Thanks to the twisted mentality that now prevails in much of the public discourse in the West – as I reveal in my new book about the response to the Hamas atrocity of October 7, After The Pogrom – the overwhelming preponderance of moral opprobrium is reserved for Israel.
How dare they, rail the bien pensants, retaliate against the barrage of Hezbollah rockets that has rained down relentlessly on their territory for months?

The correct-think mob even accuses Israel of provoking Iran's missile attack this week – overlooking that Iran has been bombing and massacring Israelis for years through its proxy armies of Hezbollah and Hamas. Indeed, this week, Iran's 85-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, lauded the October 7 atrocity as a legitimate action by the Palestinian people.
The grotesque double standards – where violent, misogynistic racists bent on creating a barbarous theocracy are hailed as freedom fighters, while the only democratic country in the Middle East is denounced as an engine of lethal oppression – have existed for decades.
But they were thrown into sharp relief by Hamas's assault on Israel last year, the most deadly single strike against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
The Hamas incursion not only triggered the chain of events that led to the present conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, but also unleashed an extraordinary wave of anti-Israeli bigotry and venom across the West.
At times, it felt as if our civilisation had been gripped by insanity. Basic morality had been inverted.
Radical activists who had cried 'Believe all women' during the #MeToo tumult, overnight became sceptics about claims of Hamas terrorists raping Jewish women.
Strident diversity officials now began to bleat about 'the context' when asked why they were silent about anti-Jewish racist abuse.
Following Iran's barrage of 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday night, the world is holding its breath. How will Israel respond?
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