Transcript [00:00] Hey everyone. So, I've been watching [00:02] some Melanie Phillips lately. If you're [00:03] not familiar with her, she's one of the [00:06] clearest thinkers in the [00:07] English-speaking world on the [00:08] intersection of Islam, the West, Israel, [00:11] all the issues, a lot of the issues I [00:13] talk about on this channel. She's been [00:15] right about almost everything, [00:16] often decades before anyone else caught [00:19] up. And I want to pull out three [00:21] specific moments from her most recent [00:23] conversation with Brendan O'Neill. [00:26] Each one is brilliant on its own, but I [00:28] think each one points to something even [00:30] deeper that I want to unpack. So, let's [00:32] get right to it. Let's pull up [00:36] uh Melanie Phillips, and let's go to [00:38] clip number one. Here we go. [00:44] In this ostensibly the most rational age [00:47] ever known to man, [00:49] um what we're looking through is a [00:51] complete eclipse of reason and [00:52] rationality. And how come that possibly [00:55] be when everyone's now so well educated [00:57] relative to what they were? [00:59] Well, the answer I think, well, you [01:01] know, comes back to what happened [01:04] more than half a century ago, which is [01:07] uh that um [01:09] in the universities, in the academy, in [01:11] the intelligentsia, [01:13] um [01:14] the idea of objective truth was simply [01:17] abolished. Um [01:19] from that point, everything became a [01:22] matter of opinion. If there was no [01:23] truth, there were no lies. If you said [01:26] something was a lie, well, that was just [01:28] your opinion. And if you are somebody [01:30] that I disapprove of, then your opinion [01:32] is worthless. It's like that. That's [01:34] what's happened. Um and so, you know, if [01:38] you abolish truth, you abolish reason. [01:39] If you abolish reason, you get the [01:41] embrace of lies. And if you get the [01:43] embrace of lies, you have a society [01:46] which comes off the moral guardrails [01:49] completely, [01:50] um and goes hurtling into a kind of [01:52] anarchy of behavior both on the streets, [01:55] as we increasingly see, and in people's [01:57] minds, uh there is there are there was [02:00] there there is no moral compass anymore. [02:06] All right. So, let's unpack that a bit. [02:12] So, Melanie Phillips just identified [02:14] something very crucial. The abolition of [02:17] objective truth in the Western academy, [02:20] beginning about half a century ago, [02:21] produced a cascade of of consequences of [02:25] results that we're now living through, [02:28] right? As she says, no truth means no [02:30] lies, no lies means no reason. [02:32] No reason means moral free fall. She's [02:34] right. And I want to I want to build on [02:37] it precisely because I think there are [02:38] actually two [02:40] parallel collapses happening [02:42] simultaneously. [02:44] And they're related, but they're not [02:45] identical. [02:48] The first is the one that that Melanie [02:49] describes, the collapse of objective [02:52] truth, the post-modern claim that facts [02:54] are not real, that what we call truth [02:56] is just power [02:58] dressed up as reality. [03:00] Uh that there's no view [03:04] there's no view from nowhere. [03:06] Like every every view is equally valid, [03:09] then that knowledge itself is a [03:11] political construct. We're seeing this [03:13] in the post-modern world. [03:15] The second is the collapse of objective [03:17] good and evil, [03:19] which she's pointing to, but she doesn't [03:20] say here. The claim running through [03:23] Marxist thought for over a century [03:26] that morality is not real, either. That [03:28] what we call good and evil are also just [03:32] power constructs, power dressed up in [03:34] moral language. That the only real [03:36] categories [03:37] are power categories, are oppressor and [03:39] oppressed. Which also leads to a world [03:42] where everyone is only acting in their [03:43] own self-interest, right? Because [03:45] there's no there's no good or evil [03:46] anymore, there's only [03:48] there's only oppressor and oppressed, [03:49] there's only power relationships. [03:52] Now, these are related, [03:53] but they're not the same point. Like [03:55] truth is an epistemological