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Just over a year ago, Hamas unleashed an attack on Israel with unimaginable barbarity. This was not just an isolated act of terrorism, nor was it a sudden eruption of violence. The seeds of 10/7 were sown for decades. And for those who’ve been paying attention, the 10/7 attack, and the explosion of antisemitism in America and Western countries since, was no surprise.
September 11th exposed America to the threats of radical Islam. But as years passed, America and the West became complacent. More than two decades from 9/11, Islamists have not adjusted their aims or intent, but now enjoy full support by many factions of the far left. The fatal flaw of the West? Believing the false premise that radical Islam aligns with liberal values.
Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, Al Qaeda, the Houthis, and the Islamic Republic of Iran’s fates are sealed in the book of history. They are genocidal, oppressive, radical Muslim entities who welcome destruction and death. But what happens when future generations ask: “Who enabled their rise and prominence in Europe and America?” We allowed them to use every aspect of our democracy, such as immigration, education, religious liberty, politics, Diversity, Equality, Inclusion, etc. to gain power, influence and, in some cases, dominance.
For two decades, I have written about the threat the Islamo-Left alliance posed not only to Jews, but to all Americans. I spoke about it to whoever would listen. I wish I was wrong. I wish I had been crying wolf. Unfortunately, the 10/7 attack and the subsequent wave of Jew-hatred propelled by radical Muslims and far-left movements has proven me, tragically, correct.
Earlier this month, we mourned, we grieved, and we remembered 10/7. We commemorate the lives of innocent men, women, and children brutally murdered by Hamas. And how did Americans at elite universities mark the anniversary of the day when the most Jews were killed since the Holocaust? They celebrated. They glorified the perpetrators.
The Deterioration of America and Western Values
Universities are breeding grounds for radical ideologies, including antisemitism. For the past year, almost every weekend, young people in Keffiyehs have filled the streets, threatening Jews, carrying signs that call for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state. These same people issue calls to bring down the Empire (referring to the US), and light the American flag on fire. They vilify the values that built America: democracy, free speech, individual rights, and the rule of law.
In this world, moral equivalence reigns. The narrative that there is no difference between good and evil, Israel and Hamas, or between those defending their citizens and terrorists determined to harm innocents.
America’s wavering and waffling support of Israel signals to radical groups that the West no longer stands firmly for the principles of freedom and human dignity. This weakness emboldens enemies of democracy and gives them license to act with impunity.
Appeasement of Evil Leads to Tragedy
For too long, radical Muslim movements have been given a pass by the international community influenced by the far-left. Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, Iran, and their ilk have grown in strength and influence, not because they are powerful forces, but because the West has repeatedly chosen diplomacy and appeasement over moral clarity. This willingness to engage with regimes and organizations that openly call for the destruction of Israel and the West has predictably led to disaster.
The Iran nuclear deal, celebrated by many as a diplomatic victory, normalized and empowered Iran – the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism. By offering legitimacy and financial relief to Iran, the deal strengthened the regime’s proxies, helped supply and train Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen and the Shiah militias in Iraq, and allowed the IRGC to expand their reach. Instead of confronting Iran and its proxies, the United States and the West empowered it, leading directly to the Hamas’ 10/7 attack, Hezbollah’s daily missile attacks on Israeli civilians, and Iran’s ballistic missiles attacks on Israel.
This policy of appeasement is not just confined to the Middle East. Within the West itself, government officials, institutions, and human rights organizations legitimize Islamist groups, parrot their views and embrace their rhetoric. Hamas is regularly portrayed as a political movement fighting for Palestinian liberation, when it is a terrorist organization with a charter that explicitly calls for the annihilation of Jews worldwide.
Evil does not compromise. There’s a reason that Neville Chamberlain’s name is associated with blunder and Winston Churchill’s name evokes courage.
Churchill knew what Chamberlain failed to understand about Nazi Germany. Evil cannot be reasoned with or moderated, it can only be defeated. When it comes to brinksmanship, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran are no different.
A Call for Moral Clarity
The assault on Israel by Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran are an attack on the values of freedom, democracy, human rights, secular life, women, and human dignity. They were an attack on the Western world.
Now is the time for moral clarity. Israel is the floodgate. The fight to defend Israel is a fight to defend Western values. Appeasement and moral ambiguity will only lead to more violence and hatred. The West must confront its enemies within and stand with Israel against the enemies on its border. Not just for the sake of the Jewish state, but for the sake of freedom and democracy everywhere.
