Sunday, December 01, 2024
From Ian:
Douglas Murray says 'many in Europe want to throw Israel to the crocodiles'
Douglas Murray says 'many in Europe want to throw Israel to the crocodiles'
Since October 7, Israelis have come to appreciate and love Douglas Murray. The British author, editor, and journalist, whose name was previously known mainly to conservative thinkers among the people of Zion, has become a frequent visitor to our region over the past year. When not here, Murray "bombards" the global media: responding to false claims, shattering blood libels, defending our righteousness, and exposing the nakedness of those who seek to portray Israel – which is fighting for its existence – as the source of troubles and problems.On Mary and the Mob
This year, Murray has also gotten to know us and fallen in love, especially with IDF soldiers. Despite his British reserve, evident in all his conduct, he cannot hide his sympathy and admiration for the uniformed members of the Israel Defense Forces. "It's the soldiers," he responds when asked which Israeli inspires him the most. "I am repeatedly amazed to see them, 18 and 19-year-olds, defending their people with courage and sacrifice in exceptional circumstances. I'll share one example: a friend of mine, with whom I entered Lebanon during the past month, is a sniper who lost an arm in battle inside Gaza. Despite the injury, he insisted on returning to service and fighting. I admire people like him."
Murray has entered Lebanon with IDF forces several times and seen up close Hezbollah's preparations to attack northern Israeli communities. He's clear that what happened in the communities near Gaza could have befallen the Galilee, only with far more horrifying intensity. "Hezbollah's tunnels so close to the border were the most terrifying thing I've seen," Murray recalls. "I stood at one of Hezbollah's compounds, looked toward the Israeli cities and villages, which I know well, and thought how fortunate it was that Israel managed to prevent such an attack. We'll see what happens following the ceasefire taking effect, but it's clear that the terrible danger of a massacre in the north was prevented." Israeli military vehicles at a gathering site next to the border with Lebanon as seen from an undisclosed location in northern Israel, 30 September 2024 (Photo: EPA)
Although he prefers not to enter Israeli political disputes, Murray has a clear insight into another danger – the danger of division and extremism. "Sometimes an outsider sees certain things in Israeli society and thinks that only those with a death wish could do such things," he diagnoses sadly. "I wonder how those Israelis who threatened refusal during the judicial reform discussions feel now. These are the kinds of things that truly break society. When in August 2023, IDF commanders had to declare that despite the refusal, units would maintain operational readiness, this was music to the ears of Israel's enemies. Without criticizing any particular segment of Israeli society, we must reiterate the importance of preserving what's shared in society, certainly when facing a common enemy."
"But after October 7, this society proved its ability to live together, unite against a common enemy, and overcome. That's encouraging. Politics, of course, always brings back the divisions. But I hope Israeli society will remember the lessons of the past year. Sometimes, people tend to go crazy over things that aren't really that important, certainly compared to bigger issues. Emotions run high, discourse intensity increases, and people make threats they don't necessarily mean. This isn't unique to Israel – look at what happened recently in America. Media outlets and even Democratic candidates called Donald Trump 'Hitler,' a 'fascist and tyrant,' saying 'his victory would end democracy.' And now these same people are knocking on his door begging for interviews, which says several things about them. One is that they never meant what they said. I expect them to reflect and learn to restrain themselves. Something similar happens in all democratic countries, including Israeli society."
Unlike the US, in Israel, the left's hatred toward Netanyahu and the right hasn't diminished with their rise to power and has taken the form of attempting to prevent them from implementing right-wing policies.
"That's indeed the big issue here, and within it, there's a phenomenon of external intervention to prevent policy implementation, not just in war management, in all areas. It's crazy and reaches absurdity. It was quite amusing, to put it mildly, to see American administration officials during the judicial reform discussions criticizing Israel for the idea of moving to political appointment of judges. When the American administration criticizes another democratic country's internal policy, that's strange in itself, but to criticize it for aspiring to adopt the American model? In America, there's nothing more political than Supreme Court appointments. Much of the external criticism of Israel isn't just unfounded in facts; it's simply hypocritical. And regarding what's happening inside Israel, there's no doubt that regulating powers between government branches is a major challenge."
