> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://otherwise.ghost.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# "By those who had memorised the blueprint of slaughter"
- URL: https://otherwise.ghost.io/choosing-life-in-the-age-of-death/
- Published: 2025-08-20T13:06:32.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-17T13:43:48.000Z
- Description: Douglas Murray’s testament to civilisation
- Author: Khaled Salih
- Tags: Newsletter, #Migrated-1792244264359, #Import 2026-10-17 14:38

*By Khaled Salih*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d6/2c/d62cdd13-a476-41c5-8f2c-29270c99d95d/content/images/2026/10/b832d10b-abcb-482a-8513-10e85f2ef7e0_1234x1588-heic.jpg)

> “They came through the fields at dawn, from Gaza, in silence or singing. Some wore uniforms. Others, civilian clothes, as if to mock the idea that there was a difference. It was October 7th, the day of Simchat Torah. In Be’eri, in Kfar Aza, the doors were opened not by hands but by fire, by wire-cutters, by those who had memorised the blueprint of slaughter.”  
>  
> \[Eyewitness, Quoted in Bernal 20250812\]

Douglas Murray’s *On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization* is not merely a book; it is a searing, unflinching testament to humanity’s darkest impulses and its most resilient virtues. Drawing on raw, firsthand accounts and a deep historical lens, Murray presents a powerful and often harrowing narrative that challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about good, evil, and the very foundations of Western civilisation. More than a journalistic report, this book functions as a vital, emotionally charged warning, illuminating where societies stand when a “flare goes up.”

The book’s genesis lies in the cataclysmic events of October 7, 2023, a day that shattered any illusions of peace and security in Israel. Murray vividly recounts the sheer horror of that morning when air-raid sirens blared across Israel, reaching even Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, signalling something “very unusual was happening.” What began as rocket fire escalated into a “major terrorist breach from Gaza into Israel,” orchestrated by Hamas, a group that had dominated the territory since Israel’s withdrawal in 2005\. The scale of the assault was staggering: reports quickly emerged of hundreds, possibly thousands, of terrorists streaming into southern Israeli communities and attacking young people at the Nova festival, a rave party timed for the eve of Simchat Torah.

Murray spares no detail in depicting the unimaginable brutality. He recounts Eli Beer of United Hatzalah stating that “thirty years of incidents all combined didn’t add up to an hour of what happened that morning.” Volunteers, rushing to what they thought were accidents, found themselves under fire from terrorists wearing stolen Israeli uniforms, adding “utter confusion on top of the terror.” The terrorists, numbering perhaps as many as six thousand, arrived by land, vehicles, foot, boat, and even hand gliders, bringing death with an array of weapons. The final death toll was nearly 1,200 people, predominantly civilians, with 364 slaughtered at the Nova festival alone. The brutality was meticulously documented by the perpetrators themselves, using GoPro cameras and mobile phones to broadcast acts of burning people alive, shooting, beheading, and raping men and women, sometimes before killing them, sometimes after. Murray includes the chilling account of a terrorist calling his father, boasting, “Look how many I killed with my own hands! Your son killed Jews!.” The subsequent kidnapping of approximately 250 Israelis of all ages, from babies to the elderly, was not random but a calculated strategic move by Hamas, exploiting the Israeli ethos that “no person should be left behind.” This created “an inestimable advantage” over Israel, a “strategic vulnerability they exploited.”

The book’s most startling and disturbing revelation is the global reaction, or rather, the profound “disconnect” that immediately followed the atrocities. Even as the massacres unfolded, protests erupted against Israel in major Western cities like New York, London, Berlin, and Paris. Crucially, Murray emphasises that “there was not a single major protest against Hamas in any Western city. Not one.” Instead, many protests explicitly celebrated the attacks, with signs proclaiming “Zionist nightmares,” “Resistance Is Justified,” and “From the River to the Sea,” a slogan which, as Murray meticulously explains, is “a call for the elimination of the Jewish state,” implying that Jews must be "killed or forcibly evacuated from the land of Israel.” In London, crowds chanted “Allahu Akbar” and set off flares near the Israeli embassy and 10 Downing Street, celebrating the ongoing slaughter.

Murray dedicates significant attention to the role of academic elites in the United States, where anti-Israel protests became a “focal point” at “nearly every elite educational institution.” Within hours of the October 7th attack, prominent professors like Yale’s Zareena Grewal tweeted, “Settlers are not civilians. This is not hard,” and justified armed struggle, while Cornell’s Russell Rickford called the massacres “exhilarating” and “energising.” Harvard student groups immediately issued a joint statement holding “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” This, Murray argues, highlights a “real deficit in moral clarity, a kind of ideological capture within institutions meant for critical thought.” The rhetoric on campuses escalated, with chants like “al-Qassam you make us proud! Take another soldier out!” and “Burn Tel Aviv to the ground!” Most chillingly, one protester at Columbia vowed to repeat October 7th “10,000 times!”

The book exposes the “context-dependent” moral relativism of university presidents during congressional hearings, where they struggled to affirm that calls for Jewish genocide violated campus conduct policies, contrasting their evasiveness with ChatGPT’s clear moral stance that “advocating for genocide is not permissible in any context.” Murray dissects the “bizarre” and “weaponised” application of “intersectionality,” showing how it was twisted to provide intellectual cover for antisemitism and extreme anti-Israel views. Posters linking “disability oppression” to Israel’s “settler-colonial project” exemplify this distorted logic, allowing protesters to feel they were fighting imperialism while Jewish students were verbally abused and targeted with signs like “al-Qassam’s Next Targets.” The profound irony, as Murray points out, is that Hamas leaders and Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei publicly “thanked these Western student protesters,” calling them part of the “Resistance Front,” even as their own regimes brutally suppress student dissent.

