Israel Becomes the Leader of the Free World
In the days before Yahiya Sinwar was killed by the IDF on October 17, curious voices were appearing in the West belying the narrative that Israel had become a pariah state. To rousing applause in the German Parliament, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stated that “self defense is not only attacking terrorists but destroying them.” In Italy, before a soccer friendly match between Italy and Israel, Italian fans roundly applauded Hatikva and unfolded a large Israeli flag. Even after Sinwar’s death, Great Britain Prime Minister Keir Starmer, someone who hardly can be classified as a friend of Israel, said his country “would not mourn for Sinwar…As the leader of the terrorist group Hamas, Yahya Sinwar was the mastermind behind the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust, as 1,200 people were slaughtered in Israel.”
While perhaps outnumbered and certainly out-shouted, these voices evidence a curious phenomenon in a Western world that, while never hesitant to criticize Israel, has to come to grips with the large Islamic community that now has been invited into their societies. Even nations as anti-Israel as Ireland are wresting with this large minority in their midst’s that often seems less interested in immigrating into their societies than in trying to force those societies to adopt the practices of the places from which they fled. Indeed two countries that were roundly criticized in Europe for being “racist” due to their hard line in refusing to accept African or Middle Eastern migrants, Hungary and Poland, are now proudly proclaiming how their countries are not facing such social issues precisely because of their strict immigration policies. Last month, Hungary went so far as to threaten to send busses full of migrants to Brussels, the capital of the European Union, as further evidence of their determination to resist the EU’s liberal immigration demands.
As the world processes the killing of Sinwar, which comes so closely on the heels of the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, many in the west are beginning to look upon Israel as a country that, unlike their societies, is willing to take whatever action is necessary to protect its people, its country, its society and its way of life. Many listened closely to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech in September before the United Nations and contrasted its straight forward stridency in protecting the Jewish people with their own leaders wishy-washy responses to questions about the direction of their own societies. In London, every week since October 7, 2023 there have been anti-Israeli demonstrations drawing large crowds into the streets. In France, President Emanuel Macron claimed that Israel was created by the United Nations and therefore Israel must abide by all UN decisions, including decisions of the International Criminal Court and other UN-related entities. This was only one week after Macron ordered an arms embargo against the Jewish State.
At this moment, Western citizens may not like the way Israel has conducted its operations in Gaza, but they also see the danger that Israel faces as being similar to the danger they may face in their own societies. This phenomenon is being played out already throughout Europe. In the United States, those especially on the Democratic side who have been espousing a shift away from Israel due to the large amount of Muslims in the swing state of Michigan, now have to deal with the fact that those same Muslims are now yelling “Death to America” during their rallies. Not to be outdone, twitter is full of stories from India about abductions of Hindu women and their traumas after being captured by Islamists.
It remains hard to imagine that in the end Europeans will simply cede their countries over to the Islamists. As they continue to get more aggressive, the desire to confront them will grow throughout the non-Islamic world. Westerners now see that even in Lebanon there is a willingness to openly confront Iran over Iran’s perceived meddling in Lebanon’s affairs. If even Lebanon is willing to begin pushing back against a theocratic Islamic regime seeking to dominate another nation’s affairs, it is unlikely Europe will be far behind.
The last thirteen months have been among the most traumatic in post-Holocaust Jewish history, and certainly in Israeli history. It is too early to tell however, whether Israel’s current isolation will be long standing. Given the aggressiveness of the Islamic forces seeking to impose their way of life on the West, don’t be surprised to see Israel being held up not as a purveyor of supposed genocide but as an example of how to fight back against foreign ideologies that seek to dominate other societies.