Melanie Phillips: The return of the neocon canard
So why is the West so blind to all this? Why doesn’t it understand that it needs to defend itself against this clear and present danger?
The answer, astounding as this may seem, is that people on both the left and right have concluded that the Islamic world’s aggression against the West is all the fault of the Jews.
For the left, the Islamic world is the historic victim of Western colonialism and imperialism. As such, it can’t be held responsible for any violence against the West, which must be viewed instead as legitimate resistance.
Accordingly, Muslims—whether in the form of the Palestinian Arabs or the Iranian regime—can’t possibly be guilty of genocidal aggression against Israel. Their violence can only be seen as resistance, and so the story has to be concocted that Israel is guilty of colonialism and oppression.
Those purported Israeli crimes are held to have enraged the entire Islamic world against Israel and its Western backers. So, for the left, it’s the oppressive and aggressive Jews who are the reason that the world is lurching into war.
On the other side of the political divide, some on the right seek alternative explanations for what seems to them inexplicable and terrifying. These people subscribe to the Western delusion that everyone in the world is governed by rationality and self-interest.
Accordingly, they find it impossible to grasp the nature of religious fanaticism. They can’t understand that Islamic terrorists blow themselves up on the streets of Western cities not out of despair but from an ecstatic belief that they are doing the will of God. They can’t grasp that Iran’s Supreme Leader believes that providing an apocalypse will bring the Shia messiah down to earth.
Ever since 9/11, these people on the right have asked themselves why Muslims hate the West so much, since the West has had nothing to do with the Islamic world. They have concluded that it could therefore only be because of resentment at the existence of the Jewish State of Israel.
So war against the West by the Muslim world is the fault of the Jews for being there at all. And so these ignorant Westerners go straight down the rabbit hole of Jewish conspiracy theory, which tells them that the only explanation for America supporting Israel is that the Jews possess some kind of demonic, magical powers to control events.
How can the Jewish people cope with this fearsome, unprecedented lunacy that has consumed so much of the West?
By standing up for the truth wherever possible, keeping themselves as safe as they can—and by having faith that magnificent, courageous and steadfast Israel will now show the West just what it takes to defeat the real forces of evil.
Melanie Phillips: Israel, Iran and the global struggle against barbarism | The Brendan O’Neill Show
Times columnist Melanie Phillips returns to The Brendan O’Neill Show to discuss Israel’s audacious strikes on Iran, the fanaticism of the Iranian regime, and why Israel is the best contender for leader of the free world.
Israel Isn’t Striving for Regional Hegemony, It’s Striving To Be Left Alone
Always remember: It always starts with the Jews. But it never ends there.
The United Nations is leading this modern day inquisition. Just yesterday, they released a report accusing Israel of “exterminating” the Palestinian people, not only a complete distortion and lie, it completely ignored the crimes of Hamas. Complete reality inversion. Last year, on Holocaust Remembrance Day 2024, it was revealed that UN employees actively took part in the October 7 massacre—murdering, raping, kidnapping—while others helped conceal hostages or praised the slaughter online. Today, 622 days later, 53 hostages are still in Gaza in the hands of those who truly carried out acts of extermination.
Israel Isn’t Striving for Regional Hegemony, It’s Striving To Be Left Alone