Israel is one of the only two democracies facing a hostile environment since their creation (the other is South Korea). Israel is older than most of the democracies in the world and belongs to a small group of countries – along with US, UK and Canada among them – which never suffered intervals of non-democratic government. What other democracy would give immunity to parliamentarians praising the terrorists who plan to destroy that very same Parliament? Almost all media today report that democracy in Israel “is in danger”. The catalogue is vaste and rich: “Bibi”, the haredim, “the settlers” etc.. Nobody in the West ever seems to reflect that, taking root in tragic conditions and sustained by people coming from the Arab and Soviet worlds alien to Western liberal thought, Israel's democracy literally popped up from nothing. Israel is like a star in a dark sky. Democracy is easier in London, Milan, Paris, Berlin and Stockholm than in Ashdod, Ashkelon, Afula and Haifa. Israel continues to live its alert and eternal vigil underneath a warm sun good for happy days of peace. It is a profound anguish that has distant roots, in never-forgotten memories of experiences and violence that we hoped had been eased from the history of civilization. We made a mistake. One time it is Gaza, then Iran, then Hezbollah, then terrorism from Judea and Samaria, then Assad's chemical weapons, then Iraqi Scuds. Why should non-Jews today tremble for Israel? The ancient kingdom of Israel was one of the smallest of antiquity, but it played a role in the formation of Western civilization completely disproportionate to its size. Its spiritual heritage is one of the pillars of the Western civilization. The Jewish people affirmed for the first time the principles that today form the basis of our civilization: equality and dignity of all men, universal law, the protection of the defenseless, there is only one God, God created man in its image, all men are descended from the first man, listen to the voice of conscience, there is a higher moral law. The same is true today for the State of Israel. Israel must live not only as a token of universal memory; its existence recalls every moment of the inhumanity of the culture of death. Despite all, Israel must defend its people from Jihadist attacks, but also it must defend its very right to exist. No another state in the world faces this double challenge. Israel is a “normal country”, which lives in a reality made not just of war and terrorism, but like so many others, also unstable governments, corruption, abuse of power, international condemnation, high taxes, lack of affordable housing, crowded schools, massive immigration. So what makes the Israelis so damn happy? What the West lost. A meaning. A higher value. Israel, built by aristocratic peasants who came from the Eastern European ghettos to make the desert bloom, is a bastion of Western culture in a region plagued by chaos, death, abuse, barbarism. Israel is a pretext for political Islam, whose purpose is to destroy the very basis of our civilization. That is why Israel must live. And we must protect it.
