The surge in political violence anti-Israel conspiracy theories across the West stem from an absence of biblical values, American conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro said earlier this week.
A “scavenger mentality” that ignores basic Judeo-Christian biblical values which urge self-correction, and instead thrusts the blame on others is at the root cause of the geo-political malaise in Western society today, he argued.
“It’s easier to say I got a problem in my life, there’s nothing I can do about it, and I’m going to sit here and I’m gonna wallow in it,” Shapiro said in an address at the Jerusalem Theater organized by the Herut Center on Sunday. “I’m gonna blame somebody else, I’m going to tear down the institutions and systems responsible for my failures. It is much harder thing that the Bible says and that the West has traditionally said, which is no, no, no, you need to fix it yourself.”
He added that the West, suffering from a guilt complex, has imported millions of migrants who believe that Western civilization is evil, resulting in the current global scourge of terrorism and antisemitism.
Urging Israelis not to shy away from the truth of their narrative, Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew, said that a Bible-based society is naturally inclined to retrospection and contrition and therefore more susceptible to external pressure campaigns.
“How is it that for example, and again I think that this is a perfect example, that Israel is more unpopular now in the United States right now than the Palestinians, and among young people than Hamas itself?” he asked, referring to recent polling.
Arguing that Israel “stands at the tip of the spear for the entire West,” Shapiro said that the Jewish state must face down its critics by recognizing that it is the force of good, “without guilt and without shame.
“But just understand that whenever you hear people who are criticizing you online, whenever you see people who are going after this country and you personally on TikTok, whenever you see people who are spreading lies, the reason they are spreading lies is because of a character defect in them and not in you,” he said.
As long as Israel remains internally united, Shapiro concluded, “you will assuredly succeed.”
Amiad Cohen, CEO of Herut—The Center for Israeli Liberty, a conservative educational organization, said, “As one of the only countries in the world where we see the return of biblical values, the moral future of the Western world is to be found in Israel.”
