Douglas Murray
I do not think that Israel has a better more articulate or fearless non -Jewish supporter of Israel than the British journalist, author and commentator Douglas Murray.
Jeremy Rosen
Someone who on a wider scale has articulated the belief that the Western world has lost its soul and is in danger of terminal decline.
More than anyone else from outside of our community, he has helped keep our spirits high and reassured us that not all is lost to the doctrinaire ignorant venal voices that have all but overwhelmed us these past ten months.
He is currently an associate editor of the conservative British political and cultural magazine The Spectator. One of the last bastions of objectivity and honesty in the media today. Of course, I am biased because he supports Israel in its battle for survival against Jihad and the left-wing mania it is subjected to. Just watch him on YouTube if nowhere else. I challenge you not to be impressed by his manner, his style and his content. His opponents try their best to disparage and delegitimize him and he stands his ground magnificently.
Murray was born in London in 1979 and won scholarships to Eton College and Cambridge University. At 19, Murray published Bosie: A Biography of Lord Alfred Douglas that won him an award and launched his career as a gay journalist followed by a play, Nightfall, about the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.
In 2017, Murray wrote The Strange Death of Europe; Immigration, Identity, Islam. It spent almost 20 weeks on The Sunday Times bestseller list in non-fiction. In it he argued that Europe is committing suicide by losing its faith in its beliefs and traditions. Murray has also written controversially about identity politics in his 2019 book The Madness of Crowds : Gender,Race, Identity. Which also became a Sunday Times bestseller in which he castigates “false narratives and the dishonest advocates or misguided popular causes of sexuality, anti-racialism pseudo-Islamophobia, identity, woke politics and cancel culture.” 2022 Murray published The War on the West: How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason. Which has only further infuriated his enemies.
Another controversial personality, Bernard-Henri Levy has said of Murray, “Whether one agrees with him or not” he is “one of the most important public intellectuals today”. Both Ayaan Hirsi Ali Hirsi ( Somali refugee, Member of Dutch Parliament and almost in hiding in the USA, and columnist Sohrab Ahmari, staunch if critical and objective Muslims, have praised Murray’s work.
Murray has said “If you don’t believe that Israel has the right to stop a group that has proposed repeatedly since its existence that it wants to annihilate Israel, if you believe that Israel doesn’t have the right to try and stop this enemy, then of course you don’t believe Israel has the right to live. You believe Israel has the right to die.”
He spent around 6 months in Israel following the attacks, visiting conflict zones and writing in defence of Israel’s actions. Murray has criticized anti-Israel protests and rhetoric in Western countries like Britain as being largely motivated by antisemitism and support for terrorism rather than genuine concern for Palestinians. He has described some protests as “terrorist marches”
Murray has argued that much of the criticism of Israel stems from either explicit antisemitism, anti-Western ideology, or ignorance about the realities of the conflict, all exploited by malicious actors. He has criticized the use of the term Zionism as a slur. He has also criticized the international media for being “focused not on the atrocities Hamas committed against Israel but on the response of Israel to the terrorists of Hamas” and not showing sympathy to Israeli victims.
In April 2024, he received an honorary award from President Isaac Herzog for being a “friend to the Jewish people and fighting the resurgence of antisemitism” due to his coverage of the recent attacks and massacres of civilians by Hamas fomented and financed by Iran. In the aftermath of the massacre of Israeli civilians. Murray has travelled to Israel and to Gaza multiple times and has reported firsthand instead of relying on subjective secondhand sources.
Murray has also supported the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor based in Israel that reports on international NGO activity from a pro-Israel perspective founded in 2001 by Professor Gerald M. Steinberg. He recently refused to debate the Israel Palestine Conflict because the title of the debate was not neutral and already showed bias and pre-conception.
Of course, none of this implies that Israel has not made mistakes, whether military, politically or ideologically. But the overwhelming weight of one-sided criticism only makes a peaceful resolution less likely (and irrational, hypocritical hatred only strengthens resistance to change) .
What kind of person has the courage and the individuality to take such an unpopular stand? Only someone who knows alienation because of his difference and what it is to feel prejudice and rejection. As he has and is. Murray is the epitome of a righteous non-Jew who deserves our support and gratitude. He is a reminder that not everyone in the non-Jewish world is against us.
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.
