On October 7, 2023, as the world watched the atrocities unfold, it seemed that no commentary was necessary. Hamas’ extreme cruelty spoke for itself. Yet within a short time, the picture changed completely.
Academics, politicians, and cultural figures across the West rushed to condemn the attack on Israel or chose silence.
The clash between exposed barbarism and the Western response was a cultural crossroads. Israel suffered a national tragedy, but the world’s reaction revealed nothing less than the collapse of values in the so-called “enlightened” West. It was the erosion of the ability to distinguish between good and evil, aggressor and victim, and morality and hypocrisy.
Universities in the United States and Europe, expected to be fortresses of freedom and tolerance, exposed troubling trends. Professors signed petitions justifying Hamas, students staged demonstrations supporting murder and destruction, and administrations feared condemning terror in clear words. Institutions’ pledges to protect pluralism and human rights crumbled under waves of extremism.
Jewish students, who believed campuses were their home, found themselves isolated and threatened. University leaders, worried about losing Qatari donations or appearing to infringe on “free speech,” often chose hesitation. Academic freedom became a tool for those seeking to dismantle Western values.
How the West began to fall
Media and social networks turned into amplifiers of lies and cynicism, straying as far from truth as east is from west. A single doctored photo outweighed a thousand facts.
Hamas and other Islamist propaganda arms exploited platforms with ease. Staged videos, claims of “genocide,” and calls to boycott Israel spread globally within days. Fictional TikTok reels received more visibility than verifiable facts. Networks and media became marketplaces of manipulation, where the loudest lies won.
Western politics quickly pivoted toward what appeared to be the “new majority”: large Muslim communities in Europe, progressive movements in the US, and parties seeking votes, even at the cost of abandoning principles.
Leaders who once swore to protect liberty and human rights now use vague terms, avoid condemning terror with clarity, and adopt hostile narratives toward Israel. Western politics became a testing ground where fundamental values were traded for electoral cynicism.
One leader who spoke disgracefully was French President Emmanuel Macron. While Israel fought for its citizens’ lives, Macron told the BBC: “Israel must stop killing babies and women in Gaza. There is no justification for this. The fight against terror should not be conducted by indiscriminate bombing of civilians.” Months earlier, he had called for sanctions against Israel, labeling its policies “murderous” and “immoral.”
Macron forgot that entire cities in France are already controlled by extremist Muslims, where Islamic law is effectively enforced, much like in Iran.
He must also be reminded of France’s long history of antisemitism, from the Middle Ages to today, as well as its deadly attacks by Muslim extremists. In 2012, Mohamed Merah murdered three soldiers and two Jewish children at a school in Toulouse. In 2015, four Jews were killed in a kosher supermarket in Paris.
France’s colonial history also bears mention: the Algerian War claimed thousands of lives, with Algerian deaths estimated in the hundreds of thousands before independence.
BRITISH HYPOCRISY is equally notorious. Human rights champion and Foreign secretary David Lammy spoke bluntly in Parliament, calling the Gaza blockade a “moral disgrace,” suspending free-trade talks with Israel, and imposing sanctions on West Bank residents. In September 2025, Lammy condemned restrictions on aid to Gaza as “artificial famine in the 21st century.” He expressed “revulsion and unease toward the Israeli army” and threatened further sanctions.
In recent days, however, Lammy has been forced to pronounce that Israel is not committing a genocide in Gaza. “The crime of genocide occurs only where there is specific ‘intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group,’” he told the media, earlier this week.
Britain, which now postures as the guardian of morality, bears a long legacy of exploitative colonial rule – from India to Kenya to Nigeria – marked by blood, tears, and imposed foreign values. Its record includes leaving behind ethnic conflicts that linger to this day.
A telling example of British hypocrisy was the 1982 Falklands War against Argentina. The islands, thousands of miles from England near South America, were defended through war rather than diplomacy, all to preserve an outdated colonial foothold. Many lives were lost, proving how a former empire clings to remote assets with no true link to the British people.
Thus are exposed nations that claim to carry the banner of freedom and equality, yet bear histories of antisemitism, collective massacres, and colonial wars. Their leaders now speak in doublespeak, fearing Muslim electorates.
For many Israelis, the disappointment was twofold. Not only did the world fail to defend us, but the victims were cast as the accused. Israel had to explain their right to self-defense, as though it were a privilege.
Israelis feel isolated, yet also entrusted with a historic role, to be a moral beacon in a world where the compass has broken. Despite terror and bloodshed long before October 7, Israel continues to rebuild and safeguard a vibrant democracy.
It proves that terror can be fought without abandoning values.
Yet, the battle against radical Islamist terror is not Israel’s alone. Anyone who thinks the threat stops at Gaza or Jerusalem is mistaken. Brussels, Paris, London, and New York have all suffered brutal attacks.
The West must restore its ability to tell right from wrong. It must stop legitimizing discourse that normalizes hate, antisemitism, and murder. It must stand firm against attempts to buy its silence with money or votes.
Most of all, the West must remember: A society that loses its moral compass will ultimately lose its freedom. If the West does not wake up, it risks surrendering its own values – and with them, its future.
Israel, though wounded, will continue to fight and preserve its identity. The great question remains: Will the West awaken, or keep looking away as it slides into moral darkness?
The writer is CEO of Radios 100FM, president of the Israel Radio Communications Association, honorary consul and deputy dean of the Consular Diplomatic Corps. He is a former IDF Radio intelligence monitor and NBC television correspondent.