Today's show is sponsored by ExpressVPN.

Thousands of my listeners have already secured their network data to join them. ExpressVPN.com slash Ben. The easiest moral place to stand is in the middle. Standing in the middle is comforting. It grants you the illusion that you're being even-handed, that you see nuance and complexity where others just see black and white. It's flattering to be in the middle. No one hates your viewpoint enough to make you with their opponent, and yet you get to stand apart from everyone, tutting both sides. When it comes to Israel and its terror-supporting enemies, the West has, for some decades, taken precisely that middle position. Sure, Israel should be able to defend itself, but not too much. Yes, Israel has the right to exist, but it must make concessions to those who openly

seek Israel's destruction. When Israel's enemies pursue the worst atrocities in four generations,

it's difficult to maintain that position of study neutrality, in which attacks on Israel

are chalked up to political differences and shrugged away. It turns out that scenes of brutally

massacred children, women and men, tend to upset the moral stomach.

But then the stomach settles again. All it takes to return to that sophisticated neutrality

is a few false platitudes, a few comforting lies. Three of those lies in particular have been

provided in significant supply by the hard left and its allies in the legacy media.

The first lie is that Israel must be warned not to engage in human rights violations.

We hear this all the time from the presidents of the United States, from the United Nations,

from the President of France, from the media.

The idea is that if Israel's leadership isn't reminded in the wake of the worst pogrom since the Holocaust,

those rude Jews might do something

truly evil. They might carpet bomb gods. They might nuke the place. The purpose of the lie is really

simple. To get Israel to stop defending itself at the first available opportunity. See, if you warn the

world that Israel has to be warned not to pursue atrocities, and then, as inevitably happens in a war,

something awful happens,

Israel can be blamed and they can quickly be shoved back into the box of moral equivalence.

Voila. Status quo ante restored. Of course, this lie is a lie and it is a stupidly offensive lie in the same way that it is a lie when the United Nations warns the United States about

human rights violations. Israel is a professional military.

It abides by the rules of war. Its enemies openly cheer the death of civilians, both Israel's

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