The West’s Moral Collapse and Israel’s Lone Stand

Australia, France, the UK and Canada are rewarding terror while Israel fights for its life

A few short decades ago, the names Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Helmut Kohl, François Mitterrand – even Mikhail Gorbachev – inspired confidence. These were leaders. For Reagan and Thatcher especially, they were leaders’ leaders. President Reagan in particular was a remarkable steward of the Western alliance, a man who could stare down tyranny without flinching.

Today, the contrast could not be starker. What began as a joke just over four years ago with the arrival of Joe Biden has spiralled into a full-blown crisis, a tragic reminder of how far Western democracy has fallen. Thank God for President Donald Trump, now a refreshing breath of air in the stale corridors of global leadership. The October 7 terrorist atrocities against Israel tore away the mask, exposing the weak, timid, and frankly pathetic nature of the once-dependable leaders of the free world.

And now, the latest act of perfidy: Australia’s decision to recognise a so-called “Palestinian state.” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese claims he has secured “assurances” from Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority’s ageing strongman now in his 20th year of a four-year term, that he will renounce the destruction of Israel. Seriously? That is like trusting an arsonist’s promise never to light another match while he stands there holding a petrol can.

Australia’s folly follows similar declarations from France, the UK, and Canada. These are not statesmen making hard choices for peace. They are opportunists chasing headlines, votes, and the approval of the “river to the sea” mob.

The moral rot runs deeper than geopolitics. It took the UK’s Supreme Court to define what a woman is – and even then it was controversial. In the United States, a serving Supreme Court justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, famously could not define the word “woman” without consulting a biologist. Last year, Western cities and college campuses burned with hate rallies against Israel. Antisemitic violence surged. And their leaders – Israel’s supposed allies – nodded along or looked the other way.

I really want to be clear here: recognising a Palestinian state in the middle of a war triggered by Hamas is not “diplomacy.” It is betrayal. It is rewarding terror with legitimacy. It is telling every jihadist from Gaza to Tehran: if you kill enough Jews, kidnap enough innocents, and hold out long enough, the West will give you exactly what you want.

Australia’s foreign minister Penny Wong actually said there is a “risk there will be no Palestine left to recognise” if the world does not act. That is the point, Penny. There is no functioning Palestinian state to recognise – only terror enclaves, corrupt elites, and a Hamas charter that still calls for Israel’s annihilation.

France’s Emmanuel Macron, Canada’s Mark Carney, and Britain’s Keir Starmer have all joined the chorus. They talk about ‘paths to peace,’ but it is pure theatre. Not one of them has the courage to confront the simple truth: peace will never come from empowering those who deny Israel’s right to exist.

And how many remember that under former president Joe Biden, the United States perfected the art of two-faced politics – mouthing ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’ while withholding weapons shipments, sanctioning Israeli companies, and leaking Israel’s military plans to Iran? Allies do not behave like this. Enemies do.

And yet, as history has shown, Israel does not crumble when abandoned. It adapts. It innovates. It survives. It thrives. The West has forgotten this truth: resilience and renewal are woven into Israel’s very DNA.

Yes, the IDF holds the front lines, but behind it stands an entire nation that refuses to be defined by victimhood. While Western capitals drown in moral confusion, Israel keeps building – in science, medicine, technology, and agriculture. This is the essence of innovating the future of Israel. It is more than startups and patents; it is about shaping a story that declares: Israel will live, and it will lead.

Australia can bow to Abbas. France can fawn over the “two-state” mirage. Britain can chase Muslim votes. Canada can virtue signal itself into irrelevance. But Israel will keep planting vineyards in the desert, turning saltwater into drinking water, and exporting life-saving tech to countries whose leaders denounce it by day and buy its innovations by night.

The most galling part is not that the West disagrees with Israel; healthy allies can disagree. It is that the West no longer knows what it stands for. It cannot define its values, cannot defend its borders, cannot tell truth from propaganda, and cannot even decide which bathroom its leaders should use. To put too fine a point on it, the West has abandoned its Judeo-Christian heritage.

In the 1980s, the free world had clarity. Reagan called the Soviet Union an “evil empire” and meant it. Thatcher stared down the IRA and Argentina without blinking. Kohl held fast to NATO and a united Germany. Mitterrand understood the stakes of the Cold War. Even Gorbachev, an adversary, had the stature of a leader.

Today, we have leaders who measure their worth by social media likes, who treat foreign policy as performance art, and who think “courage” means kneeling in the street while Hamas rockets rain down on Israeli towns.

Israel does not have the luxury of weakness. On October 7, Hamas reminded the world that the Jewish people can rely on no one but themselves. In the months since, Hezbollah, Iran, and their enablers have driven the point home. The West’s moral collapse has forced Israel into greater self-reliance than ever – and in that lies its greatest strength. And I thank God for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a leader’s leader, a man who roars where even angels hesitate to whisper. To me, he is Winston Churchill reborn.

Israel’s answer is not despair, but defiance. Not appeasement, but innovation. Not dependency, but destiny.

Israel will fight alone if it must. It will bring its hostages home, crush the terror that seeks its destruction, and keep building a future so innovative that even its enemies cannot live without it.

Let the West posture, lecture, and betray.

When the dust clears, history will record one truth: in an age of Western weakness, Israel stood unbowed – and by its own strength, secured its survival and its destiny.