Reviewed by E.B. Heath
In his latest book, On Democracies and Death Cults, Douglas Murray reports on the Hamas insurgency into Israel. Murray travelled throughout Israel immediately after the attack of October Seventh, the initial chapters describe the horror of the brutality he witnessed. It seems the atrocities were under-reported by the media. He questions the global support for the Palestinians, pointing out what he feels the West is refusing to acknowledge and worries that no-one really knows how to combat an enemy that values death over life and has no intention of pursuing peace. Murray also aims criticism at the UN peace keepers and the Egyptian border guards wondering how they could not notice tunnelling activity. There is little mention of Israel’s West Bank settler violence also ignored by the UN.
Given the extent of the atrocities, Murray is baffled by the support for the Palestinians. He writes that the default position of the increasingly secular West is to engage in endless pursuits of understanding and subtlety to explain malevolent behaviour. In this, he believes, the truth is eluding them. Evil, he writes, exists in the world, war is the ultimate expression of evil, and because the West has become accustomed to living in peace, the reality of war is not understood.
The gulf between peace and war is probably the most stark divide that any person and any society can face. It is very hard to explain to someone, who has not seen it, just what that divide means.
It is clear that the people of Israel live in that divide. On October 7th, one thousand two hundred Jews were massacred, and 250 hostages, including babies, were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists sponsored by Iran. Many have since died due to the terrible conditions and cruelty they endured. Iran via its proxy terrorists openly declares a goal of exterminating Israel. The Jews are certainly living in a most ‘stark divide’. But so now are the civilian population of Gaza. Given that Israel’s goal is to totally destroy Hamas, and Hamas is equally determined to kill the Jews and are refusing to release the hostages, it seems any kind of peace is unlikely.
But, as Murray points out, the West is not immune from attack. There have been jihadist attacks in London, Paris and America. He discusses the latest attack when teenagers were killed by a lone terrorist bomb during the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. He cites the post-attack slogan ‘Don’t look back in anger’ and suggests the senseless slaughter of teenage girls was a good time to be angry. Although, I think he is missing the point here. In a multi-culture society, governments are well aware that a divisive angry population can be the cause of civil unrest that teeters on that ‘stark divide’.
Readers might agree that the UN security forces were naïve to believe the tunnels built on the borders were just for security, not noticing the stock piles of weapons being stored there. Similarly, the Egyptian border guards allowed the same activity, seemingly, without knowledge of the illegal activity. The weapons, he writes, were purchased with international funds sent to Gaza for humanitarian aid. Perhaps this is the most startling revelation here. Readers might be shocked by the many millions of dollars donated by the West to Gaza.
Murray is right to point out that world had not taken the terrorists’ threats of Jewish genocide seriously enough; it is not just rhetoric posturing, they mean it! So, how do you fight against an enemy that has no interest in peace, celebrates the death of their own children as noble sacrifices to their belief system? Murray does not offer any persuasive answers to this question.
Regardless of where readers’ sympathies might reside, this is worth reading. Murray presents some compelling facts, only a few of which are mentioned in this review.
On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel, Hamas and the Future of the West
by Douglas Murray
(2025)
Harper Collins Publishers Australia
Paperback
ISBN: 978 00087 2957 8
$34.99; 240pp