Newsline

Newsline , Society

One Year Later

Posted on Wednesday, October 9, 2024
|
by Outside Contributor
|
6 Comments
|
Print

In the West, we are on vacation from history.

That’s because we are living on the interest earned by our parents and grandparents. The European continent, until the war in Ukraine, had never experienced a more peaceful respite from history than since the end of the Cold War; America has enjoyed its own peace dividend, with spending ballooning to unprecedented levels and our wars fought in distant lands.

When you are on vacation from history, you tend to engage in foolish fallacies. Fallacies like the idea that evil doesn’t exist; that negotiation solves all conflict and that weakness brings with it peace instead of war; that apologizing for Western civilization is a corrective to past injustice rather than an incentive for future violence.

On Oct. 7, 2023, history returned with a vengeance.

On that day, Hamas — an evil terrorist group — invaded Israel and engaged in a triumphant orgy of rape and slaughter, the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Some 1,200 Israelis were murdered; 250 were dragged back into the hellhole of Gaza.

Hamas proved that evil does exist. The terrorists and their civilian counterparts celebrated their evil. They live-streamed it. They cheered as the broken and mutilated bodies of the slain were paraded through Gaza. They handed out candies as teenage dancers were raped and shot at a music festival.

Yes, evil exists. It turns out that human beings are not all seeking the same things — that we do not all have the same priorities or the same values.

Hamas proved that conciliation with evil and weakness toward it brings about only suffering. Israel has surrendered territory to a variety of terrorist groups over the past few decades: areas of the West Bank — Biblical Judea and Samaria — to the terrorist Palestinian Authority; the Gaza Strip to Hamas; southern Lebanon to Hezbollah. All have become terror havens. The only way to defeat evil is through credible threats of crushing force. The Western fallacy that negotiation is a strategy rather than a tactic — that we can talk our enemies into peace — is indeed a lie. Victory brings about peace; strength brings about peace.

And the year since Oct. 7 proved that the West has lost her way.

We have lost our way.

For a moment after Oct. 7, the West sympathized with the Israelis. And then the West decided to go back to sleep — to watch its children march with Hamas and Hezbollah flags alongside terror supporters imported from abroad. The West decided that Israel had committed a grave sin in defending herself, no matter how meticulous or necessary the operations.

The West, still enjoying its vacation from history, decided it was easier to go back to sleep than to engage with reality.

And yet history does not stop.

History does not stop because there is, in fact, no end of history, no conciliation between all cultures. The promises of Isaiah that swords will be beaten into plowshares remain unfulfilled — and until the coming of a messiah, will continue to remain so. The United Nations’ statue depicting a gun with its barrel-end tied into a knot remains more a mockery than a tribute, given the UN’s own involvement in terrorism and murder across the globe — including on Oct. 7 and in southern Lebanon.

History will continue because human evil is quite real.

The only hope for a truly peaceful world isn’t a somnambulant West, too busy apologizing for its own existence to defend itself. It is a strong and virile West, willing to stand for itself and to defeat those who would challenge it.

After Oct. 7, Israel learned that lesson. And Israelis paid the price.

And so Israel will not go back to sleep. Hamas has been decimated; Hezbollah is being systematically destroyed; Iran lives in fear of Israeli retaliation. All of which is good.

But the West must understand a simple truth: Just because Israel is located on the bleeding edge of history doesn’t mean that the vacation for the rest of the West can last. In fact, it’s already ending. And the more the West insists on turning over and hitting the snooze button, the worse history’s wake-up call will be.

Ben Shapiro‘s new collection, “Facts and Furious: The Facts About America and Why They Make Leftists Furious,” is available now. Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author. To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website.

COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.

Share this article:
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
6 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
anna hubert
anna hubert
28 days ago

Decades of ingratiating and attempts to cajole and trying to find a solution to satisfy the beast, gazillions of dollars wasted and we still had not learned, that you can’t negotiate with evil , but you can fight it.

Rob citizenship--
Rob citizenship--
28 days ago

Strength, courage, wisdom – those qualities that will help to develop a sense of purpose , what Israel is doing to defend itself is right and what happened a year ago exemplified how evil can attack what is good and those who are good . Responsible people should appreciate that Israel is an ally of America and appreciate the spirit in the 1941 song ” We Did it Before and We will Do It Again “. Developing. a high level of intelligence, having courage and practicing resourcefulness will
be a great way to contribute to the cause of defending freedom and civilization. Being wide awake to the situation is the moral outlook to have. Important article Ben , well done !

Max
Max
28 days ago

Get and read the book, The Dragon’s Prophecy by Jonathan Cahn. It is a real eye opener.

Co4@
Co4@
28 days ago

Yea. The West! Wake up!
The USA already, or most likely had let terrorists arrived in US soil through open boarders. Be prepared for uprisings. It could be anytime soon.

Nancy Hildebrandt
Nancy Hildebrandt
28 days ago

I’ve just finished the Triggernometry podcast with Melanie Phillips, a British journalist who offers detailed information in support of the Jewish/Israeli cause. I’m not Jewish and highly recommend the podcast to understand the history, why antiSemitism has popped up again in the West when we thought the Holocaust was so abhorrent it could never happen again, and why the current battle is so important.

The United States Navy Blue Angels perform a flyover as President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump participate in a Fourth of July celebration Friday, July 3, 2020, at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in Keystone, S.D. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)
President Trump smiles after winning 2024 election
Trump wins 2024 election

Stay informed! Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter.

"*" indicates required fields

6
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x

Subscribe to AMAC Daily News and Games