category. [03:58] It's about what is real and what can be [04:01] known. That's what I mean by that. [04:03] Good, on the other hand, is a moral [04:05] category. It's about what is right and [04:07] what ought to be done. They're both [04:09] They both depend on a belief in [04:10] absolutes, right? It's [04:13] So, Phillips in this clip, Melanie [04:15] Phillips is talking about the first of [04:17] these two. I want to add the second [04:18] because I think they're both [04:21] Both of the collapses, the collapse of [04:22] truth versus falsehood, [04:25] that construct, and the and and good [04:28] versus evil, both of those collapses, [04:30] they flow from the same root. And here's [04:32] the root. [04:34] Biblical civilization makes two [04:37] foundational claims simultaneously. [04:40] One [04:42] is that, well, reality's real. The world [04:45] exists independently [04:47] um of [04:49] of what any power would say it is, [04:51] right? Facts are facts. Truth is truth. [04:54] Human beings are made in the image of [04:55] God and they have the capacity to [04:57] perceive reality accurately. [05:00] And the second is that good and evil are [05:02] real. [05:03] Right from the creation story, morality [05:05] is not a construct that comes later. [05:08] It's not whatever the powerful say it [05:10] is. Good and evil are objective features [05:13] of reality flowing from the nature of [05:15] God himself. [05:16] And human beings have the capacity to [05:18] know them. They flow from God, [05:21] but they aren't identical with God. And [05:23] we'll get to that soon, very important [05:24] point. Now, what grounds both of these [05:26] claims is the same thing, the nature of [05:28] God as the source [05:29] as the source of truth and goodness. [05:32] Truth and good. [05:34] And the nature of man as an image [05:36] bearer, the bearer of the image of God [05:38] equipped to perceive and interact with [05:41] both. [05:42] In the biblical framework, [05:46] in a biblical mindset, right? You can [05:48] know what is true. [05:51] And you can know what is right. There [05:53] are categories, true, false, good, evil. [05:57] And you can know them not because [06:01] God has told you, not because an [06:02] authority has told you, but because [06:05] God, by creating us in his image and and [06:08] giving us free will, part of that free [06:10] will, part of what God imbued us with [06:12] is the ability to perceive reality. [06:16] And to understand reality. [06:19] And to read it. [06:21] I'm going to explain this. Let Let me [06:23] get what I'm what I'm getting at. [06:27] When you look at the two great [06:29] anti-biblical forces of our time, [06:31] anti-biblical forces, and I've talked [06:33] about this a lot, [06:35] postmodern atheistic progressivism and [06:38] Islamic political theology, [06:40] right? Both of them [06:43] disagree with the biblical constructs, [06:45] both of truth [06:47] and of good versus evil, but they do it [06:50] from opposite directions. [06:52] Postmodern progressivism abolishes [06:54] objective truth by denying God, but but [06:57] denying any absolutes. [06:59] If there's no God, there's no ground for [07:00] saying reality is structured in a way [07:02] that human beings can reliably know. [07:05] So, we can't really know truth. [07:07] And if there's no transcendent moral [07:09] order, [07:11] which certainly the progressive atheist [07:14] left [07:15] doesn't believe in a [07:16] an absolute moral order, then there's no [07:18] ground for objective good and evil, [07:20] either. [07:22] Okay, and then what you're left with is [07:23] just power relationships and what hurts [07:25] me. [07:27] And and [07:29] and the most basic definition of what is [07:31] good for for me as a person or what is [07:33] good for people, which is why like [07:35] offense culture [07:37] and like all suffering is equal and and [07:41] right? All of this [07:43] that's what it stems from. The That [07:45] there's no objective good and evil. [07:51] So, therefore all it all goes down to [07:52] power. The framework they're operating [07:54] in has no category for this is [07:57] objectively wrong. [07:58] It only has a category for whose side [08:01] are you on? [08:02] When when when you play out this [08:05] these constructs politically. [08:08] Islamist