On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization

by Douglas Murray

of Islam has been a history of colonialism. The only reason the Islamic empire grew was what we would now call “colonialism.” Today the government most responsible for spreading the accusation that Israel is expansionist and colonialist is the revolutionary Islamic government in Iran, which has spent recent years assiduously expanding its colonies. What has Gaza become but a colony of Iran? Or Iraq after Iran moved into the vacuum left by America after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein? Or Yemen? Or Syria, into which Iran had poured Hezbollah and other forces? Iran and its proxies and mouthpieces in the West have spent years accusing Israel of being a colonial, expansionist state while all the time expanding and colonizing everywhere they can reach in the region. Why did the mullahs order Hezbollah to engage in the Syrian civil war except to prop up Syria as a forward base of Iran? And what of Lebanon, which even in 2006 still had a government able to distance itself from the actions of Iran’s army Hezbollah. By the time Hamas started its October 2023 war against Israel and Hezbollah joined in, Lebanon had become a virtual colony of Iran—with Hezbollah ruling the country by terror and setting up their weaponry among Lebanese civilians. For years they had set up checkpoints at Beirut Airport to act as passport control and government of that country, whether the people wanted them or not. And there is much evidence that they do not.