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

by Douglas Murray

I left with an old friend of mine from the British media, a journalist in his seventies who has seen his share of war. It took a long while for either of us to find any words as we walked along the gray, leaf-covered streets of London. Eventually he did manage to say something. “Bastards,” he said. “Bastards,” I agreed. Of course that didn’t do justice to what we had just seen. Nothing could. But as I started to grapple with it there was one thing in particular I just couldn’t fathom. From writing about and covering wars on three continents I have seen my share of horrors. But there was something unusual about this atrocity. As I tried to put my finger on it, I couldn’t help reflecting on the fact that in all this footage of the terrorists—taken by them and broadcast to their supporters (who would first celebrate and then deny these acts)—there was something uncommon even in the long history of violence. It was that the terrorists of October 7 did what they did with such relish. Not just the endless shouting of their war cries. Or the visible glee you could see in their faces and hear in their voices. It was the fact that all of this gave them such intense joy. And that they were proud of their actions.