Adam Milstein is an Israeli-American “Venture Philanthropist.” He can be reached at adam@milsteinff.org, on Twitter @AdamMilstein, and on Facebook www.facebook.com/AdamMilsteinCP.
Originally published by the Jerusalem Post.
How can one convince the willfully deaf ??
Place them in the care of their wicked Uncle Ernie.
Deafmutes are more intelligent then any of their Collage Grads ever will be
America needs to totally pull out of the United Nations and have the whole lot moved to Beijing maybe Teniman Square where all that Blood o Innocents was shed
There’s a YouTube short flying around (couldn’t find it given that there are now thousands of clips) of “The Son of Hamas”, Mosab Yousef stating…
“If Hamas lays down its weapons, there will be peace. If Israel lays down its weapons, it’ll lead to the destruction of Western Civilization.”
Here’s that clip… https://youtube.com/shorts/PqAdxR0iu9c?si=ZB_5-AAENMwHfq0H
When Palestinian children are killed in Gaza or Lebanon because Israel is defending itself the Politically Correct World says how terrible it is and blames the Jews.
Politically Correct Jews have to publicly apologize and say how terrible and regretful it is that any Palestinians children are harmed.
When Palestinians intentionally kill Jewish children they celebrate and the Politically Correct World celebrates right along with them.
Then they promise to do it again until all 7 million Jews in Israel are dead, which of course includes all the Jewish children in Israel.
Something is very wrong with this situation.
I will apologize for dead Palestinian children when I hear the Palestinians apologize for dead Jewish children.
Or better yet, the Palestinians could stop trying to slaughter Jewish children. That would solve the problem.
But that simply does not occur to them.
The Palestinians would rather continue to kill Jews, suffer the consequences when the Jews try to defend themselves, and then blame the Jews they are trying to kill for their suffering.
And the Politically Correct World will continue to blame the Jews for not going quietly to their death.
Works every time.
Beautifully written!
Why is it that what is blatantly so obvious to us they fight as though they are drowning?
It seems within the hearts of human beings exists a desire to deny suffering; one’s own and that of others. To vilify the victim is to escape the emotional clutches of man’s willingness to inflict the most horrific, barbaric evil upon one another. Humanizing evil, a full time requirement in the leftist, psychological, warfare arsenal, becomes the intense denial of reality chosen as a psychological border from which one is distanced in facing the devastating impact such barbarity has upon both the individual and others.
There is, however, a cumulative reservoir of experience by survivors that when recognized provides us with the footsteps of evil. Our soldiers, Holocaust survivors, those who have been egregiously victimized in any number of ways all can provide us with what they know.
There is a security expert, Gavin deBecker and he wrote a book called, The Gift of Fear. He also has many videos available online. Fear is a gut-level communication from the neurons located within our gut traveling at light speed to the survival portion of our brain. In bypassing the frontal lobe, critical information prepares us to immediately react without ANY need for additional evidence. Those that do survive, those who don’t are all-too-often captured and depending on the predatory nature of their captor become heinously victimized before release or are tortured until death.
What if a part of the leftist arsenal is a deliberate design to facilitate people abandoning their gut-level responses to evil? Painting the villain as victim might well be an advanced form of internalized miscommunication that when done repeatedly in social, educational environs teaches a maladaptive response to gut-level transmission? Think about it; a soldier has a “bad feeling” about a mission and tells it to a superior officer. It is denied, the mission goes forth and men are slaughtered. The soldiers gut was right but because there was no “rational” intel his gut was overridden and he is left living with this slaughter of teammates. The women manning the computer consoles monitoring the border with Gaza on October 6th reported seeing “unusual activity” their gut told them something was wrong. They reported the activity to their superior officer. It was minimized as nothing to be concerned about and on October 7 Israel was invaded from that very border! If fundamental internal communication is repeatedly overridden, we can expect that evil will parade itself as the victim and continue its cataclysmic hold against humanity!
A good and truthful article. It’s pity, however, that also this author resorts to some of the propaganda euphemism and delusions.
It’s wrong to use the euphemism “radical islam” as though “islam-light” ever existed!
September 11, 2001 was an attack worse than Pearl Harbor. America ought to destroy Mecca and Medina immediately on September 12, 2001. Instead, the Bush-the-junior declared something akin to that the Japanism is a policy of peace. It was only one aggressive Japanese general who perpetrated that attack, and he did not represent the entire very peaceful Japanese people, blah, blah, blah.
America and the West became complacent and cowardly not after the years passed, but right after the attack!
And yes, the West no longer stands firmly for the principles of freedom and human dignity!