David P Goldman aka Spengler, is one of my favourite authors.
A towering intellect, yet a man of the commercial world, he weaves together disparate information and themes on difficult topics into a coherent and compelling explanation of the inexplicable.
His 2011 book "How Civilisations Die - And Why Islam is Dying Too" has proved both profound and prescient.
In his latest article "Horror and Humiliation in Gaza" he has outdone himself. Here are a few snippets of his brilliance:
On "Western Progressives"
No people in human history are more self-obsessed than the lost souls of the post-Christian world. They abhor the supposedly racist and misogynist past, and eschew a future that requires raising children. Futureless, they are condemned to wander in a purgatorial present of identity cultivation, in a perpetual state of existential trauma. Not since late Hellenism has a cultivated, technologically sophisticated society simply chosen to pass out of existence.
On the alliance between radical Queers and Islamists
Radical queer activists and Islamic militants have a deeper affinity, though: They know they have no future. The identitarian terrorism of the tide-pool tribes left behind by the great transformation of the world resonates with Westerners who also have no past and no future—only the tepid consolations of self-invention. Never mind that Hamas beheads gay Palestinians on the West Bank and ISIS throws gay men off buildings. The solidarity of the doomed is stronger than the survival instinct.
Israel's aim to humiliate Hamas & Iran
The article explains the vulnerability of the West (both Christian and post Christian) to horror and of the Islamic world to humiliation.
Israel's aim in Gaza is not just to destroy Hamas militarily but to humiliate it (and Iran's proxies and theocratic leadership) out of existence. This is why Israel publishes footage of the destruction of Gaza, particularly landmarks associated with Hamas rule.
This is also why Israel decapitated the IRCG leadership in Syria last week and killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's 3 sons yesterday. The echoes of the killing of Haman's sons in the Purim story (Book of Esther) is profound. It is not just about the legitimate destruction of enemy military capability, it is about humiliation.
This photo of Israeli troops in the Hamas parliament (before it was destroyed) which I used on an earlier Hive post, is a good example of the humiliation of Hamas.
Israel's attempt to reduce Western Horror while maintaining Islamic Humiliation
Biden's Administration is so populated by the "lost souls of the post-Christian world" that he is destroying American credibility as an ally in the world by threatening to abandon one of the USA's closest and most critical allies during an existential war.
After the debacle of the US rout in Afghanistan and waning US support for Ukraine (after lavish, unsustainable promises of endless Western support were made) other US allies are looking on with trepidation wondering whether they are next.
In any case Israel will prevail irrespective of what the US does. It has a very extensive domestic arms production that is now expanding rapidly and a population that is committed to destroying Hamas with stick and stones (or nukes) if necessary.
But if the US was to block arms, Israel would abandon attempts to satisfy Biden's squeamish "humanitarian" desires at risk to Israel soldier's lives.
It may also cease to protect US and EU interests that it does not share (such as low energy prices) and hit Iranian and Qatari oil and gas infrastructure.
Even Donald Trump has been critical of Israel for constantly publishing this material (which actually exaggerates the extent of destruction in Gaza) because it causes horror in the USA. But it is being published for the Arab and Muslim world's consumption so they can understand the extent of Hamas and thus Iran's humiliation.
In order to reduce horror in The West, Israel is super careful to minimise so called "civilian" casualties in Gaza and has achieved the lowest casualty ratio of enemy 'civilians' to combatants in the history of urban warfare.
But the post-Christian West is so over-sensitive and easily horrified that even Israel's extraordinary efforts in this regard are not enough.
The article concludes:
God was manifest in our march into Canaan and hidden in the Book of Esther, but His presence nonetheless was felt in the pachad [dread/horror] that fell upon the subject peoples of Persia. Far be it from me to read the workings of Providence into current events. But facts are facts: Israel reduced Hamas in Gaza with a fraction of the military casualties that Western urban warfare specialists predicted, and a fraction of the civilian casualties caused by similar operations in Iraq. Israel continues to strike Iranian assets in Syria with impunity, and Iran fears to respond. Hezbollah failed to launch the expected second front against Israel after Netanyahu’s warning that “what we are doing in Gaza, we can do in Beirut.”
The dread of the Jews has fallen upon the rest of the world. That is not what we asked for, and it has also called forth hate. But we have been there before, and it is not altogether the worst outcome.
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