The West Has Lost its Moral Compass

We must continue our long-standing mission of defending Western Civilization and democracies around the world.

I published this last September, but am republishing it because it is even more relevant.

The West has lost the ability to celebrate when good prevails over evil. It is stripped of its moral compass, unable to distinguish right from wrong, and failing to recognize the difference between heroes and villains.

Israel’s ingenious operation booby-trapping thousands of Hezbollah pagers and detonating the terror group’s walkie-talkies marks a remarkable victory for the forces of civilization everywhere.

This tiny nation of just 9.3 million people, 7.2 million of whom are Jewish, living in a land no bigger than New Jersey, is still reeling from the worst anti-Semitic attacks since the Holocaust. Yet Israel leads the fight against barbarism, with its young conscripts doing a job that would once have required a coalition of Western nations acting as the world’s policeman.

The tragic reality that so many in America, Britain, and Europe—especially the young—no longer stand with Israel in this existential struggle shows just how much our cultural, intellectual, and moral fabric has deteriorated.

The Biden administration is focused on preventing “escalation,” even though escalation is precisely what is necessary to stop Iran from acquiring the means to unleash a nuclear World War III. Predictably, the United States, seemingly intent on preserving every regional terror group, seemed frustrated by the successful strike against Hezbollah. Meanwhile, the U.K.’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, speaks of climate change as a greater threat than terrorism. In a sane world, Lammy would be privately congratulating his Israeli counterparts for conducting one of the most precise and effective operations ever against a terrorist organization with minimal civilian casualties and offering Britain’s full support.

Instead, the U.K.’s Keir Starmer has turned on Israel, blocking weapons sales to the Jewish state—a policy Germany seems poised to follow—while refusing to oppose legal actions against Israel. This act by Starmer is a shocking reversal of moral clarity.

The Labour Party has positioned Britain on the side of nihilists disguised as human rights lawyers, those who blur the essential line between victims and aggressors, between democracies that agonize over civilian casualties and bloodthirsty dictatorships that view their people as disposable pawns.

Iran is an authoritarian, fascist government that oppresses women, minorities, and dissidents, and it funds and controls Hezbollah. Violating human rights and orchestrating war crimes is Hezbollah’s core mission, with 150,000 missiles aimed at civilian targets. Alongside Hamas and Iran, Hezbollah seeks the destruction of Israel, promising the massacre, exile, or enslavement of its Jewish population. Hezbollah's actions have forced 63,473 Israelis to flee their homes since October 7. This intolerable situation indicates that a major Israeli response is inevitable; however, such action will outrageously provoke global condemnation of the Jewish state.

Western foreign policy is an incoherent tangle of fear, illusion, and contradictions. Iran poses a worldwide threat to the West, deepening its ties with Russia. Turkey, under the authoritarian Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has threatened to invade Israel, but it is still a NATO member. Qatar harbors senior Hamas leaders in luxury hotels. However, it is still considered a major non-NATO ally of the U.S. It hosts a critical Western military base while funding American and British students to protest Israel and support the brutal Palestinians. Egypt, a recipient of American aid, has allowed tunnels into Gaza, refused entry to Palestinian refugees, and—curiously—avoids responsibility for supplying Gaza with provisions. This obligation falls instead to Israel. None of these regimes face sanctions by any Western country, including the U.S. Global outrage is reserved only for Israel.

Indoctrinated with leftist "woke" ideologies, Western elites now despise their history and traditions, leading them to turn against Israel. They see Israel as a living reminder of a Western model they have rejected.

Today, we would condemn figures like Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry Truman as war criminals. Today, the West would consider the D-Day landings illegitimate because of the French civilian casualties in Normandy.

Democracies may as well dismantle their nuclear arsenals since even a retaliatory strike after an unprovoked attack would now constitute a war crime. I, like Israel, believe in strict rules of engagement, far more humane than those of World War II, but criminalizing all warfare is insanity.

The Doctrine of the Just War has historical authority. Nations have the right to defend themselves. Every civilian death in conflict is a tragedy, but pacifism is a dangerous fantasy that ignores the harsh realities of the world and the humans who inhabit it. It is sheer madness to criminalize war itself and focus mainly on the actions of democracies while neglecting those of the West’s enemies.

Equally misguided is the empowerment of legal activists. In the past, rigged courts have, to a large extent, legitimized anti-Semitism, as was the case in the 1930s. From the 1240 Trial of the Talmud in France to the Disputations of Barcelona and Tortosa, to the Dreyfus Affair that inspired Emile Zola’s famous “J’accuse,” and the 1913 trial of Mendel Beilis in Ukraine, the legal system has often been weaponized against Jews. This model is still alive in today’s far-left circles, which now use legal tactics not to attack individual beliefs but to delegitimize Israel, the only Jewish state.

Just because the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice present themselves as legitimate does not mean they deliver justice. The fact that leftist elites endorse their rulings does not make them just. Cloaked in the language of "human rights," today's blood libels are no less grotesque. That a nation as corrupt as South Africa can lead a genocide case against Israel, backed by Iran, Brazil’s far-left president, Ireland, and Egypt, shows just how rotten the system has become. It feels like we’ve stepped into a Kafkaesque nightmare.

Israel represents lawful, democratic sovereignty; national self-determination; capitalism and technological progress; and the enduring importance of monotheistic faiths. To allow the destruction of Israel would be to unravel the very fabric that holds the West together, allowing autocracies to claim victory.

The stakes are exceedingly significant. If America and the West are true to our declared mission of defending Western civilization and democracies around the world from oppressive forces, we must stand with Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East and the only country in the world that is a sanctuary for Jews, and provide it with the support it needs to eradicate the barbarian militant organizations, Hamas and Hezbollah, that are terrorizing it. Additionally, we must ensure that Israel stands as a bulwark against Iran, deterring it from carrying out its death wish for America.

It may not be evident to some, but for its national security, America needs Israel.