The US strikes on Iran’s nuclear programme raise any number of profound issues, the most obvious of which is what comes next.
Geopolitically, the consequences of October 7 continue to astound. The decision to massacre Jews was surely the most counterproductive act of terror in history, leading not only to the near-destruction of Hamas and Hezbollah, the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria and now the seeming destruction of the Iranian nuclear programme. There will be more, much more.
But although it may seem parochial in this context, the domestic impact of October 7 has also been transformational. But not, however, in a positive way.
If you had asked me in December 2019 about the state of antisemitism in Britain, I would have said that the defeat of Corbyn was likely a turning point. He and his acolytes unleashed a terrible wave of hate, the likes of which we had not seen since 1945. The genie was never going to be put fully back in the bottle. But I had not expected that the Corbyn years would seem, in hindsight, merely as the precursor to something much darker and deeper. Nor would I have predicted that the spark which lit the fuse of an explosion in hate would have been the massacre of Jews – a terrible irony.
The hate marches after October 7 have exposed a darkness in society. Tens of thousands – hundreds of thousands some weeks – have given up days to march, either alongside or holding themselves banners supporting terror, amid calls for death to Jews, such as “Globalise the Intifada”. Ignorance is no excuse: if you turn up at such a march you know the context, because it happens every week. You are not merely complicit. You are part of it.
But yesterday was of a different order altogether because the hate went beyond Jews. The waving of Iranian flags alongside placards showing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the slogan: “Choose the right side of history” was an unambiguous statement of hate – hatred of the West itself and of our country.
Jew hate is never just an end in itself but is, rather, an indicator or a wider world view. Yesterday’s march was about that wider world view: it went beyond Jew hate and exposed the reality of the hate. It is the West itself that they hate. They literally support enemies whose main goal is to destroy us.
It is vital that we understand this, and how it interacts with Islamism and radicalisation. That is, as it were, the sharp end of the problem – and we have been pusillanimous in tackling it for decades. Hate preachers are, perversely, lauded as peacemakers because we do not pay attention to their words. Terror supporters are treated as men of good faith. But it is not, in the main, these people who march. Most are not even Muslim. They are, rather, the useful idiots of the Islamists who push their agenda and who regard the Islamists – above all, as we saw on yesterday’s march, the Iranian Supreme Leader – as moral leaders.
The reasons for this are many and varied. One important element is the rise of post-modernism and moral relativism and an intellectual climate on campus which has for decades inculcated young minds in hatred, couched as analysis and theory. At the same time, we have witnessed unrelenting anti-Western propaganda pushed as so-called news (see, for example, how the word of Hamas is taken at face value while statements by Israel are regarded as likely to be a lie). Understanding all this is essential if the tide is ever to turn.
But it is no less essential that we grasp what it means. These people may be fellow citizens but they are, in a literal and ideological sense, the enemy within. They support those who seek to destroy us. When Palestine Action caused damage to RAF planes it was acting exactly in accord with its outlook. It was doing, at least indirectly, the Iranians’ work for them, even if there was no line of command or instruction from Tehran. These people do not need to be ordered how to act by Tehran. Their day-to-day actions and their day-to-day beliefs are enough. This is the battle we now face.