theology [08:10] takes a completely different route, but [08:12] arrives at a structurally similar place. [08:15] And this is a point I've tried to tease [08:16] out in a few videos. I'm actually going [08:18] to be starting a a larger project of [08:20] writing about this cuz I think it's a [08:22] very important point. [08:24] Let me say it again. Islamist theology [08:26] arrives at a structurally similar place. [08:29] It doesn't deny God, but it makes God [08:33] the only source of both truth and [08:36] goodness. [08:38] And you may think, well, I I believe in [08:40] the God of the Bible. He's also the only [08:42] source of truth and goodness. Not [08:43] exactly. Let me explain. [08:45] Of course, he's the source of [08:46] everything, but let me explain the [08:48] difference between how we see true truth [08:51] and good, truth and the good versus [08:53] Islam. [08:55] In Islam, both the good and truth are [08:58] outside the [09:01] the uh [09:03] the realm of human reason and human [09:06] accountability. [09:08] Good is defined as whatever Allah [09:10] commands. [09:12] Evil is whatever Allah forbids. [09:16] There's no standard above the divine [09:18] will that that human beings can invoke. [09:20] This was best stated by Ayatollah [09:22] Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic [09:24] Republic of Iran, the most influential [09:26] Islamist political thinker of the 20th [09:27] century. And he stated this with [09:29] complete explicitness. I'm going to read [09:31] this slowly cuz I want you to hear every [09:33] word. This is a quote. [09:35] He said like this. [09:37] Quote, we know of no absolute values [09:40] besides total submission to the will of [09:43] the almighty. [09:45] People say don't lie, but the principle [09:48] is different when we serve the will of [09:50] Allah. [09:52] He taught man to lie so that we can save [09:54] ourselves at moments of difficulty and [09:56] confuse our enemies. [09:58] Should we remain truthful at the cost of [10:00] defeat and danger to the faith? [10:03] We say no. [10:05] People say don't kill, [10:07] but the almighty himself taught us how [10:09] to kill. And then, and this is the line [10:11] I want you to sit with, [10:12] quote, listen to this. This is amazing. [10:15] Deceit, trickery, conspiracy, cheating, [10:19] stealing, and killing are nothing but [10:22] means. On their own, they are neither [10:25] good nor evil. [10:28] For no deed is either good or bad [10:31] isolated from the intentions that [10:33] motivated it. [10:35] Okay, this is the founder of the Islamic [10:36] Republic writing his doctrine. [10:39] And this is a quote from Amir Taheri's [10:41] book Holy Terror. He quotes Khomeini [10:42] there. I don't read [10:44] Arabic or Persian or whatever language [10:45] he wrote in. [10:47] What Khomeini is describing is the [10:50] precise logical conclusion of of what [10:52] we're going to call divine command [10:54] theory. [10:56] If good is whatever Allah commands and [10:58] evil is whatever Allah forbids, then [10:59] there's no objective moral standard that [11:02] a human being can can divine for [11:04] themselves, can can intuit for [11:05] themselves. It's not part of you're not [11:07] seeing the world through a lens of a [11:09] concept of good and good things and what [11:11] is good and what is evil. [11:14] There's no objective moral standard [11:15] above the divine will. If that's the [11:17] case, then that's Khomeini. [11:20] No deed then no deed is good or bad in [11:22] itself. It's only only its service to [11:24] the cause, [11:26] the cause being Allah and whatever Allah [11:28] wants in the world, that's the only [11:30] measure of whether a deed is good or [11:32] bad. That's what Khomeini is saying. [11:36] And this isn't a distortion of Islamist [11:37] theology. This is a direct application [11:39] of it. This is it. Now, contrast that [11:41] with the biblical framework. [11:44] And I want to be precise here because [11:45] the contrast is sharper than most people [11:47] realize. The Bible contains two moments [11:50] that I think are the most [11:51] philosophically radical statements in in [11:54] the Bible. The first is in Genesis 18 [11:57] where God is about to destroy Sodom and [11:58] Gomorrah, and Abraham, in arguing with [12:01] God, says, "Shall