The West's--And Israel's--Real Enemy

Mr. Mark Steyn, a syndicated columnist and theater critic for The New Criterion, writes about The real reason the West is in danger of extinction:

We know it's not really a "war on terror." Nor is it, at heart, a war against Islam, or even "radical Islam." The Muslim faith, whatever its merits for the believers, is a problematic business for the rest of us. There are many trouble spots around the world, but as a general rule, it's easy to make an educated guess at one of the participants: Muslims vs. Jews in "Palestine," Muslims vs. Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs. Christians in Africa, Muslims vs. Buddhists in Thailand, Muslims vs. Russians in the Caucasus, Muslims vs. backpacking tourists in Bali. Like the environmentalists, these guys think globally but act locally.

Yet while Islamism is the enemy, it's not what this thing's about. Radical Islam is an opportunistic infection, like AIDS: It's not the HIV that kills you, it's the pneumonia you get when your body's too weak to fight it off. When the jihadists engage with the U.S. military, they lose--as they did in Afghanistan and Iraq. If this were like World War I with those fellows in one trench and us in ours facing them over some boggy piece of terrain, it would be over very quickly. Which the smarter Islamists have figured out. They know they can never win on the battlefield, but they figure there's an excellent chance they can drag things out until Western civilization collapses in on itself and Islam inherits by default.

That's what the war's about: our lack of civilizational confidence. As a famous Arnold Toynbee quote puts it: "Civilizations die from suicide, not murder"--as can be seen throughout much of "the Western world" right now.

Steyn's article is long and not about Israel per se, since his concern is the future of Western civilization. Still, Israel is more a part of the West than the East--or Middle East--and some of the things he says apply broadly. Of course, there is a major difference in that Israel has the Islamists right in their own backyard--something that Americans, even post 9/11, do not have to deal with on a day-to-day basis and Islamist threat is something the West in general is only slowly becoming aware of.

One way "societies choose to fail or succeed" is by choosing what to worry about. The Western world has delivered more wealth and more comfort to more of its citizens than any other civilization in history, and in return we've developed a great cult of worrying.

Israel is not an exception to this profile. We constantly hear about the advances made in biology, electronics--in matters of health and in matters of self-defence, and still has lots to worry about.

The default mode of our elites is that anything that happens--from terrorism to tsunamis--can be understood only as deriving from the perniciousness of Western civilization. As Jean-Francois Revel wrote, "Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself."

Feeling "guilty for everything it is and does"--Israel has be made to feel this way since its restoration in 1948. Sort like having a Jewish mother to the power of 100. But Jewish guilt aside, Israel doesn't have the self-confidence it used to.

With the advent of the New Zionists, history books are being written that themselves re-write what happened during the events leading up to 1948 and since. The best sources for anti-Israel propaganda are the Israeli newspapers. Israel's Supreme Court seems to take a greater interest in preserving the rights of Israeli Arabs than Israeli Jews. Jews are blocked from the Temple Mount at the same time that the Wakf is excavating and destroying artifacts and evidence of Israel's history.

Steyn writes:

In July 2003, speaking to the U.S. Congress, Tony Blair remarked: "As Britain knows, all predominant power seems for a time invincible but, in fact, it is transient. The question is: What do you leave behind?"

...What will they leave behind? Territories that happen to bear their names and keep up some of the old buildings? Or will the dying European races understand that the only legacy that matters is whether the peoples who will live in those lands after them are reconciled to pluralist, liberal democracy? It's the demography, stupid. And, if they can't muster the will to change course, then "What do you leave behind?" is the only question that matters.

Perhaps the West can be satisfied with "What do you leave behind?" but we believe that Israel cannot afford to be nothing more than a legacy.

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