The horrors of October 7th transformed not only the Middle East but Western culture. After Hamas’ attacks, our institutions and leaders failed the moral test of condemning Hamas and its supporters and standing with Israel, the only democratic nation in the Near East.
As antisemitism and anti-Western sentiment continue to surge in the wake of October 7th, believers of Judeo-Christian values need to stand up. Here are the lessons we’ve learned since that horrific day.
It was never just about Gaza
Israel’s war with Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and ultimately the Iranian regime was never just about Palestinian nationalism. The Islamic Republic of Iran, an extremist Islamist government, arms and supports a network of terrorist militias across the Middle East with the explicit goal of eliminating the State of Israel and removing U.S. presence from the region.
Hamas and Hezbollah are the Islamic regime’s arms in Gaza and Lebanon that manipulate the Palestinian cause to fuel their own extremist ideological aims.
Hamas doesn’t care about Palestinian lives
The thousands of innocent Palestinian deaths caused by the Israel-Hamas war must be blamed on Hamas. Hamas has built a labyrinth of tunnels underneath Gaza, where combatants hide beneath civilians, transport supplies and arms, and conceal hostages.
Hamas leaders have openly stated that they wish as many civilians to die for the cause as possible, including their own children to perish as martyrs.
The international community is biased against Israel
It took less than 24 hours after the massacre on October 7 for the international community to preemptively condemn Israel’s retaliation and justify Hamas’ terrorism due to “occupation.” Mainstream media, some U.S. officials, the United Nations, and other international bodies have widely criticized Israel’s methods to eliminate Hamas and negotiate a hostage deal, pressuring Israel to make significant concessions while almost ignoring Hamas’ role in the conflict.
Some examples: International women’s rights groups were silent for months after Hamas’ use of r@pe against Israelis; the global community continues endorsing UNWRA despite its ties with terrorism; UN security councils are repeatedly summoned when Israel initiates self-defense.
Hate is loud
On October 8, 2023, anti-Israel protests began raging across the Western world, even before Israel began retaliating against Hamas in Gaza. We’ve witnessed protestors chant aggressive slogans, often parroting terrorists’ genocidal lines, and burn Israeli and American flags while waving Hamas and Hezbollah’s.
They’ve defaced government and public property, painted Hamas’ targeting symbols on Jewish homes and synagogues, and caused mass disruption on college campuses. Identifiably Jewish and pro-Israel individuals have been attacked, prevented from entering academic facilities, and targeted with slurs and hate speech.
These so-called anti-war protestors have loudly promoted violence and hate and revealed their anti-Western and antisemitic sentiments.
Antisemitism exists on both ideological extremes
Today, antisemitism is threatening society as the radical left and right converge over shared Jew hatred. Voices on the far left and far right have grown louder in opposition to Israel, not just condemning Israel’s war and peddling misformation about “genocide” but also increasingly promoting antisemitic conspiracies.
Figures such as Candace Owens are falling into age-old antisemitic tropes, spreading revisionist history and joining far left figures in believing unreasonable Jewish influence over government spending and institutions.
Americans must unite to condemn these dangerous ideologies threatening our civilizational values.
Anti-Western ideologies threaten national security
Academic elites have promoted neo-Marxist ideologies to America’s next generation, aligning with antisemitic and Islamist rhetoric attacking our core values of liberalism and freedom of speech and religion. If left unchallenged, these ideas will continue undermining faith in our institutions and values.
The antisemitism on the far right, though not anti-Western, is also a national security threat contributing to growing isolationist sentiment promoting the decline of U.S. leadership.
Believers of Judeo-Christian values need to stand up
To maintain our values as Americans and Christians, the U.S. must restore our sense of liberalism and leadership by reconnecting with our identity found in Judeo-Christian values.
The West is in a civilizational moment, and America needs to stand with Israel against the extremism and terrorism of the October 7 Massacre and the subsequent rise of antisemitism and anti-Western forces across our culture.
We must return to our spiritual roots in Judeo-Christian tradition, the realization that our rights and values are derived from the God of the Bible.