“The hardening of Israel’s nationalism is, among other things, a harbinger of how the West will respond to the further dangers of Islamist politics, by digging in…”

The hardening of Israel’s nationalism is, among other things, a harbinger of how the West will respond to the further dangers of Islamist politics, by digging in — a reaction that is paradoxically furthered by Western liberalism’s own feebleness in articulating and defending its own values. Western European governments who have continued to support the Palestinians and especially Hamas, no matter their depredations, have done liberalism no favors. In Europe, multiculturalism looks increasingly to have been a dodge to get off the hook of building a genuinely shared civic culture. Nobody is off the hook here.

Yehudah Mirsky, “What Is A Nation State For?”, Marginalia (11 March 2015) [http://marginalia.lareviewofbooks.org/nation-state-yehudah-mirsky/]