Murray has written plays, biographies, and non-political books, but gained fame through his ideas and no less through his brilliant ability to clothe them in sharp, precise formulations – both written and spoken. His published books have become international bestsellers, and the subsequent series of public lectures have drawn audiences of thousands.
In 2017, Murray published "The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam," which remained on the Sunday Times bestseller list for 20 weeks, even reaching the top spot. Since then, the book has been translated into dozens of languages. Murray argued in the book that Europe is committing suicide by allowing culturally hostile foreign immigration into its territory and losing its "faith in its religion." In days when Europe's ruling elite, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, pursued an open-door policy flooding Western Europe's wealthy nations with millions of Muslims from the Middle East, Murray's statements were seen as subversive. Instead of engaging with them, the left – true to form – rushed to label him an Islamophobe, dismissing him outright as an extremist and presenting his concerns about the West's fate in the face of Europe's quiet conquest by Muslims as paranoia.
Seven years later, even Murray's critics would find it hard to deny the new European reality, which proves daily that Merkel and her ilk were wrong, and he was right all along. If, in 2017, critics still dared to mock the "apocalyptic picture" of future Europe in Murray's book, this picture is no longer confined to the book's pages. It has taken over Amsterdam's alleys, established itself in Paris's squares, and doesn't skip the streets of Berlin, Brussels, or London. The apocalypse has arrived, and anyone who still doesn't notice its presence is invited to walk through European cities' Muslim neighborhoods wearing a visible Star of David or cross.
As ridiculous as the attempt by pop Marcionists to strip the Virgin Mary of her Jewishness is, it is dangerous to downplay it. The revival of this ancient Christian heresy is happening in Western societies undergoing a vile renaissance in antisemitic rhetoric and violence. On elite college campuses as well as in the streets of cities like London and Montreal, pro-Palestinian Jew-haters openly celebrate Hamas and Hezbollah.
Modern history shows us where weaponized Marcionism can lead. In 1939, the Nazis founded The Institute for the Study and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life, for the purpose of “defense against all the covert Jewry and Jewish being” that had polluted the West. The Institute dedicated itself to “understanding Christian German being” in light of this refined knowledge.
Founded with the participation of eleven German Protestant churches, the Institute refashioned Jesus as an Aryan persecuted by Jews. Galilee, where Jesus grew up, was in this view a region inhabited by Aryans—Assyrians, Persians, Indians—who were forced to convert to Judaism. Jesus, then, who in reality died as a Jew, was really an Aryan martyr. When anti-Mary activists shout “Jesus was Palestinian!” you’d better believe there is precedent.
“The Institute shifted Christian attention from the humanity of God to the divinity of man: Hitler as an individual Christ, the German Volk as a collective Christ, and Christ as Judaism’s deadly opponent,” writes Susannah Heschel in her 2010 book The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany.
It has been said that heresy emerges when people take a portion of the truth and turn it into the truth’s entirety. For believers in the Gospel accounts, there is no gainsaying that Jesus of Nazareth died in part because his claim to be the messiah outraged Jewish religious authorities, who demanded his death as a blasphemer. As much as Christians today may despise how our ancestors in the faith used charges of deicide to justify persecuting Jews over the generations, it is intellectually unjustifiable to rewrite Scripture, in effect, to compensate for sins of the past.
That said, it is also the case that Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, could have saved the life of a man he judged to be guilty of no crime, but instead chose political expediency in killing him.
What’s more, in contemporary Christian understanding, the responsibility for deicide lies not simply with the Jewish religious authorities and the Roman political authorities, but with every single human being. This is why, in the Holy Week liturgies of the Roman Catholic Church, the entire congregation recites the words of the mob in Jerusalem: “Crucify him! Crucify him!” (Luke 23:21). It continues to this day, in the hearts and minds of every believer. As an Orthodox priest once told me in confession, every time we sin, we in some sense crucify Jesus again.
