The War on the West, Unmasked

Last December, Mark Meckler and I wrote an op-ed warning about the viciously anti-Israel sentiment taking root on the radical fringe of both major U.S. political parties, which we predicted would eventually turn against America.

“Like it or not, Israel is our proxy in the Middle East,” we wrote. “The hatred directed against Israel is rooted in antisemitism, replete in human history from Exodus to Auschwitz, but also hatred against Western values — values epitomized by the U.S. …. Israel is the canary in the coal mine for the Western world. If the intersectional interpretation of Israel as the ‘little oppressor’ is allowed to prevail, so, too, will the interpretation of America as the ‘great oppressor.’ If Israel is a ‘colonizer’ nation that must be destroyed, then so, too, is the United States and virtually all of the West.”

Now, four months later, those predictions have proven woefully prescient. The war on the West is unmasked; it was crouching behind a thin veneer of anti-Zionism the entire time.

Of course, decent people should be concerned about any indecent attack against an innocent people, particularly when it bears the fruit of anti-Semitism (an age-old animus—rooted, fundamentally, in hatred against God—explicitly condemned in Scripture). But even if such weighty concerns are past us—because, you know, America first!—we must finally recognize that the same spirit that questioned, criticized, and then abandoned Israel has now openly declared war on America. In other words, “America First” is an insufficient excuse for cutting ties with Israel.

SEE ALSO: Why Israel threatens to shipwreck both American political parties

As I reported this morning, “college campuses have devolved into a hotbed of racism and violence, with anti-Israel protestors threatening the lives of Jewish students. Hundreds of these activists, which Mark [Meckler] argued deserve to be called ‘terrorists,’ have been arrested, including over 300 at Columbia University, more than 170 at City College of New York, and 100 at Northeastern University in Boston. At the University of Arizona, one rioter urged his fellow students to ‘be ready to combat the police.’ Altogether, as many as 1,000 protestors have been arrested, according to one report.”

Ostensibly, these violent, BLM-style protests are about Gaza. Hamas’s useful idiots wave Palestinian flags, wear keffiyeh scarfs, and construct pro-Palestinian “encampments.” They disrupt classes, clash with police, and revel in the atrocities of October 7.

But this is all about the Middle East, right? We’re just supposed to close our eyes and pretend that none of this affects us….

Right?

Wrong.

First of all, this violence—the University of California, Los Angeles called it “horrific… violence”—is spilling over onto our soil. Don’t pretend it isn’t our problem now.

And the violence isn’t just directed at Jews or Israel. It’s leveled at America and our values and our institutions.

Exactly like we predicted.

For example, students at George Washington University, in true BLM fashion, recently defaced multiple statues of the nation’s first president, spraypainting “Genocidal Warmongering University” on one statue and “Free Gaza” on another. They hung a keffiyeh around his neck and draped the Palestinian flag over his shoulder. Previously, protestors graffitied “Death to Israel” on lower Manhattan’s iconic “Charging Bull” statue and painted “Free Gaza” in blood on the Lincoln Memorial.

I can only imagine how those who advocated for burying our heads in the sand, arguing that the war on Israel did not concern us, might respond to these latest developments: What does George Washington have to do with Gaza?? Leave the Founders out of this!!

It’s almost as if Israel is the canary in the coal mine for the Western world. It’s almost as if hatred for Israel is rooted in hatred for America.

“Death to America,” the longtime war cry of our enemies, now echoes across our land, parroted by our young people. Per Fox News, “The anti-Israel demonstrations that have spread across the country have taken on an anti-American tenor in recent weeks, with students at the University of Michigan who were participating in the protests being given pamphlets titled ‘10 anarchist theses on Palestine solidarity in the United States,’ which included a page that stated, ‘Freedom for Palestine means Death to America.’” Elsewhere, protestors chanted “Death to Israel.”

Oh, and “Death to America,” too.

SEE ALSO: To turn our back on Israel is to give up on Western civilization

America must wake up. Now. Before it’s too late.

Even as we fret about avoiding a “broader conflict” in the Middle East, we must recognize that a broader war has already begun. It’s happening right here, at a college campus near you.

The United States is under attack, barraged simultaneously by an ideology that seeks to eradicate Israel and one that endeavors to scupper the West. These are not unrelated ideas; the former gives birth to the latter.

We must stand by Israel and, in so doing, stand by the United States and Western Civilization. Supporting the Jewish state is not only the right thing to do, it’s in our best interest.

The war on the West is unmasked. For now, the epicenter of that conflict resides in the Middle East. But do not be deceived—even as we speak, war lingers at our front door, threatening to topple this country we hold so dear.