Richard Spencer

October 03, 2009

Tom Piatak and Paul Gottfried have already tussled with Ilana over the issue of “Israel and the West,” and I’ve said pretty much all I want say on the matter here. So, without repeating myself or anyone else, let me just add a quick thought and a question. First, so much of Ilana’s argument hinges on the definition of “the West.” If Judeo-Christianity is what we’re talking about, then would our commitment to “the West” not entail that we send troops to Darfur to defend our Christian brothers against Muslim aggression? Moreover, “the West” could just as accurately be defined by Europe’s Germanic, pagan traditions, rituals, and folkways. But thinking about “the West” this way would, of course, exclude Jerusalem from membership. Secondly, let me ask a very non-rhetorical question: If, hypothetically, France, Germany, and Geert Wilders’s Netherlands were under attack by insurgent Muslim radicals, would Israel come to their aid? Or is “the West,” at the end of the day, a one-way street?