The post Why Israel’s War Is Democracy in Action appeared first on Anglican Mainstream. By Mick Hume, European Conservative. Less than three months after Hamas started the war with its bloody terror attacks of October 7th, Israel somehow finds...
The post Why Israel’s War Is Democracy in Action appeared first on Anglican Mainstream.
By Mick Hume, European Conservative.
Less than three months after Hamas started the war with its bloody terror attacks of October 7th, Israel somehow finds itself cast in the role of villain and increasingly isolated on the world stage. Its enemies loudly condemn Israel as a terrorist colonial state, guilty of ‘genocide’ in Gaza. And even Israel’s traditional allies are wobbling and deserting it as the war against Hamas continues.
This makes supporting Israel now more important than ever. For Europe and the West to shun the Israelis would not only mean deserting the only democratic state in the Middle East. It would also mean abandoning our own civilised values. Because far from being, as the Islamoleft claims, a rogue state, Israel is really showing itself to be a model of democracy in action.
Israel’s determined response to the genocidal assaults of October 7th demonstrates what it means when citizens with a stake in a democracy stand together in the face of an existential threat to their society. Israeli politics, as in many modern democracies, was bitterly divided before the Hamas massacres; the coalition government of Benjamin Netanyahu was widely unpopular. Those divisions have not disappeared. But they have been put aside as Israelis stand together to demand the defeat of Hamas and the return of their hostages.
Israel’s demonstration of democracy in action, of popular engagement with a fight for national sovereignty, contrasts sharply with the deadbeat system that passes for democracy in Europe today. Here, the EU elites will abuse the D-word to mean whatever is in their interests. Far from shunning the Israelis, we should reject those Western leaders and stand with the people actually fighting to keep democracy alive.
The post Why Israel’s War Is Democracy in Action appeared first on Anglican Mainstream.
