If Israel were to fall, the West would cease to exist
If Israel were to fall, the West would cease to exist

Israel is a very tiny state. From north to south, from Metulla to Eilat, a modern jet covers the entire Israeli territory in than 10 minutes. Between Natanya, the city overlooking the Mediterranean, and the Palestinian Arab town of Tulkarem, there are 15 miles.

Israel has the double of population of my Italian city, Rome. If you climb to Gush Etzion, a few miles south of Jerusalem, you can see the entire Jewish State from Jordan to the sea. In one of the narrower points in central Israel, the full width of the state from the Mediterranean to the Green Line is just 9 miles. Three times the length of the airport runway at the John F. Kennedy in New York.

The Arab-Islamic world occupies 800 times the land that today is Israel. So why should non-Jews care about this tiny Jewish enclave? Because those who want to destroy Western civilization are also those trying to erase Israel from the map, as occurred last week at the border with Gaza.

“Allah Akbar” is the Islamist battle cry in Rafah as in Paris.

In one week, the United States first vetoed a UN resolution that wanted to condemn Israel for the dead in Gaza, then voted against an investigation by the Geneva Human Rights Council. Had it not been for the US, Israel would have been crucified by the international community.

The European countries, in fact, betrayed the Jews once again (Belgium and Spain voted against Israel, UK and Germany abstained). It is not just a security issue, as it is for Egypt or Jordan. Of course, Israel has for example, prevented three Middle Eastern countries from building a clandestine nuclear arsenal: Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Bashar al Assad's Syria and Iran's Ayatollah. But this American protection of Israel arises from a commonality of values, ideals, principles.

Why, in fact, does the cause of Israel generate so much passion even in non-Jews all over the world? Why Israel?

What makes this stubborn bug wedged in the Middle East so special?
What makes this stubborn bug wedged in the Middle East so special? Israel is in the Middle East, but it incorporates the very rare sap of the “West” as values, tradition and hopes. In the critical phase for survival of Israel, the nihilist Jihad offensive makes no difference between the roads of Nice and Nahal Oz.

If Israel were to fall, the West that we know, that our fathers helped to defend and build, would cease to exist.

Non-Jews from all parts of the globe should see Israel as the symbol of a great story that speaks of love, freedom, justice and rebellion against evil. Israel is the symbol of the possibility of being free outside the borders of the West. And this is precisely why Israel today is an intolerable presence for the fanatics and the relativists.

For decades, Israel has been the first target of Islamic fundamentalism that has the civilization of the West in its demoniac viewfinder, and does not even hide it. The clash is not about the Israeli Gibraltar, it is about the danger of an end of civilization itself.

Charles Peguy said: “Civilization dies”. And it dies a little bit every day in the Western betrayal of Israel.