The British neoconservative author and commentator emphasized the need to combat “anti-westernism” in his inaugural visit to Buckley.
Will Coen
Staff Writer, The Buckley Beacon
On Wednesday, the Buckley Institute hosted Douglas Murray for a conversation titled, “Why We Must Save the West.”
Murray is a well-known British conservative political commentator, New York Times bestselling author, and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a right-leaning think tank. He is the author of The War on the West: How to Prevail in an Age of Unreason (2022), The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race, and Identity (2019), and more recently On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization (2025). He is also a regular contributor to several prominent news outlets and podcasts.
Murray opened by reflecting on his own experiences as a journalist, including his travels to the Middle East. After October 7, 2023, the day Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel that left 1,200 dead, Murray spent 19 weeks in Israel and made two trips to the Gaza Strip. Documenting the conflict has led Murray to have a “unique” appreciation for the West.
“It’s been my observation, mainly through my travels and foreign reporting, that what we have is very precious, very complicated, but also unique,” Murray told the audience of roughly 300 attendees. “I think that self-criticism is intrinsic to the Western tradition. … But the moment where self-criticism turns into self-laceration, then self-hatred, and eventually somewhere along the line self-destruction.”
Murray argued that contempt for the state of Israel is part of a more generalized hatred of the West, reflecting on a pro-Palestine rally which drew approximately one thousand people to Times Square on October 8, 2023, the day after Hamas’ attacks. The protest, which was endorsed by Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), featured demonstrators chanting “resistance is justified” in response to Israeli occupation. A New York resident himself, Murray recounted seeing the protest firsthand.
“On the seventh of October, I was in my home in New York, and the next day went down to Times Square where there was a protest against Israel,” Murray said. “And even for me that was pretty shocking. … One thing I have learned is that it’s very interesting the target selection some people engage in. And I’ve often wondered, what is it about Israel that just gets under the skin of so many people?”
At the time, the October 8 rally drew bipartisan criticism, with Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul condemning the demonstrations as “abhorrent and morally repugnant.”
In the two years since Hamas’ October 2023 attacks, Murray has remained a staunch proponent of Israel, even as support of the Israeli government appears to be souring on the political right. In April, Murray appeared on the “Joe Rogan Experience,” where he clashed with podcaster Joe Rogan and comedian Dave Smith over Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, which has killed over 67,000 Palestinians.
In his Wednesday lecture, he criticized what he called “Chomskyism,” or the assumption that the U.S. always lies at the root of foreign conflicts.
“Chomskyism on the left was, ‘if any country went to hell, it must be because America did something.’ It must be because of us,” Murray said. “I think something similar has been gestating on the right, which is that even from the conservative side, we must be responsible for everything. That’s where you end up in places like, ‘Winston Churchill was the chief villain of World War II.’”
Murray added that Chomskyism often feeds into anti-Israel, as well as antisemitic theories that allege Israel and Jewish individuals control American foreign policy. Historically, Murray argued, this trend is explained in an observation made by Russian writer Vasily Grossman.
“[Grossman’s] great phrase that I’ve been trying to popularize is, ‘Tell me what you accuse the Jews of, I’ll tell you what you’re guilty of.’ It’s a searingly brilliant insight,” Murray said. “The Nazis had accused the Jews of being racists who wanted to take over the world. I think a psychologist might call this projection.”
Later in his speech, Murray was asked about New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s recent electoral victory. “Everything to do with his proposals is almost a recipe for how to destroy a city,” Murray said of Mamdani’s platform. “There will be a drain from the NYPD, all the proposals to send mental health professionals to the scene of a crime instead of the police. Good luck with that. It’s tragic for us who live in New York.”
Mamdani defeated former New York governor Andrew Cuomo by roughly nine percentage points, despite Mamdani being outspent by tens of millions of dollars.
On November 14, the Buckley Institute will hold its Fifteenth Annual Conference, which will feature Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (YC ‘01) as its keynote speaker.