A year after 7 October the war for the soul of humanity continues

It is a year after 7 October 2023. Although twelve months have gone by, we still inhabit a world haunted by the barbaric atrocity committed by Hamas on that fateful day. Fateful, because 7 October revealed a new and disturbing civilizational fault line that now runs deep through much of the contemporary world.

7 October unleashed a tragic series of conflicts that are likely to be remembered in the future as ones that changed the world. Not only is the Middle East on fire but the entire Western World has become implicated in a war that cannot be confined to Israel, Gaza or Lebanon.

What has turned the war between Israel and Lebanon into one with important civilizational consequences is the convergence and gradual fusion of an armed with a cultural conflict. A year after 7 October it is evident that the conflict between Israel and Hamas has seamlessly become interwoven with the Culture Wars that dominate the landscape in the Western World.

The horrible atrocity committed by Hamas on 7 October still weighs heavily on my soul. Despite occasional bouts of hope it continues to challenge my faith in humanity. However, for me the most shocking and nauseating feature the chain of events unleashed by Hamas’ carefully planned pogrom of Jewish people in southern Israel is not its barbaric violence. I am far more disturbed and saddened by the reaction of large sections of the western world to it. Their lack of empathy bordering on callous indifference to the victims of this atrocity speaks to the moral illiteracy and in many cases to the moral depravity of sections of the Western Cultural elites.

The Western cultural elites, its intelligentsia and the network of so-called human rights NGOs either downplayed or ignored the significance of 7 October. Some of them went so far as to claim that it did not happen or that it was a rogue operation that was secretly orchestrated by the Israeli military. Many of them have actually come out in support of the right of Hamas to inflict such atrocity on Israeli civilians.

The cultural elites – especially in the academic world embraced the cause of Hamas and in effect asserted that Israel did not have the right to exist. Non-Governmental and International Organization were in the forefront of legitimating Hamas’ right to inflict violence on Israeli citizens. UN Secretary-General António Guterres personified the globalist appeaser. He stated that he was ‘deeply concerned’ and urged maximum restraint ‘in accordance with international humanitarian law at all times. He then played the Hamas card by insisting that the atrocities had not happened in a ‘vacuum’.

Other so-called human-rights activists went a step further and blamed Israel for committing genocide and war-crimes. They corrupted the meaning of the Holocaust and asserted that Zionists were as bad as the Nazis.

Sections of the Cultural Elites did not only give Hamas a free pass they also began to display their no longer disguised contempt and animosity to Jewish people, especially towards those who declared their steadfast support for Israel. During the past year the Jew has become a person non grata in universities, art galleries and other cultural institutions. Israeli artists and intellectuals continue to be ostracised by their otherwise ‘sensitive’ and artistically oriented colleagues.

The casual antisemitism adopted by cultural entrepreneurs has given permission to others to express a more strident display of hatred towards Jewish people. It soon became evident that antisemites had embraced anti-Zionism as the main medium for expressing their hatred of Jews. The ease with which the Islamist hatred of Jews converged with the causal antisemitism of Western campus activist indicated that something important had bound them together.  The spontaneously constituted alliance between Western identity groups – black lived matter, feminists, green activist, LGBTQ+ - and Islamist terrorists spoke to the crystallisation of a common outlook on the world.

Their common hatred for Israel and Western Civilization has ensured he differences between trans activists and Hamas terrorists have paled into insignificance.

The ideology of decolonisation explains the readiness with which Hamas’ display of violence was so readily affirmed by so many academics and cultural entrepreneurs. It does not however, directly explain their shocking display of indifference to the loss of Jewish lives. Their reaction to the systematic killings of civilians – including children – can only be explained by the unique hatred they possess towards Israelis. For some time now it has been evident that in the eyes of the left and their Islamist partners, Israel has emerged as the symbol of evil. The principal reason why Israel has become a target of vilification by sections of the cultural elites is because it is seen as a steadfast and powerful symbol of Western Civilization. That is why support for Hamas in Europe and America is so often synonymous with hostility towards Western Civilization.

Take the hatred directed at Western Civilization by the Students for Justice in Palestine in Columbia University.  Their X post below is merely an extreme version of sentiments that are widely circulated amongst Western supporters of Hamas

The call for the ‘total eradication of Western civilization’ communicates the kind of sensibility of hatred that explains the callous indifference towards 7 October. These sentiments are not confined to marginal groups of campus activists. It is worth noting that within the dominant cultural institutions of society, the mere mention of the term Western Civilization invites the tone of condemnation.

It is evident that the West faces enemies on two fronts: from without and within. The Islamists who wish destroy Israel can count on a group of educated and culturally dominant allies who inhabit the West. That is why the outcome of the War in the Middle East is no less important for the West as it is in Israel. The events of the past 12 months indicate that the Culture War has turned more threatening than most of us could have imagined. If we don’t want more 7^th of Octobers we need to step up and take on the forces that wish to eradicate our way of life.

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[i] https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/08/columbia-anti-israel-coalition-declares-its-fighting-for-the-total-eradication-of-western-civilization/?fbclid=IwY2xjawElm4JleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSBZPOcjXO9-zVnuohjlcRW2u13YCjTT_N_S61B1M2NOWnek6ZbAPuWZ1A_aem_pln1jGAnxCf-zhP9zTs7nQ