The Middle East has been plunged into crisis since the Hamas terror attacks of October 7.
A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces recently told me that Israel isn’t just waging a ground war in Gaza. It’s also fighting an information war globally. Despite perpetrating the worst murder of Jews since the Holocaust, Israel’s enemies want to paint it as the true murderer for daring to respond with military force. They hope to isolate Israel – a key element to its potential defeat. Western leaders and institutions must foil that plot, which requires summoning far more moral clarity than they have to date.
Isolation is the greatest immediate danger facing Israel. It would deprive the country of the money and material that are key to destroying Hamas and fending off attacks from Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies, and perhaps Iran itself. Isolation would also lead to strong and sustained pressure on Israel to reach a ceasefire or otherwise ends its military response to the October 7 atrocities. Either way, the terrorists win, all but ensuring their ability to launch another – and likely even deadlier – attack on Israeli soil.
Isolation has momentum. The Arab world is engulfed with anti-Israel protests, limiting the actions of even pro-Israel Arab governments. Russia and China have largely sided with Hamas, sensing that Israel isolation’s ultimately injures the United States. And while the U.S. and European countries have largely sided with Israel, with strong rhetorical statements and less strong pledges of aid, they’re feeling rapidly growing internal pressure to limit their support and stay Israel’s hand.
Where is this pressure coming from? The IDF spokesperson told me that Israel is especially concerned about the antisemitic fervor sweeping university campuses.
