Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West

A powerful, next-generation manifesto declaring that the future prosperity of Western civilization is dependent upon the ongoing security and success of the Jewish State of Israel, and that the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland demands a realist foreign policy emphasizing the U.S.-Israel alliance that will require military strength and a focus on Israeli self-defense for the country as well as its individual citizens.

Israel is the West’s man on the spot—the tip of the spear in the battle against Islamist terrorism and secularist nihilism alike. But the old-guard voices advocating for the full support of Israel as a nation-state and as an idea are being drowned out from all sides—theistic, secularist, right, left, and everything in between. To combat the uproars of multiculturalism, postmodern relativism, “tolerance,” and Jew-hating social media, the time is now for voices from a new generation. We must address modern antisemitism and sound a call not just to accept, but to enthusiastically embrace the centrality of Judaism to the very character of Western civilization.

In Israel and Civilization, acclaimed journalist, legal expert, and pundit Josh Hammer makes a righteous case that the key to the prosperity of the West is the flourishing of the Jewish people and the Jewish State of Israel. Hammer’s uplifting offense is our best defense against the enemies of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. And as Hammer makes clear, manifesting the promise of Israel requires action by the United States and its allies.

There can be no overstating the impact of the trauma of October 7, 2023, on the Jewish people. Yet the anti-Israel reactions the world over have been equally devastating. Rallies of hundreds of thousands explicitly or implicitly promoting Hamas violence; demonstrations of Ivy League professors celebrating the pogrom as “awesome” and “exhilarating;” so-called human rights organizations that refuse to unequivocally condemn the use of rape as a weapon of war; and a hydra of multiculturalism, postmodern relativism, and “tolerance”—it all threatens the physical and metaphysical survival of the West and our essential Jewish heritage.

Preserving the best of what’s been thought and said throughout history and ensuring that there will be centuries more requires a West that is proud of its Jewish heritage. In other words, the continued existence of the Jewish people is inextricably tied to the endurance of Western civilization. Israel is the center of the battle, and Israel and Civilization explains why and how the Jewish state must win.

Josh Hammer is senior editor-at-large of Newsweek, a syndicated columnist through Creators Syndicate, and a fellow with both the Edmund Burke Foundation and the Palm Beach Freedom Institute. He also hosts The Josh Hammer Show, a Newsweek podcast and syndicated weekly radio show. A frequent pundit and essayist on political, legal and cultural issues, Josh is a constitutional attorney by training. 

Josh has been published by many leading outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, Daily Mail, National Review, The Spectator, Townhall, Fortune, Fox Business, The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, The Forward, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and the Jewish Journal. His legal scholarship has been published by the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy and the University of St. Thomas Law Journal. Josh is a college campus speaker through Young America’s Foundation and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and a law school campus speaker through the Federalist Society. 

Prior to Newsweek and The Daily Wire, where he was an editor, Josh practiced law at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and clerked for Judge James C. Ho on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Josh has also served as a John Marshall Fellow with the Claremont Institute and as a Fellow with the James Wilson Institute. Josh graduated from Duke University, where he majored in economics, and from the University of Chicago Law School. He lives in Florida but remains an active member of the State Bar of Texas.