After the unimaginable violence committed by Hamas on October 7, with waves of terrorists invading Israel to burn, rape, mutilate, torture, kidnap and murder innocent people because of their Jewish faith, many conservatives were shocked to witness an explosion of bloodthirsty anti-Semitism on the streets of European cities.

Pro-Palestine marchers in London.

Crowds immediately gathered in support of Hamas’s attack, with calls for “jihad” in London, protesters outside the iconic Sydney Opera House chanting “gas the Jews” In the days and weeks following the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, the scope of support for the destruction of Israel and the actions of Hamas has expanded to include pro-Palestinian mobs surrounding Jewish students on university campuses, the widespread tearing down of missing posters for Jewish civilians held captive in Gaza, and the vandalisation of war memorials.

Such behavior demonstrated by hundreds of thousands of protesters across the Western world should not only forever dispel the ridiculous defense claimed by anti-Semites that their open Jew-hatred is simply anti-Israel or anti-Zionist in nature. Indeed, as the late Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks put it, this “contemporary anti-Semitism” is nothing other than the latest mutation of an ancient bigotry.

Even still, it’s worth dwelling upon the appeals to allow these increasingly fraught pro-Palestine demonstrations to continue on the grounds of free expression, a value hardly shared by Hamas leadership. We are witnessing the suicide of the West under the false banner of multiculturalism – doomed not by the mere presence of multiple cultures within a single society, but the stubborn insistence that all cultures, by virtue of their difference, are inherently virtuous.

For decades, European countries (or at least their leadership) have wholeheartedly embraced the notion of multiculturalism through the irrefutable adoration – even worship – of diversity. Through an array of various factors, including decolonisation, globalisation and porous immigration policies, European countries have undergone vast levels of diversification.

This diversification was revolutionary for nations lacking in a ‘nation of immigrants’ founding story. In many ways, it was for the better, enriching pre-existing national cultures with new traditions – but, as the events of the past few weeks have made clear, it could also be for the worse.

The issue here is that through naivety, cynicism, and the immediate woke-ified rejection of any criticism of immigration policy as undeniably racist, each and every identity characteristic has been lumped together as equally irrelevant. It is true that most are indeed irrelevant. One’s skin color, for instance, holds no bearing on your value as a member of society, and to argue otherwise is an act of bigotry.

However, some characteristics are not only relevant, but culturally pivotal – if not destructive – including any ideology which openly seeks the destruction of Western values. There is no greater example of such an anti-Western culture than the bizarre and oxymoronic combination of radical Islam and radical Leftism which has, seemingly overnight, taken over Western streets to protest in favour of anti-Semitic terrorism. Posters such as “Queers for Palestine” are not only instant meme-fodder – they are the shameless emblems of an ideological partnership which seeks to subvert and destroy Western values.

And this ideology isn’t limited to street protests or the increasingly radical halls of academia. Today, anti-Western activists are making significant inroads in the halls of politics. For examples, look no further than former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the United Kingdom, or Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib in the United States.

The sheer scale of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations across Europe – which in some instances celebrated and endorsed acts of genocide – proves that the West’s open and unquestioning tolerance at all costs does, in fact, come with a cost.

Britain has wrestled with the limits of public order policing, while French authorities have responded to disorder in the streets with their own heavy-handed approach. Many American lawmakers are now looking to the European continent in horror. Take Gov. Ron DeSantis, who suggested Europe’s rising anti-Semitism is connected to migrants “bringing their culture and... views with them”. Debates over legal immigration, once restricted to the fringes of American political discourse, now dominate the airwaves.

It’s easy to understand why. The fundamental error made by European leaders – through ignorance, incredulousness or with intent – is to have assumed that all cultures exist under a shared umbrella of core values. Clearly, they do not. Integration is a difficult business we can no longer rely on to occur without intervention. Conservatives, both American and European, are finally beginning to wake up to that fact.