The Israel War is also clarifying when it comes to some Republican candidates

What happened in Israel on October 7 was both horrible and useful. It was horrible because it was the worst antisemitic attack on civilians since the Holocaust. It was useful because it forced people to take a stand on a major moral issue—and many of them haven’t looked good once they’ve finally stood up. It’s brought clarity, as well, to some of those in the GOP race for the White House

Regarding clarity, weve seen America’s colleges and universities reveal what 60 years of leftism have done to them. I’ll just say that the same antisemitic trend overtook German universities in the 1920s and 1930s as socialism became the dominant intellectual view on the campuses. After all, if you read Marx’s writings, you can see that antisemitism is baked into the cake (along with all other forms of racism), just as it’s an integral part of the Koran. For these two major world ideologies, antisemitism is the secret handshake that sees them all as members of the same club.

For ordinary, non-political or apolitical Americans, watching leftists and Muslims revel in the slaughter of innocents was an off-putting experience. The occasional intifada murder could be overlooked. But filming yourself gleefully raping, torturing, and murdering hundreds of civilians and then defiling their corpses, as well as kidnapping babies, children, women, and Holocaust survivors—that was the kind of slap in the face that tells you that not all causes are created equal.

Basically, if you’re wondering whether you’re supporting the good guys or the bad guys, the bad guys are the ones who see civilians as primary targets for every horror the human mind can imagine, while the good guys are the ones who try desperately to live in peace, assiduously follow the world’s agreed-upon rules of warfare, and have a history of sacrificing their own troops to protect the enemy’s women and children. (As an added bonus regarding protecting the children, note that Hamas put up roadblocks to prevent civilians from leaving the combat zone and even stole their car keys.)

So, as I said, we’re getting clarity in America as people begin to recognize who among them are bestial savages and who are not.

Image: Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley by Andrea Widburg

That clarity is appearing on the conservative side of the aisle, too. Some of it comes from people who have been befuddled by moral relativism. That’s how you end up with stupid headlines like this one: “Killing civilians is indefensible, whether done by Hamas or Israel.”

The tragic truth of war is that children will always die. It’s no use saying that you can avoid war if you just refuse to fight. If your enemy is unopposed, he’ll slaughter you and your children and then, as is the way of all tyrants, turn on his own citizens (children included).

Instead, because war is inevitable given human nature, the moral standard is that you cannot side with the people who see their enemy’s children as targets and their own children as cannon fodder. Morally, you should be siding with the ones who seek to protect all children while regretfully recognizing that, to protect their own, others may die in the maelstrom of war. Ultimately, of course, children in a country in which their government views them as cannon fodder will do better when that government is eradicated.

As I said, ordinary people are befuddled, and we hope they can see the light. But we cannot afford befuddled politicians, and that is where we’re getting some useful clarity on the Republican side of the aisle.

Ron DeSantis instantly attacked Hamas and its supporters while supporting Israel, helped fly home Americans stranded in Israel (the ones the Biden administration wouldn’t help escape a hot war zone unless they first filled out the paperwork), and took a firm stand against importing Gazan refugees into America. It’s telling that surrounding Arab nations won’t take them. Gazans are viewed as dangerously disruptive to any stable society.

DeSantis is also correct that Gazans support Hamas and support violence against Israel. They are anti-American, anti-Israel, antisemitic, and anti-Christian. They are the last people who should come to America.

And then there’s Nikki Haley, who tries to be all things to all people and ends up being nothing to nobody. Last week, she insisted that America must support Israel. I agree. If we’re supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity and its democracy against a neighbor’s tyranny, Israel certainly deserves as much support. Moreover, unlike the situation with Ukraine, this war directly affects America.

Iran has been at war with the U.S. since 1979, something America likes to ignore. (As a mental exercise, just imagine how different the world would be if Jimmy Carter had responded to the hostage crisis by bombing Ayatollah Khomenei rather than groveling for over a year.) Where there’s terrorism, there’s Iran, and America (“Death to the Great Satan”) is as much in its crosshairs as Israel (“Death to the Little Satan”). In other words, if Iran wins this proxy war, its power will grow, and that’s a direct threat to us.

So, again, Nikki’s right. And then, in typical Nikki fashion, she undercuts herself:

These are people who, as noted above, hate us and everything we stand for. Haley already characterized the people for whom they voted and whose goals they support as the enemies of civilization. They’re so awful even Arab Muslim nations don’t want them. And now she wants to bring them to America?

As I said, we’re getting clarity. DeSantis has been principled; Nikki Haley has merely been confused.

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