This conflict is so much bigger than Israel – and it’s already here

It took about a day after the barbaric Hamas attacks for the American public and pundits to start distancing the United States from the war in Israel.

On the left, the outbreak of war was painted as a natural outcome of the “cycle of violence,” the blame of which is, of course, placed entirely on Israel.

On the right, despite moral clarity and strong sympathy and support for Israel, fatigue from the Ukraine war has blurred the picture.

The arguments distinguishing Israel from Ukraine have also largely fallen flat. The most common point has been that unlike the corrupt, election-suspending, Nazi-sympathetic government in Ukraine, Israel is the sole democracy in the Middle East and our most important strategic ally in the region. Another point of contrast has been the endless and aimless spending in Ukraine versus Israel’s clear objective to eliminate the threat of Hamas. But this, too, still misses the point.

So in the place of what once would have been fastidious support, most conservatives have been asking: “Why do we care about a small regional war?”

The demonstrations over the last three weeks, with streets filled with hundreds of thousands of terrorist sympathizers, should erase any doubt that Israel is only the first stage of a broader battle.

This question is a mistake. This is so much bigger than Israel.

What has bubbled to the surface is only the beginning of an existential conflict between those who want thriving civilizations and nihilists. It is the morally sane against the spiritually corrupt. It is the Western world against medieval, violent thugs. It is valuing life over elevating death.

This is a test of the West.

It is no coincidence Iran — using its smallest proxy, Hamas — chose this moment to start making more outsized moves. The disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, where we abandoned tens of thousands of Americans and allies who helped us during the war, was the ultimate starting pistol for our enemies.

Our enemies’ goals are not hidden. All we have to do is listen. Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Zahar said in a news clip in December 2022: “The entire planet will be under our law; there will be no more Jews or Christian traitors.”

Caliphates do not end in Israel.

The only thing savages like Hamas and Iran will ever understand is strength. They only see treaties as a distraction tactic and negotiations as a method to buy time, as this latest and most brutal ceasefire breach confirmed yet again. And they see us in the West, with our low-testosterone soy-beta leaders, as fools to be conquered.

The impolite reality that must be said out loud is that not all societies have equal morals.

And the left, in its aspirations for a progressive utopia, has opened the doors to our country and the rest of the Western world to terrorist mobs. What’s worse, the woke left has largely aligned itself with this jihadist movement, seemingly blissfully unaware of the total conflict in culture. The only overlapping value between these populations is hating America.

The demonstrations over the last three weeks, with streets filled with hundreds of thousands of terrorist sympathizers, should erase any doubt that Israel is only the first stage of a broader battle.

Palestinian Sheik Ali Al-Faqir vowed on television to “conquer Spain and Rome” as “Islamic lands” and that “America and the EU will soon come to an end.” Videos across Europe show the extent of anti-Western sentiment, with police in one video trying to protect an individual holding the British flag against a horde of men surrounding him. Pro-Palestinian protesters in Minneapolis attacked an elderly driver as he was merely driving on the road. Two Swedes were shot and killed by a Tunisian national who said he was a fighter “for Allah.” There are imams across America preaching blood libel. In London, protesters shouted “Lanaat Allah ala al-kufar”: May Allah curses be on the infidels. It is a long list of examples.

For Europe, it may already be too late. Attempts now such as those by France and Germany to arrest protesters and calls for deportations will have to keep up with decades of open-borders policy. Yet how is it that the United States hasn’t made the same unequivocal call to action?

We’re hearing the same chants for violence and genocide on college campuses and in the streets across the United States too. Leftists who have long believed America is an evil empire to be destroyed from within are riding the wave of this moment. They are actively participating in a pro-terrorist movement, from tearing down posters to chanting pro-Hamas slogans and justifying the torture, dismemberment, rape, and slaughter of civilians.

We have deeply disturbed people in this country who have already proven they are willing to burn down our cities in their rage, and they’ve been shown that punishment is rarely levied.

The rot is deep.

Brave voices such as Emirates Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan predicted this years ago. In 2017, Sheikh Abdullah warned: “The voices we hear calling for murder and shedding blood and stealing the wealth of people are in London, Germany, Spain and Italy. ... There will come a day when we see far more radicals, extremists, and terrorists coming from Europe because of [a] lack of decision-making and trying to be politically correct.”

It is also a fact that there are sleeper cells already in our country. We know that thousands of “special interest aliens” from many countries including the Middle East have crossed our border illegally over the last couple of years. In fact, in this past year alone, the number of encounters was more than the number in the previous six years combined. The United States also saw the greatest number of people already on the terrorist watch list arrive at the southern border this year. Keep in mind, this doesn’t even account for the unscreened “gotaways.”

This is what happens when people are allowed to live in safe spaces. They like their overly tolerant ideas — as long as they don’t have to live with them. But the world is not Candy Land, and everyone is going to understand that very soon.

There is certainly a specific Jew hatred at the root of all of this — anti-Semitism is “the world’s oldest hatred” for a reason. But the Jewish people have served as the classic "canary in the coal mine" for quite some time.

It always starts with the Jews. It never ends with us.