Israel: A modern-day Charles Martel

We have all, at some point in time in our lives, gone out of our way to do something for someone who then neglects to thank us. It could have been something as minor as holding a door open or as major as saving Western civilization.

A Wall Street Journal article by Gerald Baker titled “Israel Defends Itself – and May Save Western Civilization” brings into focus a contribution the Jewish state has made for which it has received no credit. The author notes, “What the Jewish state has done in the past year – will rank among the most important contributions to the defense of Western civilization in the past three-quarters of a century.” He queries, “How will we ever repay the debt we owe Israel.”

Despite the naive anti-Israel protests occurring on college campuses across America in support of terrorist groups like Hamas, we need to embrace the fact that the enemies of Israel – not only Hamas but Hezbollah, Iran, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and others – are enemies of the U.S. as well. Representing the worst of Islamic extremism, it is Israel that primarily suffers from their aggression. What many Westerners fail to grasp, however, is, in the event of the demise of the Jewish state, a new target immediately would gain their full attention. That target would include all non-Muslim states – i.e., the West – since the ultimate goal of these extremists is to establish a global caliphate in which everyone submits to Sharia as the law of the land.

Sadly, as Israel takes on more and more of these threats in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of over 1,200 of its innocent civilians during the Hamas raid into Israel – protecting the West – it is becoming more and more isolated by the countries benefiting from its actions. It suffers interference from allies such as the U.S., which is unwilling to allow the Jews’ free reign to do whatever they deem necessary in seeking to destroy the threats seeking to destroy them before they can do so. We fail to grasp that Israel effectively has been serving as our first line of defense against the barbarians outside our gates.

There have been two prior times Israel, by initiating action to take out a threat endangering it, destroyed one endangering us as well.

In 1981, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was hellbent on developing a nuclear-weapons capability. But for Israel’s initiative in destroying its nuclear reactor as it was under construction, U.S. troops would have been confronted with additional challenges before launching the Persian Gulf War in 1990.

Additionally, in 2007, Iran provided funding to Syria to build a nuclear reactor. The Syrians had engaged the assistance of North Korea to do so. While Israel offered the U.S. the opportunity to participate in a joint strike to take out the reactor, Washington refused, leaving the Israelis to do it themselves.

In destroying both the Iraqi and Syrian nuclear reactors, Israel not only protected itself but the West as well. It is doubtful skittish Western states, lacking the sense of commitment Israel has to protect itself, ever thanked the Jewish state for doing what they should have done.

With hostilities expanding in the Middle East and Iran having launched 200 missiles at Israel, Tehran knew it was putting its nuclear facilities at risk. While such a strike would, once again, have had the Jewish state serving Western civilization well, an incompetent President Joe Biden, who should be allowing Israel to respond to Iran however it sees fit, told Israel he would not support such an attack. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has now promised not to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities or its oil facilities – the latter of which is the country’s economic lifeline.

We always want to keep our adversaries guessing concerning our options in responding to their aggression. Biden stupidly has removed an important one the West will later regret.

History tells us that Israel’s role today in aggressively destroying Muslim extremist threats is not dissimilar to one played by an individual centuries ago in defending Western civilization. Had he failed to do so, it would be a much different world we live in today, finding ourselves as subjects of the aforementioned global caliphate and living under Islamic law.

The man’s name was Charles Martel. The year was 732, and Martel, long fearing advances northward into Europe by a Muslim army, had trained and prepared his Christian army to stop it. The two forces met in western France on Oct. 10, 732, in the Battle of Tours. Martel inflicted such a devastating blow against the Muslims that they were never able to continue their advance. Thus, he is credited with preventing Islam’s spread into Western Europe.

It is clear that Israel is the West’s modern-day Charles Martel. Unfortunately, while his role was recognized and appreciated 13 centuries ago, Israel has yet to be thanked for its past role as Biden inhibits its current role.