Douglas Murray has written an analysis of the Arab-Israeli conflict that focuses on the war in Gaza as a starting point. As the title suggests, he believes the struggle is between a society committed to life and another that views death and martyrdom as the ultimate achievement of existence.
The slender volume, it contains less than 200 pages of text, is divided into an introduction and five sections. It starts by comparing the anti-semitism of Hamas and it congeners with that of the Nazis and finds the former even worse than the German version. Why? Because the former revels in its anti-semitism and proclaims its intent to erase Jews while the Nazis made an attempt to conceal their murderous goal. He mentions that the only high level Nazi functionary to go unpunished or unhunted after World War II was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who was celebrated by his fellow Arabs for his role in the Nazi regime after the war’s end. He still is widely admired in the Arab world. Mein Kampf in an Arabic translation is readily available in bookstores throughout the area and is still a best seller.
Shortly after the October 7th attack, Murray went to Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon to see for himself what had happened. His description of the horrific details of the attack will not surprise those who have followed the war over the past year and a half and are familiar with the atrocities of its first day. Regardless, they are no less disturbing. The failure of the Israeli security forces and the government to prevent the attack and to promptly respond to it is repeatedly documented. Murray uses hubris to describe the security forces attitude to the likelihood of such an attack which they thought impossible despite numerous warnings from those near the border that something unusual was about to happen. Those responsible for this failure have yet to be held to account.
Much of the world’s self-proclaimed “right-thinkers” immediately began to protest Israel’s response to the attack. So swift was the reaction that it anticipated Israel’s actual response. Murray attributes the rapid rise of anti-Israel demonstrations to a combination of academic rot, youthful ignorance, and pervasive anti-semitism.
He emphasizes, as have many others, that of all the world’s hot spots filled with violence and death only Israel attracts the wrath of the wrathful. He believes anti-semitism to be the sole explanation for the phenomenon. Israel is accused of running a settler nation when they cultivate their ancestral homeland. They are reviled when the are too weak or too strong, when they are rich or are poor, or for any reason handy.
Murray sees the problem of anti-Israel/anti-semitism as particularly acute in the Muslim world beyond the Arab sphere as well as within it. The threat of being labeled as Islamophobic when he reaches this conclusion doesn’t seem to bother him. He cites the reactions of Muslim members of the US Congress who are not of Arabic descent, but whose distaste for Israel is palpable. He also contrasts the views of British politicians whose ancestors came from the Indian sub-continent. Muslims are anti-Israel while Hindus are pro-Israel.
I have always thought that if the Arabs really wanted to rid themselves of Israel and its population, they should just leave them alone. So heated is the disagreement of the numerous Jewish factions that absent an external threat they would tear themselves apart. Murray mentions that the Hamas attack briefly reunited Israel. He doesn’t mention that the commonality of purpose didn’t last. Israeli society is almost terminally dysfunctional. The country lacks a constitution, yet has a self appointed supreme court that believes it can override the legislature. It has an attorney general who acts as an independent force removed from the control of the executive. It has an intellectual elite which despises much of the population. For all the good Murray sees in Israel it is a profoundly disturbed society beset by internal disturbances.
The national concern for the fate of any Israeli hostage is mentioned as a national virtue and strength, but it is also a potentially lethal one. It is possible to pay too high a price for a hostage. Letting a hostile regime survive by releasing prisoners who may kill dozens or more in the future can be a terrible bargain. Israel’s enemies know the value of hostages and take them whenever they can. Israel is now divided over how to release the hostages while best pursuing its war aims. Some in the country seem willing to lose the war in exchange for the release of hostages.
Murray’s book is filled with touching vignettes of an Israeli society committed to life compared to its opponents’ commitment to death. It is well worth the relatively short time it takes to read its cogent pages. Yet a rational argument is not likely to have much effect on an irrational mind. Even less likely to respond is a mind incapable of analysis while empty of information. The failure of American education has produced a youth that can’t read or add, much less analyze an international dispute. When they chant “from the river to the sea” they often don’t know which river and which sea much less that it requires the total annihilation of Israel.
Despite the caveats just mentioned Murray book is a good single source of information of what has been made into an overly complicated dispute. At its core he sees the conflict as one between good an evil. Highly recommended.