the judge of all the [12:04] earth not do justice?" [12:07] And similarly, in Exodus chapter 5, [12:09] after Pharaoh makes the Israelites [12:11] suffering worse after Moses first comes [12:13] to Pharaoh, Moses turns to God and says, [12:16] "Why have you done evil [12:19] to these to these people?" Hebrew lama [12:21] hara otah, "Why have you done evil to [12:23] these people?" [12:26] Now, here's what I want you to notice. [12:28] And this is not about God being gracious [12:30] enough not to strike them down for [12:31] arguing. That's not the point. The point [12:33] is this. [12:35] These arguments only make sense, what [12:37] Moses says to God, what Abraham says to [12:39] God, they only make sense if the concept [12:41] of justice and the concept of evil [12:45] means something independent of the [12:47] divine command. [12:50] Think about it. [12:53] There's no commandments yet. [12:55] But not only that, [12:56] if God is the sole definer of justice, [13:00] if that's the definition of just of what [13:01] is just, of what is good, is whatever [13:03] God decides, so if justice simply means [13:06] whatever God does, then Abraham's [13:08] accusation, it's not just wrong, it's [13:10] incoherent. It makes no sense. You can't [13:12] say the sole definer of justice is being [13:15] unjust. [13:16] It's not an argument. It's [13:17] self-contradictory. The sentence has no [13:19] meaning. [13:21] If evil simply means what God forbids, [13:24] if God cannot by definition do evil [13:26] because the very definition of evil is [13:28] whatever God prohibits, [13:31] then Moses' accusation, "Why have you [13:33] done evil?" is impossible. It doesn't It [13:36] If If Moses was working with a concept [13:38] that evil is whatever God doesn't want [13:40] and good is whatever God wants or evil [13:42] is whatever, you know, good is whatever [13:44] God does, no matter what it is, [13:47] like Khomeini says, [13:49] then he wouldn't have even asked the [13:50] question. [13:52] You can't just accuse the sole definer [13:54] of evil of doing evil. [13:56] It's nonsense unless justice is a real [13:59] thing, [14:01] unless evil and good are real things. [14:04] They're objective features of reality [14:06] that exist independently [14:10] of what [14:11] anyone decides to call them, human or [14:13] divine, that God gave us the ability to [14:15] discern intuitively good and evil, truth [14:19] and falsehood, unless both Abraham and [14:21] Moses are operating within a shared [14:24] moral framework that that that they did [14:27] not create. [14:30] And God, Abraham, Moses, and God, they [14:32] have to all be operating within that [14:34] shared moral framework. [14:37] And then [14:38] and then these conversations make sense. [14:40] So, I hope this point is clear. What the [14:42] biblical text presupposes [14:47] is [14:48] is that there is a good there's such a [14:51] thing as good, there's such a thing as [14:52] evil, there's such a thing as truth. [14:58] Like God doesn't say to them, "You're [14:59] confused. I define justice, so whatever [15:01] I do is just by definition." That's not [15:03] his answer to Abraham. [15:06] In the biblical framework, these are [15:08] coherent claims. They're appeals to [15:10] something real. [15:12] And this is the foundation of which [15:14] everything on which everything in [15:15] Western civilization is built. Even in [15:16] these conversations, you see already the [15:19] beginnings of what we call the [15:20] covenantal relationship versus the [15:22] submission relationship. That's what I [15:23] like to call it in the comparison [15:25] between the biblical relationship to God [15:27] and the Islamic one. [15:28] Covenantal relationship to God empowers [15:30] the human being to to interact with God, [15:32] to be, you know, to be his partner, to [15:34] be his agent. [15:37] Free speech [15:39] is a biblical concept because truth is [15:41] real and worth defending. The rule of [15:42] law because justice is real. [15:46] The prophetic tradition because power [15:47] can be held to a standard above itself. [15:50] So, the prophets rebuking the kings. [15:53] Science emerges from a biblical [15:55] worldview [15:57] because reality is intelligible to us [15:59] and investigation is worthwhile. The [16:01] very concept