The West’s Failure to Understand Religious Triumphalism Puts It at Risk

Religious triumphalism—the idea that those with true beliefs about the divine ought to dominate politically those without them—has largely faded from Western societies, writes Richard Landes, but maintains currency among many Muslims. Westerners at a loss to understand this set of beliefs are especially susceptible to its dangers:

In the world of victimization discourse so prevalent on campuses today, . . . triumphalist Muslims have learned that, when attacking the West, they can lead with their glass chin: how dare you offend us so? They can, thereby, maneuver a conflict-averse Western culture into conceding and placating them. . . .

As a result, there’s a significant and troubling overlap between Western sensitivity to minority feelings and Muslim triumphalist attitudes toward infidels. . . . [W]hile Westerners think they’re being generous, triumphalist Muslims see them complying with their demands, behaving as proleptic dhimmi [protected but subjugated religious communities], who submit without even being conquered.

Read more at Tablet

More about: History & Ideas, Islam, Radical Islam, Religion, Western civilization

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF