.
As my friend Douglas Murray has pointed out, when a cat or dog goes missing in London or Paris or New York, people will often put up a poster about the missing pet. If we saw someone take down a poster about a missing pet, we would be offended. We’d know it was wrong. Where is the outrage against those removing posters of the Bibas kids?
One reason Israel is held to a different standard is anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is a famously shape shifting virus. At one time, Jews were hated for their religion, then for their race. Today, it seems to me, it is for their nation. Israel is loathed by many progressives because as a country, Israel embodies the notion of national self-determination. For many centuries, Jewish families toasted each other at Passover with the phrase: “Next year in Jerusalem.”
And then in 1948, almost miraculously, it came true. National self-determination offends elite opinion formers. They revere supranationalism instead. They venerate the UN, the ICC and the EU. Progressives prefer laws made by international treaty over those passed by elected national legislatures. Progressives prefer fealty to rules made by the global community over obligations to an actual community.
Israel’s success offends the Left not only because she is a national state, but because she demonstrates the success of Western society. If all cultures were of equal worth, why then does a small state that could fit inside Vermont produce so much enterprise and innovation? If there is an equivalence between cultures, why has post 1948 Israel seen such success amid a sea of Middle Eastern failure and autocracy?
Those who loathe Israel don’t just hate the Jewish nation state, they despise all nation states – including another phenomenally successful Republic, started not in 1948 but in 1776. If they merely hate Israel, why do they burn the American flag? America and the Western way of life is their intended target. Whether we like it or not, those of us who love America, who see Western culture as a sublime human achievement, have no choice but to side with and support Israel, against those who seek to destroy us all.
Those who hate Israel hate us too.
Douglas Carswell is the President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.
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