of human rights is a comes [16:03] from a biblical worldview because good [16:06] and evil are real and human beings can [16:09] understand them and apply them. [16:12] When you remove that foundation, whether [16:13] you remove it from below as [16:15] postmodernism does by denying that an [16:17] objective reality exists, or whether you [16:20] remove it from above as [16:23] Muslim divine command theory does [16:26] by placing all moral reality entirely [16:29] inside the inscrutable will of God, and [16:31] you end up in the same place. [16:33] A world where the only question is not [16:35] is this right, but does this serve the [16:38] higher cause? [16:40] That's Khomeini's world. [16:42] And that's increasingly the world that [16:44] we find ourselves in. Phillips sees the [16:46] collapse of truth and traces its [16:48] consequences [16:50] with clarity here. [16:51] And what I'm adding [16:54] is that running alongside the collapse [16:56] of truth [16:57] is the collapse of good and evil. [17:00] And you cannot rebuild one without [17:01] rebuilding the other. [17:04] Okay, that's that's the first clip. My [17:06] other comments are are somewhat shorter. [17:08] Let's go to clip number two now. [17:13] Clip number two. [17:14] >> they're kind of interchangeable. And [17:17] they've hooked up with Islamists um to [17:20] basically um bring about two things. I [17:22] mean, it is quite comical given that the [17:24] Islamists uh you know, given that people [17:26] on the are you know, [17:28] on the left have certain um [17:30] uh causes dear to their heart such as [17:33] for example, gay rights. And you know, [17:35] the Islamists would have their head off [17:36] their shoulders in a trice uh in other [17:39] circumstances, but they're marching [17:41] shoulder to shoulder uh because they're [17:43] united by two things, a desire to bring [17:47] down the West or Western civilization, [17:49] even though they have completely [17:51] diametrically opposite views about what [17:53] they want to replace it with, [17:55] um and their hatred of Jews. Their [17:57] hatred [18:00] Okay. [18:06] >> [sighs and clears throat] [18:06] >> So, what's she saying here? [18:10] She's talking about the red-green [18:11] alliance. [18:12] The left-wing and the Islamists marching [18:14] together. what we were just talking [18:15] about, people who claim to believe in [18:17] gay rights, women's rights, secularism. [18:19] As Phillips puts it, they'd have their [18:21] heads off their shoulders in other [18:23] circumstances. And her explanation is [18:25] correct as far as it goes. They want to [18:26] bring down the West. They hate Jews and [18:28] Israel. [18:29] But now that you understand what we just [18:30] talked about, the collapse of objective [18:31] good and evil, the framework that has no [18:34] category for this is wrong, but only [18:37] asks the question, are you with us or [18:39] against us? [18:42] The [18:43] when you look at it that way, then the [18:44] alliance between the the left and the [18:46] Muslims stops being a mystery. It's not [18:49] this strange alliance anymore. [18:52] Because both movements are operating [18:54] inside the exact same framework, the [18:57] same moral framework. [18:59] Marxist progressive ideology gets there [19:00] through atheism, no God, no transcendent [19:02] moral standard, no objective good and [19:04] evil. [19:06] Only oppressor and oppressed. [19:09] You're either on the side of liberation [19:10] or you're the enemy. And Islamist [19:12] political theology gets there through [19:15] divine command theory. [19:17] You just heard Khomeini say it. Like no [19:18] deed is good or bad in itself, only its [19:20] service to the cause gives it moral [19:23] content. [19:25] So, it's different theologies, [19:26] completely different ultimate visions, [19:29] but the answer to the question, what is [19:31] good? [19:32] Good is whatever serves the cause. [19:36] And once you're operating inside that [19:38] framework, the alliance is natural. [19:41] You don't need to agree on what your end [19:44] goal is. As she says, they have [19:46] different goals about what to replace [19:48] Western society with. You just need to [19:50] agree on what you're tearing down, who [19:52] you hate. Now, now why the Jews? Why is [19:54] Jew