Well ... how are you ?
Catching up with an old friend to discuss a world adrift where religion once again drives change
Most of the meetings I had Israel would start with me asking people how they were doing given the ongoing war. And so it was with Professor Richard Landes who I have known for many years. “Well”, he said turning the question on me “how are you doing?” It was instantly clear what he was getting at: Israel may be in a tough spot, but with the ongoing chaos on its universities, the proliferating anti-Semitism, violent protests and riots on the streets and the steady erosion of open and respectful debate, western democracies may be in a far more precarious spot than Israel. The West’s moral and institutional safeguards are under serious pressure and may over time collapse as political chaos and uncertainty continue.
Landes, who was a professor at Boston University and specializes in medieval history and millennial movements has long argued in his works that the steady demise of western democracies can be attributed to feeble moral responses to challenging circumstances. We first met in 2005 when the world was still reeling from 9/11, the Madrid train bombings, the murder of Dutch moviemaker Theo van Gogh, the riots in the banlieus of Paris and the London bus bombings. These were the days of fear of Islamic extremism and the growing anxiety that Muslim immigration would materially undermine free western democracies. Yet that panic abated somehow: al-Qaeda was defeated, the Taliban were ousted, ISIS came and went and a nuclear deal with Iran was eventually born. And when an excessive number of immigrants following the war in Syria came into Europe then German chancellor Angela Merkel assured everyone that things would be fine.
Yet the victories against these terror groups were pyrrhic as the Islamist terror threat never went away, it just morphed into different guises and channels. While Sunni states such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt cracked down successfully on radical groups, Shia Iran became the new instigator of religious inspired global terror and did it in such a way that in some areas the Sunni-Shia distinction started to blur. The best example of that is of course Hamas, a Sunni group supported by Shia Iran. And yes, in the end, the Taliban made a stunning comeback. And unregulated immigration from predominantly Muslim countries into Western Europe and North America has soared over the past few years.
Those changing demographics have meant that following October 7th the anti-Israel protests became a magnet for in particular radical Muslims. They could lodge their anger over the war, but also rally together with co-religionists behind a cause and coalesce into a movement with some power and influence. As Ayaan Hirsi Ali explained yesterday on her newsletter, progressive parties such as the Democrats in the US and Labour in the UK can no longer afford to lose that group as a voting bloc. And that explains how left-of-centre political parties are trying to frame their response to the Gaza War by increasingly taking an anti-Israel stance. That takes place on the national level, but also more locally where many progressives look away as universities are torn apart by pro-Hamas rallies. Morally clear positions have been abandoned in favour of political opportunism and that is why ‘rape is resistance’ has now entered the lexicon of some movements as an acceptable term. Was anyone surprised that Greta Thunberg is now wearing a keffiyeh and chanting ‘from the river to the sea’ slogans?
So I had to put it to Landes as follows: “Western democracies have pursued liberalism to its extremes, got rid of God (witness how churches have emptied out) and are now faced with larger groups that have actually embraced God more fervently than ever. The Jews have stayed true to their God for over three-thousand years and as a result they are still standing strong and confident. They are no longer victims and in fact stand in stark contrast to the victim-oppressor ideology that now permeates major western institutions and the anti-Israel protests”
We sort of agreed, but there are a lot of complexities that go into this thesis. In our chat we drifted to and discussed the weird alliance between the left and Islam. Let me give you one example to make it clearer. It was a Progressive-Islamic alliance that took power in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. It was a collaboration where Iranian dissidents, progressives and religionists, together strove to build a new and democratic Iran after they had ousted the Shah. But that did not last for very long as Iran started to experience its own ’night of long knives’, where in a rapid succession its liberals and progressives were driven out by the Khomeinists, imprisoned, exiled and in a large number of cases tortured and executed. That process - very well described in ‘Black Wave’ by Kim Ghattas – gave birth to the Islamic Republic of Iran and over time to Hezbollah and Hamas. The point here is that while progressives can view radical Islamists as potential partners, they are being taken along for the ride and in the end will likely succumb to the stronger and more ruthless group. It’s a power game and a hard one at that.
The counter move comes from the right and conservatives who are increasingly embracing hard-core reactionary populism through Donald Trump or the new powerbroker in The Netherlands, Geert Wilders. The liberal centre is collapsing and each side has taken a certain direction in dealing with a Middle East conflict that has now spilled onto its streets. Add to this the dormant anti-Semitism that has been woken up from its eighty year slumber and you have a toxic combination of fractured politics, a nascent religious awakening in the West by way of radical Islam which in turn helps the populist right to gain at the polls.
This is creating chaos in a number of areas and also explains why Israel is now such a lightning rod in western politics. Landes asked me what I thought would happen next in the West and my answer was basically that there is a good chance of a disintegration of the political centre as we have known it. Polarization and unrest with the right-of-centre being the entity that will probably do best out of this process. Landes responded he would sharpen his pencil and publish an essay on the weird alliance of Islamists and western progressives.
My thoughts wandered off to those who actually relish an uncertain and morally confused West that is becoming weaker and less relevant. The two men that stand to gain from this are of course Putin and Xi who shared a very warm embrace last week. With Iran as a willing partner tagging along.
As it happened before I met with Landes I had spent the morning at Jerusalem’s Tower of David Museum as a guest of the recently upgraded facility. If you are ever visiting the city, make sure this is part of your tour. The place has gone to great lengths to underline how Judaism, Islam and Christianity each played their part in making history in the city, suggesting how they could and should live together peacefully in the same place. It was encouraging to see both Muslim and Jewish kids taking in these history lessons as I walked through the various exhibitions. There is hope, yes.
But it requires incredible strength and moral fibre to deal with radical movements on all sides as they morph into millennial cults that seek to overthrow reason and empiricism in their quest for power. That Hamas is now getting mainstream support on the streets of New York, Toronto, London and Amsterdam will give you the answer to Landes’s question as to how we are doing: maybe not so good at all.
Interesting read. Politics appeals to the lowest common denominator because that is the only way you win elections by getting the most votes. Conversely, G-d and Religion deals with the mitigation of behaviors that increase risk to society by means of moral suasion. Two dialectical opposite pendulum swings, but interesting nevertheless with respect to biblical prophecy and the length of existence of the state of Israel. The way I see it, Israel's parliamentary system is akin to Italy's system with many splinter parties requiring a coalition for an electorial win. PM Netanyahu with all his bribery scandels is far removed from the word of G-d and the people know that. To say that those failing to support Netanyahu are antisemitic is akin to saying those who fail to support Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are prejudice against Canadians. The Ottawa trucker protests with all their Canadian Flags are such an example whereby that is not the case. In Netanyahu's case antisemitism is merely a dangerous political spin to divert attention and win elections. G-d does not spin. Politicians do in order to get out of trouble. Biblical prophesy is looking more real than ever.
Very interesting conversation. The marginalization of Canadian Jews does seem to be under way.
On the other hand, a recent poll showed very high support for Israel among Canadians. More than 80%.