On Democracies and Death Cults, a Review

I just completed On Democracies and Death Cults by Douglas Murray. Like all of his books, this one is beautifully written and remarkably perceptive. In this case, I chose to listen to the audio version of the book, and I recommend it over the written version if you have an Audible account. The reason for this is that Murray himself narrates the book, and no one can give to it the feeling that he projects as he reads his own words.

I have heard dozens of podcasts, read innumerable articles, and watched a number of videos describing the events of October 7th, 2023. With each new one, I feel like I cannot be moved any further, but am proven wrong in that by the pathos the descriptions inspire. I approached this book with that same sense, and once again I was devastated by the descriptions of the incredible inhumanity that was on display on that day and the days and weeks that followed, not just in Israel itself and Gaza, but on the streets of almost every western country where mobs of demented antisemites raved and praised the barbaric actions of Hamas and the ordinary Gazans who followed them into southern Israel.

Murray recounts the events of that day in great detail, focusing on specific Kibbutzim and their inhabitants. He provides shocking details of how individual lives were taken, of children, women and men, most huddling in their bomb shelters without any other protection available.

He tells what happened at the Nova Music Festival, where terrorists on motorcycles and paragliders descended on the unsuspecting celebrants, many of whom were drug-addled and completely defenseless.

None of these things are new. They have been written about and discussed over and over. However, when Murray speaks about them, based not on having read about them, but on actually visiting the sites within days of the event when bodies were still visible, interviewing survivors and first responders, it has an immediacy which cannot be ignored. The brilliant writing is enhanced by his obvious emotion as he reads his words.

He does not stop there. The book is a tour de force covering every aspect of the event, its antecedents, the perpetrators, the victims, the hypocrisy of those who blame the victims, the effects it had on the people of Israel, and what he himself saw in Gaza when he went in with IDF forces.

Perhaps, though, the most powerful part of the book is the understanding that it projects of the death cult that is Islam as taught and practiced by the surrogates of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the entity bearing major responsibility for what is happening throughout the Middle East. It is striking to compare of how Israelis react to every death of their own, as well as innocents of the enemy camp caught in the crossfire, as compared to the undaunted willingness of Hamas and Hezbollah to see their own people die, their own children included, in order to affect world opinion against Israel. This stands out starkly in his descriptions, and it is appalling. What is even worse is the willingness of Western nations to overlook the ploy and condemn Israel as though they are to blame.

Douglas Murray pulls together all of the threads of October 7th and its aftermath into a concise and stirring narrative that should be read (or, recall my recommendation: listened to) by everyone. Like the Holocaust, it should never be forgotten. It should not be allowed to fall through the cracks of history, to be just another terrorist act. The left will attempt to rewrite history, to make Jews the perpetrators rather than the victims, to show that democracies are unworkable and evil and have to be overthrown. We witness the same twisted tactic we see so often at home, ascribing guilt to the opposition of what you yourself are doing. It is the paradigm for the left in all of its various avatars—Progressives, Hamas, communists, fascists, Antifa, BLM, and on and on. We need people like Douglas Murray to keep us armed with reality, as he does in this book, so that we do not fall prey to the lies used to obfuscate the truth.