Murray also delves into the “death cult” ideology that drives groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, explicitly showing their genocidal aims. He notes their “cold disregard for human life” and the strategic use of civilian deaths as “necessary sacrifices” to manipulate international opinion. Hamas leaders, he reveals, live in luxury, having amassed billions in international aid, while the citizens of Gaza live in poverty, a stark contradiction to their claims of a “concentration camp.” The book details their deliberate tactic of embedding military infrastructure within civilian buildings, mosques, schools, hospitals, a clear violation of the Geneva Conventions, to use civilians as human shields. Soldiers found “weapons under kids’ cots” and RPGs under “a ‘crib,” illustrating the cynical depths of Hamas’s strategy. Even the “humanitarian corridor” set up by the IDF was used by Hamas fighters who would “gun down” their own civilians trying to flee south.

The book starkly contrasts this with the extraordinary resilience and heroism of ordinary Israelis. Despite intelligence and military failures, the common people “rose to the occasion.” Murray recounts moving stories: Avida Bachar, a peace activist from Be'eri, who, despite losing his wife and son and seeing his community burned, declared, “The enemy has changed. . . . The contract was broken.” Ron Bahat’s description of Nir Oz as a “ghost town” after 11 of his neighbours were massacred in a tiny bomb shelter, with “blood absolutely everywhere.” Yet, in the face of such devastation, Ron, who lived his life believing in peace, still affirmed, “Nir Oz was one of the nicest kibbutzim in Israel. . . . It’s a green bubble. . . . A lot of love and cultivation had gone into this place for decades.”

Murray highlights countless acts of bravery: Nimrod Palmach, a reservist major, who defied orders, drove south with only a handgun, and fought for fifteen hours, helping to kill over thirty terrorists. Harel, a Sderot police officer, who, despite being outgunned and shot by a sniper, “played dead” for hours before rescue, losing many colleagues. Most remarkably, Murray spotlights Tariq, a Muslim Arab-Israeli Hatzalah volunteer, who was shot, tied up, and used as a human shield by Hamas, yet proudly stated, “I am here for my country.” The author also introduces Ben Shimoni, who escaped the Nova party twice, only to return to rescue more people, dying on his third attempt after saving nine lives, and Izzy, a one-armed sharpshooter who reenlisted after October 7th, telling Murray, “if you stick with me you’ll be safe,” embodying a profound “choosing life” ethos. The Hostage Families Forum, a “huge civilian effort” with 15,000 volunteers, epitomises this unwavering commitment to “no person left behind.”

Murray also dissects the insidious nature of antisemitism, describing it as a “shapeshifter” that evolves to fit societal prejudices. He cites Vasily Grossman’s profound insight: “Tell me what you accuse the Jews of, I’ll tell you what you’re guilty of.” This “mirror” effect is evident in accusations against Israel of colonialism, expansionism, and ethnic cleansing, often by countries or groups that have their own histories of such behaviours. The “both-sidesism” and “false moral equivalence” are exposed, particularly in the International Criminal Court's decision to seek arrest warrants for Israeli leaders alongside Hamas terrorists, with the ICC prosecutor even calling Hamas leaders “victims.”

The book critiques Western complacency, contrasting Europe’s “Kantian peace” with Israel’s “Hobbesian reality.” Polls revealing low willingness among young Americans and Britons to fight for their own countries starkly contrast with the existential necessity of battle for young Israelis. Murray observes young Israelis, like a 19-year-old IDF recruit helping to collect human remains from bombed cars or a 23-year-old intelligence expert on Yemen, embodying a level of maturity and purpose far beyond their Western contemporaries.

He concludes with a powerful meditation on “choosing life” as the ultimate counter to death cults. Murray asserts that while jihadists boast, “We love death more than you love life,” the Israeli soldiers fight not because they love death, but “exactly because they love life.” This profound moral distinction, he argues, is the very “basis on which civilisation can win.”

Douglas Murray’s prose is direct, engaging, and deeply personal, particularly in “What I Saw,” where his role as a “witness” is paramount. He weaves historical context, philosophical insights, and raw, emotional anecdotes into a compelling narrative that never shies away from the brutal facts. *On Democracies and Death Cults* is not just a timely account of a pivotal event; it is a clarion call for moral clarity, urging the West to re-examine its values and understand the true nature of the threats it faces. It’s a demanding read, full of pain and outrage, but also full of courage and a profound commitment to life. It leaves the reader with the stark reality that the battle lines of civilisation are clearer than ever, and the choice between life and death is one that every society must ultimately make.

Douglas Murray, 2024, *On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization.* New York, NY: Broadside Books.

Francisco J. Bernal, 20250812, “The Thing That Broke the Sabbath,”

[The Thing That Broke the SabbathFuture of Jewish is the ultimate newsletter by and for people passionate about Judaism and Israel. Subscribe to better understand and become smarter about the Jewish world.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d6/2c/d62cdd13-a476-41c5-8f2c-29270c99d95d/content/images/2026/10/4b8e5326-6fea-48e6-8cef-5ed73c4535e7_500x500.png)Future of Jewish](https://www.futureofjewish.com/p/the-thing-that-broke-the-sabbath?ref=otherwise.ghost.io)