BOOK REVIEW: On Democracies and Death Cults – Israel, Hamas and the Future of the West
Douglas Murray’s powerful new book dissects Hamas’ 7 October attack, global antisemitism and the West’s distorted response to Israel
Douglas Murray’s latest book is a painstakingly researched commentary on Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Documenting not only that day’s horrific events, Murray contextualises the history that preceded 7 October and offers a disturbing analysis of the antisemitism that has underscored so much of the global response to both Israel and diaspora Jews that followed.
In a world of mainstream media and commentary that frequently fails to report Israeli affairs without a contemptuous bias, Murray cuts through the noise with a rare clarity. His arguments are rational, fact-based and dispassionate. As a non-Jew, Murray also brings “no skin in the game” whatsoever when he writes about the Jewish state.
Murray’s dispassion makes the book an emotional challenge. His documenting of the details of the 7 October massacres, drawn from numerous conversations with many of the day’s witnesses and survivors, makes harrowing reading. An outstanding interlocutor, Murray adds no sensationalism to his reporting, letting his subjects’ testimonies speak for themselves. There are moments in the book when the sheer inhumanity of that day’s barbarity defies comprehension, proving impossible for the reader not to weep.
The antisemitic hatred that has erupted across Western cities and campuses over the last 18 months is equally well documented, not least the evil duplicity of those nobly calling for “all women to be believed” unless, of course, they are Jewish women.
The book is bolstered by Murray’s depth of historical reference. He points to the scourge of radical Islamism having been sparked by the 1979 Iranian Revolution that saw the return to Tehran of Ayatollah Khomeini from his Paris exile and the subsequent banishing of Iran’s Shah. He reports the irony of Iran calling Israel a colonial outpost of the USA while simultaneously establishing its own colonial outposts in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere.
Murray highlights the UN Conference in Durban, South Africa (of all places) in 2001 that was to provide the fallacious grounding for Israel being described as an “apartheid state”. We also learn that as early as 1964, some three years before Israel’s borders were redrawn following the Six-Day War, Yasser Arafat’s PLO was calling for the “liberation” of the “occupied territories” – ergo, the destruction of the State of Israel.
Murray’s research and travels have been extensive. He has visited most of the countries that border Israel and, since October 7 alone, has visited not only Israel but also Gaza, enabling him, unlike most contemporary commentators, to offer an evidence-based perspective. When Murray reports that Egyptian bookshops still stock numerous copies of Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, believe him.
Douglas Murray writes of a tragic history that is still being written. His book makes for essential reading.
Available now from HarperCollins
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