Historian’s Corner

Victor Davis Hanson Qatar Like Turkey, by any classical definition, Qatar is belligerent and anti-American. It hosts the anti-Western propaganda megaphone of the Middle East Al Jazeera. It also courts the Hamas apparat, including those who helped plan the October 7 massacres. It is the financial conduit for most radical, anti-western terror groups. Yet Qatar […]

Victor Davis Hanson Then we come to the increasingly unambiguous role of Turkey. Ostensibly, Turkey is a critical U.S. and NATO ally. It possesses NATO’s largest military aside from America’s, and its geographical location is critical for NATO security concerns—controlling the historical Bosporus with its opening to the Black Sea and situated in the heart

Victor Davis Hanson Iran Iran believes in defense-in-depth. Such a strategy puts its well-armed pawns Hezbollah and Hamas on the front lines as a buffer between Tehran and the infidels: the Arabs take the risk and casualties, and the Iranians thereby hope they inflict some damage on Israel or the U.S. while avoiding a deadly

Hamas Hamas was quite clever in lying to the IDF, Mossad, and the Israeli government that it was finally resigned to fostering its own internal development. Its guest workers inside Israel—sometimes 20,000 a day—supposedly were emissaries of goodwill and would spike prosperity in Gaza. Hamas talked of its rivalries with the Palestinian Authority and for

Victor Davis Hanson Students at UCLA and on other campuses, some of them on foreign student visas, and others on some sort of taxpayer-funded support, are now marching with the chant, “Israel, Israel you cannot hide, we charge you with genocide.” So, Hamas gunmen break into Israel, slaughter over 1,000 civilians, mutilate them, behead some,

Victor Davis Hanson Try to fathom the following unimaginable: 1) Why do Middle Eastern terrorists when committing murder and mayhem dress in casual civilian clothes, but when there is no danger their “commanders” usually for photo-ops outfit themselves in fatigues? Should it not be reversed: the killers wear uniforms, and their “civilian” overseers do not?

Victor Davis Hanson So here is the paradox. Given what we have seen from Hamas this week, why do Middle Easterners emigrate to the West, prosper, enjoy security and freedom, unknown in their former homelands—and then cheer on terrorists and pledge fealty to the systems they forsook? Did the crowds in New York on the

Victor Davis Hanson One could loosely define Europe and the United States as “Western.” Roughly, that means a billion people living under consensual governments—with mostly free-market economies, where religious freedom, unfettered expression, and an independent judiciary are the norms. In varying degrees, Western nations are not strictly blood-and-soil societies. Anyone can become an American who