The lone man of principle faces down a menace. The stakes are high; the odds of success are not. Yet, bolstered by that principle, he defeats the menace.
That motif runs through our culture, our history, and our mythology, and especially our cinema. Americans in particular so strongly identify with versions of these morality tales that we invented an entire genre — the Western.
The Western world, however, has failed to live up to the integrity, honor, and duty standards so prominent in the world of film. In displays of spectacular cowardice, cynicism, and mendacity, Western governments and institutions have left Israel alone on the battlefield against civilization’s enemies in the Middle East — or worse, sandbagged Israel and aided those enemies.
One cannot help but see parallels to the iconic 1952 classic High Noon, in which Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) has just married and is about to retire and leave the western town of Hadleyville to start a new pastoral life with his Quaker bride, Amy (Grace Kelly). But news arrives that Frank Miller, a murderer whom Kane put in prison years earlier, has been pardoned, and he is arriving in town on the noon train, one day before the new marshal arrives. Miller will reunite with his outlaw gang to take revenge against the lawman who had put him away. Kane could leave — his pacifist wife threatens to leave town on that same noon train, with or without him — but decides to stay out of a sense of duty.
Kane visits friends and allies, attempting to round up a posse. Together, they could seriously outnumber the Miller gang. But, tired and worn down by frontier life, none can or will help. The sentencing judge flees town; the mayor urges Kane to flee; Kane’s deputy, bitter that Kane did not recommend him for promotion, turns in his badge and gun rather than help. Some townspeople, worried that a gunfight would damage the town’s reputation, urge Kane to “de-escalate” and evade the confrontation; others argue that Kane’s fight is not the town’s responsibility. Only one neighbor agrees to be deputized — but backs out when he realizes he is the sole volunteer.
The clock ticks toward noon; the marshal comes to realize that the same neighbors he has served and protected for years are too cowardly or self-interested to stand with him in his hour of greatest need. But Kane — and only Kane — understands: the threat is not just to him, but to the order and safety of the town. If values of honor, duty, law, and justice are to prevail, he must face the Miller gang. Even alone. Even facing depressing odds. He writes out his will.
Spoiler alert: It’s a Hollywood movie. Gary Cooper prevails through resourcefulness, luck, and his wife’s change of heart. And the strength of his idealism and willingness to stand for something supremely important. Once he eliminates the entire Miller gang, out from hiding come his celebrating neighbors. But Kane doesn’t celebrate: he throws down his badge at the feet of his neighbors in disgust, and then he leaves with Amy.
Probably 99% of High Noon’s viewers, including the leaders of Western nations, think that they, too, would act with Cooper-esque honor and principle. And yet, for the past 16 months, we’ve watched as most of the world has shown itself to be more like the cowering townsfolk. Or worse.
For the Western world, “high noon” was at 6:30 A.M. — on October 7, 2023, when Hamas and Gazan “civilians” massacred Israelis by the hundreds with such unspeakable depravity as to mark a civilizational low point.
The “Miller gang” of Iran and its proxy armies, particularly Hamas and Hezb’allah, targeted Israel on seven fronts, loaded with offensive weaponry designed to bleed Israel’s civilians and drive them from Israeli territory. To a disturbing degree, they succeeded.
From the moment Israel was so gruesomely attacked, its democratic “allies” turned tail. But, worse than Hadleyville, they didn’t simply hide: fearful of Islamists in their own countries, gutless governments abandoned Israel diplomatically, sandbagged Israel’s military effort, and let antisemitism run rampant in their streets and media. Worldwide, masses of antisemitic (and anti-American) thugs marched, occupied campuses, wreaked violence and vandalism, and intimidated entire Jewish communities. Authorities cravenly abdicated their duties to their Jewish citizens and genuflected to the mob screaming for the destruction of Israel. Seldom was heard a discouraging word about Hamas or Iran’s other terror proxies.
One “friendly” country after another (including, embarrassingly, the United States) embargoed various arms sold to Israel. The U.K. once stood alone against the Nazi genocidal juggernaut with the help of American arms; now it suspended arms export licenses to embattled Israel. While Russian troops raped and massacred their way through Ukrainian towns, the ICC (International Cangaroo Court) sought farcical “war crimes” prosecutions for genocide by starvation against the leaders of Israel — the first country in warfare history to feed and supply its enemy throughout a war (while, at the same time, that enemy fed its Israeli hostages just one half-pita per day), and which protected enemy civilians in urban warfare better than any country, ever — while Hamas is held blameless, even for stealing aid intended for those civilians and embedding its military among its civilian human shields.
The Biden administration, to America’s shame, has played a double-game with Israel. It supplied arms but slow-walked their shipment; it visited the Knesset but undermined Israel’s elected leader; it helped coordinate defense against Iranian missile attacks but leaked Israeli military plans and intel. It paid lip service to Israel’s right to defend itself but politically pandered to Israel’s enemies by coming right up to the line of accusing Israel of genocide and micromanaged Israel’s military operations but demanded adherence to its terrible advice reflecting horrible judgment, if not a calculated desire to neither upset Iran nor let Israel win convincingly.
This has been the clearest clash of good and evil since WWII, and the West copped out. No matter that the Iranian-axis military power is no match for an alliance of even hollowed out Western militaries; no matter that international shipping and commerce are endangered; no matter that Israeli intelligence tips have prevented bloody terror attacks in most of these countries. Israel faces multiple lethal military and terror threats, and the world hands it nothing but a hostile diplomatic environment. Israel, like Marshal Kane, stands alone and abandoned. It, too, must face down its adversaries — not counting on receiving help from others, but with the knowledge that its survival depends on its own actions.
Existential dangers do have a way of providing clarity and inspiring resourcefulness. Israel’s clarity is in its solid commitments to identity, security, and sovereignty. That will to defend itself results partly from the “secret weapon” Golda Meir made famous — “we have nowhere else to go” — and partly from the positive flip-side to the negative biblical characterization of Israel as a “stiff-necked people” and partly from self-preservation. But at its core, as the Hatikva anthem says, is the drive “to be a free people in our own land” — preservation of the nation and national home.
Those are all things healthy nations of the world once knew and valued. Western governments may, one day, learn from Israel’s principled self-defense. But for now, the Western world shames itself, jettisoning and dishonoring any principle it pretends to uphold, if that is the price of appeasement and “de-escalation.” As a result, the Western nations have become harmless enemies but treacherous allies.
Just as the Hadleyvillains rationalized, and made a virtue of, their self-interested non-involvement, the world preens and virtue-signals but lacks the fortitude to defend and protect the liberties it enjoys and purportedly values. Who takes a Gary Cooper–like stand? Kamala Harris? The U.N.? The ICC? Justin Trudeau?
Israel has stood alone at its High Noon moment, and alone taken on world-menacing, anti-Western forces of terror and Islamism. Alone, Israel has dealt these forces severe blows, one after another. One other advantage for Israel: The Jewish people have seen this movie before, and they know in advance that the world does not exactly race to their rescue.
Like the people of Hadleyville, Western nations will now shamelessly reap the benefits from the very acts and sacrifices by Israel they have obstructed and undermined. And like the people of Hadleyville, they don’t deserve those benefits, either.
There is one key bright spot for Israel in all this: just as the new marshal of Hadleyville was due the next day, Israel and other defenders of Western civilization are counting the hours until the duplicitous Biden team leaves and the Trump administration takes charge. At least for the near future, Israel will not be entirely alone — starting from high noon, January 20.
Pixabay.
Jesus Christ is King
