Numb to evil

Mark Steyn discusses the Israelification of Europe in a column in the NY Sun. What does he mean? His fear is that Europeans will become like Israelis -- terrorism will be an accepted if regretted part of life. Why? Because of the relative lack of outrage by the Brits generally in the wake of the 7/7 attacks.

In the 1970s or 1980s, a 49-kill terrorist strike would be immense for the IRA, ETA or other Euro-terrorist groups. But compared to Madrid's death count of 191, it seems small.

In their glory days, the IRA blew up members of the Royal Family and the British Government. By the end of their campaign, they were reduced to splattering grannies and expectant mothers across shopping centres. Now as then, prestige targets will be secured against terrorism, and that will leave soft targets — in a word,you, your morning bus ride, that little restaurant you like. And, as in Israel, Europeans will get used to the idea that every so often, entirely at random, there will be days when your husband or daughter or best friend sets off for work and doesn’t come home.

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[T]his is what I mean by Israelification: the jihadists understand that Europe is up for grabs in a way that America isn’t.Israel/Palestine is,in the old joke, the twice promised land — a western democracy and a disaffected Muslim population exist in (for the most part) two solitudes but claim the same piece of real estate. As it happens, that’s also how more and more Muslims see Europe.

Now I don't fully buy the notion that 49 dead in Britain will be treated like small beer in comparison to the Madrid bombings, but I also do not have total faith that even the British will deal with the terrorist threat to their lands. After all, the British are shocked that their terrorists seem to be British-born members of the Pakistani-British community.

Steyn attributes this to America's better ability to assimilate its immigrants, and he has a point:

[T]here are significant differences between Europe’s and America’s relationship with Islam. It was the late Ayatollah Khomeini who popularized the idea that the United States is the Great Satan — a shrewd shorthand in that it acknowledges not merely that the hyperpower is evil but that he is a great seducer, too. And, when one contrasts the vast number of British, European and Canadian jihadists who’ve turned up in the thick of it in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iraq, Israel, Bosnia, Chechnya and beyond with the relatively insignificant number of American Muslims so embroiled, one begins to appreciate that the Great Satan is indeed a relatively effective seducer — at least to the extent that America seems to be doing a better job at assimilating Muslims than Europe or Canada. Of course, to assimilate you have to have something to assimilate with, and the yawning nullity of the European idea seems to be a wee bit deficient in that respect.

Read it all.