Radical Islam is at war with Western civilization, argues Ezra Levant, and has been for years. But many in the West have preferred to pretend otherwise—and in that respect, Israel is at an advantage:

It’s almost irrelevant whether or not you acknowledge there is a war. But it’s not totally irrelevant, because if you do not acknowledge you are in a war, you probably don’t stand a chance to win that war.

Last year alone, 6,000 Jews left France, many for Israel. Why would they leave France—a strong, free, liberal country of 66 million people in the heart of Europe, a nuclear power, a NATO power, a country with a seat on the UN Security Council—to go to Israel, a country of just 8 million, surrounded by hostile dictatorships and terrorist groups? Who would imagine that could be safer?

Israel is besieged, it’s surrounded. But it has one advantage over the West: it is not in denial. No one in Israel, not even the far left, pretends that there is no jihad; no one in Israel talks about terrorists being just “lone wolves” or “crazy”; no one in Israel, not even the left-wing media, starts the coverage of any terrorist attack by denying that a Muslim was really Muslim, or denying that terrorism was really terrorism. They don’t blame the victim—those cartoonists were so mean to Muhammad, what can you expect as a response to George W. Bush, et cetera, ad nauseam.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.