hatred the thing that unites them? [19:55] Because the Jewish people are not just a [19:57] nation with a state, they're the living [20:00] embodiment of the of a civilization [20:03] that both of these worldviews are [20:04] committed to dismantling. [20:08] Right? [20:09] The Jewish civilization says that good [20:11] and evil are real, that human beings [20:13] have inherent dignity. [20:15] By the way, that's part of what's going [20:16] on in this whole war, where Israel keeps [20:18] saying, "Listen, we are fighting evil." [20:21] And the world's sort of like not hearing [20:22] it. [20:26] Israel's not targeted because of what it [20:27] does. Israel's targeted because of what [20:29] it is. [20:30] It is a Jewish state in the Jewish [20:32] homeland exactly as as the prophets [20:34] described, built on biblical foundations [20:37] of law and human dignity. It's a living [20:39] refutation of both the atheist Marxists [20:42] and the Islamists. [20:44] Their worldviews. It it it has to be [20:46] opposed by them, not as a policy matter, [20:49] but as an existential matter. They have [20:51] to hate Israel. [20:53] Phillips is right that the hatred of [20:54] Jews unites them, but the hatred is [20:56] downstream of something much deeper. [20:58] Right? It's the inevitable consequence [21:00] of these two worldviews that cannot [21:03] tolerate the civilization, [21:05] the nation-state of the Jewish people, [21:08] which brings us [21:09] to clip number three. [21:13] The words coming from is a position of I [21:17] think justified pain. Yeah, it's [21:19] I think the great irony is that, you [21:21] know, what I think these people need is [21:24] not an ethno-state, not that kind of [21:26] racial [21:27] um utopia that they dream about, but [21:30] something like Zionism, you know, the [21:32] thing that they hate, which by which I [21:34] mean a sense of [21:35] national confidence, a sense of [21:37] peoplehood, a sense of historical [21:39] consciousness. You know, if they spent [21:40] less time raging against the sins of [21:42] Zionism and more time thinking, "Well, [21:44] what does that really mean? What does [21:46] that represent? What does it mean to [21:47] have a such a strong sense of [21:48] peoplehood?" then I think they could [21:50] learn a lot from it. [21:52] All right, so this one isn't a clip of [21:53] Melanie, it's a clip of Brendan, [21:55] but I think what he said here is super, [21:57] super profound. [22:00] So, Brendan just said something it's I [22:02] think it's one of the most most [22:03] insightful things I've heard this in [22:04] this entire discussion. [22:07] And I want to take it further. [22:08] He's pointing at something even bigger [22:10] than he realizes. He's talking about the [22:12] nationalist right, like in America, the [22:14] MAGA isolationists, right? The people [22:16] who feel that their civilization is [22:18] being taken from them. [22:20] Um and and there's a lot of [22:22] justification, there's a lot as as [22:24] Melanie said at the beginning, there is [22:25] a lot of justification [22:27] for [22:28] for how they feel. [22:30] But they romanticize part of the whole [22:32] ethos of that worldview, especially on [22:34] the right in the in the in the [22:35] conservative world, [22:38] they romanticize a certain kind of [22:40] society, right? Traditional families, [22:42] people getting married young and [22:44] building families, [22:45] men who fight for their families, a [22:47] masculine you know, culture, a culture [22:49] with a clear sense of identity and [22:51] purpose. [22:52] And what Brendan is saying here is, "The [22:54] thing you're looking for, it's called [22:56] Zionism. Go study it." [23:00] So, he's right, but let me make it [23:01] concrete. So I a good friend of mine who [23:04] many of you know from his work um on [23:07] critical theory and uh the ideological [23:09] capture of Western institutions, Dr. [23:11] James Lindsay. [23:13] Uh James Lindsay visited Israel for the [23:15] first time [23:16] uh last year. He's been here a couple [23:18] times [23:20] um in the last uh year, year and a half. [23:24] And [23:26] he said something to me [23:28] that I that I haven't been able to get [23:29] out of my head. We had a whole [23:30] conversation about it, but basically [23:31] what