The anemic impulses of Western leaders were on dismal display at this week's G-7 summit in Canada. Ceasefire and de-escalation were their watchwords in relation to the war against Iran.
Yes, they called Iran a source of regional instability and terror, and lukewarmly affirmed that Israel "had a right" to defend "itself." But they then swiftly segwayed to their default defeatist mode, supplicating earnestly for a ceasefire.
Absent from the G-7 statement was any of the required leadership sentiments of this momentous moment; any sense of ire, indignation, determination, urgency, opportunity, appreciation, and ideology.
The G-7 could generate no ire at Iran's 40-year-long nuclear bomb program and regional hegemonic drive, or the repeatedly sworn commitments of the ayatollahs to rout the West and eradicate Israel.
The G-7 could germinate no indignation at Iran's long-term bamboozling of Western nuclear inspectors, at Iran's backing for Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, at Iran's global terrorist networks, and at Iran's massive firing of intercontinental ballistic missiles into Israel.
The G-7 displayed no determination to force an end to Iran's threat to global peace and security through decisive action, once and for all, to reset the global strategic architecture by defanging Iran and striking an overwhelming blow to the evil axis of Russia-China-Iran (and Turkey).
The G-7 could nurture no urgency about the situation, no resolution to act with alacrity in support of Israel's war effort, and no enthusiasm for making a signal contribution to the most consequential, cosmogonic conflict since World War II.
The G-7 expressed no understanding of the enormous opportunity to the Western world presented by Israel's audacious action against Iran, of the occasion for a completely different, better future for all peace-seeking peoples of the Middle East and beyond.
The G-7 showed no appreciation whatsoever of the incredible courage and sacrifice that rested in the Jewish People and their sovereign State of Israel at this critical time.
No appreciation for Israel's daring and brave leadership in tackling the dangerous Islamic Republic of Iran, for denying nuclear proliferation to the rogue regime in Tehran, and for doing the hard work that the UN Security Council and all the so-called Great Powers should have done 20 years ago.
Finally, the G-7 incubated no ideological comprehension, no awareness of the grand sociopolitical and religious challenge that Iran poses to the free world.
After all, radical Islam long has declared civilizational war on the West, with America as the hated "Great Satan," Europe as the ridiculed "Middle Satan," and Israel as the devious "Little Satan." Radical Islam, ideologically fueled, funded, and armed by Shiite Iran and by radical Sunni movements (such as Al Qaida), seeks the cultural and political submission of these Satans and the annihilation of Israel.
Accordingly, the current war is about far more than regional security or the Fordow uranium enrichment facility. It is about far more than breaking up the axis of tyrannical, anti-Western powers that are backing up Iran. It is, again, about a seismic ideological assault on the West – on the values of democracy and human and civil rights, with Israel at the forefront of this contest.
What is all this nonsense that Israel's airstrikes against Iran's nuclear juggernaut are "not our war"? This absolutely is the West's war, and the West should at least acknowledge this, if not assist Israel in winning the battle!
Alas, the West seems to have difficulty distinguishing between good and evil, between victim and perpetrator, between necessary "escalation" and all-out civilizational collapse.
The State of Israel is this generation's great generator of moral purpose. It is awakening the West from suicidal slumber, from dangerous cultural and strategic malaise. The West must defend itself against the worst radical Islamic actors, such as Iran, beginning with vigorous support for the State of Israel's vanguard war against it.
Thus, Israel's principled leadership should be celebrated and lauded, not dismissed with mealy-mouthed mutterings about its "right" to defend "itself" and feeble murmurs about de-escalation.
What the G-7 should have said is this: "We stand steadfastly shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel as it foils Ayatollah Khamenei's theological lust for worldwide genocidal apocalypse."
And this: "Thank you to the State of Israel for its formidable clarity in fighting for Western civilization and its values. Thank you, Israel, for saving the West from its own lethargy and confusion."
As former Prime Minister Menachem Begin once observed: "The world may not necessarily like the fighting Jew, but the world will have to take account of him." In current circumstances, if the West seeks to survive, it really ought to.
