In a 2009 Tel Aviv University lecture, the elderly British professor, Bernard Lewis, surprised the audience: One day, Turkey and Iran might switch; Turkey could become like Iran, and Iran like Turkey.
This was met with giggles and smiles by the crowd, which included Israeli business leaders, politicians, and academics. After all, Turkey is our ally, a member of NATO, which was on a trajectory to become part of the European Union. This was while Iran was trying to build its stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, acquire nuclear capabilities, and tighten its reign on the Middle East through proxies.
I shared Lewis’s comments in think tank discussions in New York about a series of position papers I authored on the transformation of Judaism – a precursor to my 2022 book, Judaism 3.0: Judaism’s Transformation to Zionism.
We connected the two seemingly unrelated topics, as we were both talking about a seismic shift of a strategic threat. Lewis was warning about a potential seismic shift of a physical threat: I was warning about a potential seismic shift of an ideological threat.
As Zionism is becoming the organizing principle of Judaism, the threat to the survival of Judaism is shifting from traditional antisemitism to Israel-bashing and anti-Zionism. Indeed, some 15 years later, more people are concluding that we are in the midst of such shifts, on both those fronts.
IN THE LAST two months of 2024, Iran suffered a significant blow to its grip on the Middle East and is now facing serious external and domestic survival challenges. At the same time, Turkey, which is no longer a Europe-facing liberal country, is expanding its influence in the Middle East, including through a new apparent proxy in Syria.
Some experts believe that we are heading toward a change from a Middle East based on two enemy powers – Israel and Iran – toward a very different Middle East based on Israel and Turkey as its power bases.
The threat to Judaism from the West escalates
Also, during the last two months of 2024, we saw a sharp escalation of the threat to Judaism from the West, funneled through the Israel-bashing ideology.
The November 2024 International Criminal Court arrest warrants against leaders of the Jewish state, along with instilling a modern-day blood libel that Israel soldiers are partaking in deliberate starvation of Palestinians, are just two examples. The immediate affirmation of these blood libels by European countries, along with pledges to collaborate with efforts to arrest Israeli Jews, is another.
And yet, just as there has not been sufficient focus during the last 15 years on Lewis’s warning of a possible seismic shift of focus from Iran to Turkey, there is not sufficient focus on the possible seismic shift of the strategic threat – from the Middle East to the West.
I SPENT the last month of 2024 on a US tour for my latest book, The Assault on Judaism: The Existential Threat is Coming from the West. Offering new strategies to counter the threat, I received occasional push-back for drawing the attention of decision-makers and influencers to an amorphous ideological threat coming from the West, at a time when Israel is facing a serious physical threat from Iran and its proxies: Missiles are coming in daily, Israeli soldiers are being killed every week, and over 100 hostages are still held in Gaza. Let Israel win the physical war first, and then launch your book. “This is a 2025-2026, post-war book,” I was advised.
Thankfully, many people to whom I presented the book chose to address its ideas: We are in the midst of a fast-moving, multi-front attempt to negate the idea of the Jewish state, and through it, the idea of Judaism. Western opinions are being formed day after day. If we wait till after the physical war is over, it might be too late.
Lewis was born during World War I, when the Ottoman Empire still existed, and passed away in 2018. Learning from him, we should understand the depth of long-term processes and not just analyze what is evident on the surface.
As discussed in this column, the assault on Judaism from the West is a byproduct of the 2,300-year-old European opposition to Judaism, which Theodor Herzl, the visionary of Zionism, deemed as chronic. The 1948 establishment of the Jewish state did not end this feud; it merely provided a tangible vehicle to funnel the opposition by Europe and those who adhere to European ideology.
The Western assault on Judaism is also a proxy for an assault on America and should be treated as a US national security issue. As the new administration is about to assume power, a fresh look at the threat-map facing the United States and its allies is needed.
With new, non-obvious threats emerging, dynamic strategies should be put in place to counter them.
The writer is the author of a new book, The Assault on Judaism: The Existential Threat Is Coming from the West. He is chairman of the Judaism 3.0 Think Tank and author of Judaism 3.0: Judaism’s Transformation to Zionism (Judaism-Zionism.com). His geopolitical articles are featured on EuropeAndJerusalem.com.