he said was [23:33] Israeli society [23:35] is everything that these nationalists, [23:37] these on the MAGA right [23:40] say that they admire [23:42] and I say national, I mean like [23:44] you know, what the MAGA right says that [23:46] they admire and want to be, especially [23:47] in the younger generation Israeli [23:49] society is everything [23:52] that they admire and want to be, but are [23:54] not. [23:56] It's an amazing observation [23:59] from someone who really understands that [24:00] world. [24:02] So let me tell you [24:03] what Israeli society actually looks [24:05] like. Not from the outside, not from a [24:07] think tank report, but from someone [24:08] who's lived here for 30 years, 30 plus [24:11] years, and I've raised eight children to [24:12] adulthood in this country. [24:15] In Israel, people marry young. They [24:18] build families. [24:20] Large ones. Israel has [24:22] the highest birth rate of any developed [24:25] uh of of Western nations, Western [24:26] developed nations, and it's not just [24:28] because of the ultra-Orthodox. Even the [24:31] uh [24:31] the secular Israelis have larger [24:33] families than what you see in the West. [24:37] They're joyful. Israel's one of the [24:39] happiest countries of the world. Look up [24:41] the happiness index, which is a real [24:43] thing. [24:44] Men serve in the army, not reluctantly, [24:46] not because they have no choice, but [24:47] because they understand they're [24:48] defending something sacred, something [24:50] their fathers defended, their [24:51] grandfathers [24:52] and their sons will defend after them. [24:56] There's a thread of obligation and [24:57] purpose running through Israeli society [24:59] that the progressive West has almost [25:01] entirely lost. [25:03] And here's the thing that will surprise [25:04] you if if you've been following Western [25:05] political trends. In Israel, the [25:07] stereotype of a leftist [25:10] is an old person. [25:12] Stereotype. The young people trend more [25:15] conservative, more right-wing, and that [25:17] trend has been strengthening for over a [25:18] generation. That's why we haven't had a [25:20] left-wing [25:21] uh government, a left-wing prime [25:22] minister in a long time. The The major [25:24] left-wing parties have shrunk [25:26] considerably over the last generation. [25:29] The society is not drifting left as it [25:32] modernizes, [25:33] which is a bit of an anomaly. [25:36] It's moving right as it modernizes. [25:40] The children of the Mizrahi and [25:42] Sephardic Jewish communities, the [25:43] religious communities who marry young, [25:45] they build large families, they serve in [25:47] the army proudly, they vote [25:49] conservative. [25:50] They're becoming the demographic heart [25:52] of this country. [25:54] The left here is literally aging out. [25:58] The future belongs to conservatives. [26:00] And I don't say this as an outside [26:01] observer. Like I said, I've raised eight [26:03] children to adulthood in Israel. I've [26:04] watched the society for 30 plus years. [26:08] The leftists here are the are the older [26:09] people. The young people [26:12] are, like I said, building families. [26:15] That's the opposite of what the [26:16] progressive West keeps telling us about [26:18] itself. [26:21] And why? Why does Israel have what the [26:22] nationalist right is searching for? Why [26:24] has this society held together, grown [26:26] stronger, trended more conservative, [26:28] maintained its will to fight, its desire [26:30] to build families, [26:32] while the Western societies that claim [26:34] to represent civilization's future are [26:35] demographically collapsing? [26:38] The answer is not ethnic nationalism. [26:40] It's not that Jews are a special race [26:42] with special qualities. [26:44] The answer is covenant. [26:46] Biblical covenant doesn't just produce [26:48] freedom. It produces responsibility. The [26:51] concept of covenant means it means that [26:53] we're all responsible. It doesn't just [26:55] empower individuals. It binds them to [26:57] something larger than themselves, to [26:59] their families, to their communities, to [27:00] their nation. [27:02] To a purpose that stretches back [27:03] thousands of years and forward into [27:05] generations [27:07] to come. [27:08] When