Western Discourse Suggests October 7 Achieved Its Political Purpose

I still count it as one of the most astonishing — and depressing — facts of history that on October 7, 2023, terrorists broadcast themselves gleefully committing barbaric and demonic acts of murder and rapine on men, women, children, the elderly, and even pets, and that the principal consequence of this boastful slaughter is a worldwide rise in antisemitism that includes many of the West’s mainstream political parties and both of the American ones, along with a spike in violence targeting Jews inspired by Hamas.

There’s really nothing else to conclude here but that October 7, at least as an act of political terrorism, if not as an attempt to destabilize the Israeli state, worked.

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Daniel Foster

Daniel Foster is a contributing editor at National Review.

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I still count it as one of the most astonishing — and depressing — facts of history that on October 7, 2023, terrorists broadcast themselves gleefully committing barbaric and demonic acts of murder and rapine on men, women, children, the elderly, and even pets, and that the principal consequence of this boastful slaughter is a worldwide rise in antisemitism that includes many of the West’s mainstream political parties and both of the American ones, along with a spike in violence targeting Jews inspired by Hamas.

There’s really nothing else to conclude here but that October 7, at least as an act of political terrorism, if not as an attempt to destabilize the Israeli state, worked.