an Israeli soldier picks up his [27:10] gun, he's not just defending a piece of [27:12] land. He's standing in a line that goes [27:14] back to Joshua, to the Maccabees, to Bar [27:16] Kokhba, to the defenders of Tel Hai. He [27:20] knows the story he's a part of. He knows [27:21] what he's defending. He knows why it [27:23] matters. [27:24] And that's what a covenant does to a [27:26] people. It gives them a story. It gives [27:27] them stakes. It gives them meaning and a [27:29] reason to build families and fight. [27:32] That's what Zionism actually is. [27:35] It's not an ethnic project. It's not a [27:37] colonial enterprise. It's the [27:39] fulfillment of a biblical covenant. A [27:41] people returning to their ancient [27:43] homeland after 2,000 years of exile, [27:45] exactly as the prophets described. Same [27:48] language, the same land, the same [27:49] people. [27:51] Speaking the language their ancestors [27:53] prayed in, studied in, wrote in [27:56] throughout that history. [27:58] Practicing the same faith. [28:01] And that's why our enemies can't [28:02] tolerate it. Not because of what Israel [28:04] does, [28:05] but because of what Israel is. A living, [28:07] breathing, geopolitical proof that [28:10] biblical civilization works. [28:13] That a society built on covenantal [28:15] responsibility, on genuine freedom and [28:17] genuine responsibility. [28:19] On the image of God in every person and [28:21] the obligation that that carries. [28:23] And a society built on these values can [28:25] survive and thrive and grow stronger [28:28] under pressure. [28:29] And can produce exactly the kind of [28:32] society that these desperate, searching, [28:35] aching [28:38] nationalists on the right who are now [28:40] turning on Israel say they want and [28:42] can't seem to build for themselves. I [28:44] hope they do. I pray they do. [28:47] So, to the MAGA nationalists [28:51] and I love MAGA. [28:53] And I mean [28:54] those who [28:55] have turned on Israel in the group, who [28:57] wave the flag of Western civilization [28:59] and traditional values and the will to [29:01] fight, but they've somehow to you who [29:04] have somehow ended up on the wrong side [29:06] of the one country that embodies all of [29:08] those things. [29:09] You're not rejecting your enemy. [29:12] You're rejecting the model [29:15] that you should look to. You're [29:16] rejecting the evidence that what you say [29:18] you want is actually possible [29:22] in the modern age. [29:23] Go to Israel, walk around, watch the [29:26] young families, watch the soldiers, [29:28] watch the religious communities bursting [29:30] with children and purpose and life. [29:33] Talk to young people who trend right not [29:35] because they were told to but because [29:36] they've lived with real stakes and real [29:38] meaning and real obligation, and they've [29:41] chosen it. [29:43] And then come back and tell me that [29:44] Zionism has nothing to teach you. [29:48] So, those are the three clips. Three [29:49] clips [29:50] where Melanie Phillips and Brendan [29:52] O'Neill really share important points. [29:55] Just to sum up, [29:57] the abolition of truth is not just a [29:59] cultural catastrophe. [30:01] It's the consequence of abandoning the [30:02] biblical foundation that makes both [30:04] objective truth and objective good and [30:06] evil [30:07] possible [30:08] simultaneously. The red-green alliance [30:11] is not just a shared hatred. It's a [30:12] natural convergence of two worldviews [30:15] that share a common framework and a [30:17] common enemy. [30:19] That Khomeini quote. [30:22] And what the nationalist right is [30:24] searching for is not an ethno-state. [30:26] It's a covenantal civilization. And that [30:29] civilization already exists. It was [30:31] built on the Bible, and it's proof of [30:33] concept. It's living and thriving and [30:35] growing more conservative in every [30:37] generation in the land of Israel right [30:38] now. And frankly, America used to be [30:40] that way, too. [30:42] Anyway, I hope you found this useful and [30:44] interesting. I know it went on a bit [30:45] long. [30:47] Thanks for watching. Please share, like, [30:49] subscribe, do all that stuff. Please [30:50] tell others what we're doing on this [30:51] channel, and God bless.
