European History Repeating Itself on a Global Scale?
Jon Barber
Is the world entering a rerun of the 1930s, this time centering not on European Jews but on Israel and the Middle East?
If so, what are the implications, and where do we go from here?
The 1930s
1930s Europe was marked by severe social upheaval, economic turmoil, and deep ideological polarization. The lingering devastation of World War I, compounded by financial collapse and the Great Depression, fueled mass unemployment, poverty, and rising distrust in traditional institutions. Fragile democracies faltered, and authoritarian movements gained traction.
In this climate of instability, Nazism surged by exploiting nationalist fervor and scapegoating Europe’s nearly 20 million Jews. Through relentless propaganda, the Nazi regime portrayed Jews as the root of Germany’s economic and social troubles, while dismantling democratic norms, freedom of speech, and consolidating power. This toxic mix of economic despair, political collapse, and manufactured hatred, paved the way for World War 2 (1939-45), the systematic persecution of the Jews and the Holocaust.
Towards the 2030s
Today, global assessments paint a stark picture of growing instability. The World Social Report 2025 reveals that nearly six in ten people live under conditions of economic insecurity, with more than 690 million trapped in extreme poverty. Wealth inequality has reached unprecedented heights, as the richest 1% now control more resources than 95% of the world’s population. The UNCTAD World of Debt 2025 report notes that global public debt crossed $102 trillion in 2024, not to mention multiple other forms of debt. Rising inflation, and fragile supply chains have left billions exposed to sudden shocks, while surveys show trust in governments has collapsed for over half of humanity. This breakdown in confidence, coupled with widening disparities and fierce disputes over governance, migration, and climate policy, is driving social fragmentation and deepening ideological divides. The UN warns these converging pressures amount to a “rising tide of insecurity, inequality, and distrust” that threatens the fabric of global cohesion.
In the 2020s, mounting global instability is providing fertile ground for destructive forces to thrive. Economic fragility and social unrest are exploited by Islamist movements and terrorist organizations that recruit from impoverished and unstable regions. At the same time, fake news and relentless anti-Israel propaganda flourish. Like the Nazis, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, and behind them Iran, all orchestrate sophisticated propaganda campaigns against Israel, deploying media units, fake accounts, and digital networks to spread lies and disinformation. Their arsenal includes doctored content, deepfakes, and coordinated online manipulation designed to erode trust, inflame hatred, and shape global opinion.
Parallel to Islamism, the ‘woke’ agenda provokes over identity language and justice. The agenda, rooted in Marxist class theory, reframes society as a battle between oppressor–oppressed, casting Israel as the oppressor or ‘colonizer’ despite its 3,500-year history in the Middle East, while Palestinians are portrayed as the oppressed despite Arab Israeli citizens exercising equal rights under Israeli law and Moslems vastly outnumbering Jews. This mirrors Communism’s bourgeois–proletariat distinction but applied through modern identity politics. Such reductionist narratives ignore the complex geopolitical reality of Israel’s position as a small democracy surrounded by multiple genocidal, well-trained, well-equipped, and well-funded armies.
Global leadership and governance in the 2020s are increasingly shaped by the interplay of Islamism and wokism (and its offspring), as both exploit instability to advance narratives that challenge democratic legitimacy and fuel false perceptions of the historic order. Meanwhile, political Islam seeks to expand sharia-based influence throughout international institutions while undermining Western norms. Islamist and Woke ideologies converge by relying on binary frameworks that delegitimize Israel. Islamist propaganda and woke activism reinforce one another to amplify anti-Israel sentiment in global institutions such as the United Nations or International Court of Justice. Together, they pressure supranational bodies to adopt moralistic and unjust policies.
Root Cause of 1930s and 2030s Instability
The Nazi regime of the 1930s emerged in Germany, according to the anti-Nazi activist and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, because of a dangerous void created by secularism and the abdication of responsibility by the German church. Bonhoeffer accused the predominant Lutheran establishment of retreating into purely ‘spiritual’ concerns—prayer, worship, and heavenly contemplation—while neglecting its earthly duties of governance, justice, and moral leadership. By abandoning its traditional role as a guardian of truth and order, the church left a vacuum in German society. Into that vacuum rushed the pseudo-religious fervor of Nazi ideology, which offered its own liturgy of nationalism, racial purity, and totalitarian control. For Bonhoeffer, Christianity had once provided Europe with a firm foundation of justice, truth, and civilization, but when it lost sight of its mission, a counterfeit faith was able to dominate the nation and corrupt its institutions.
Today, a parallel danger can be seen in the rise of secularist influence on the global stage, morphing into wokism and a host of related ideologies. These movements present themselves as democratic offspring, born of freedom and equality, yet they often turn against the very principles that gave them life. While appearing tolerant, they prove intolerant of the freedoms, traditions, and privileges that underpin Western civilization. Instead of resisting the intolerance of Islamist movements, they paradoxically align with them, particularly in the shared arena of antisemitism and antizionism. This convergence of interests—between radical secular ideologies and Islamist extremism—creates a powerful front of hostility toward Israel and the Jewish people.
For over a thousand years, the West imperfectly built its foundations on Christianity, which provided coherence, moral order, and resilience against destructive ideologies. But now, the West is experimenting with releasing a new genie from the bottle: a secular-Islamist creed that masquerades as progress yet erodes its own foundations. Just as Nazi ideology once filled the void left by a weakened church, today’s ideological movements threaten to fill the vacuum left by a retreating Christianity in the West, replacing truth with relativism or absolutism, justice with identity politics or sharia law, and cohesion with polarization. The lesson of Bonhoeffer’s warning is clear: when the true foundations of civilization are neglected, counterfeit forces—whether fascism, Islamism, or wokism—rush in to dominate.
Where Are We Headed?
The 1930s culminated in the Holocaust, widespread hunger and deprivation, the ‘war to end all wars’, and the loss of 6 million Jews among 70 to 85 million slaughtered in total, or 3% of the then world population.
The 2020s carry a deeply disturbing echo of history, as the dynamics that fueled World War II seem to be reemerging on the global stage. Efforts to restore Judeo-Christian foundations provide only short-term relief, while global institutions with limited democratic accountability relentlessly push forward a mostly unhindered agenda. It seems we may be witnessing the beginnings of the dismantling of democracy, the end of freedom of speech, the trashing of Judeo-Christian values and faith, and a sanctimonious and unfounded consensus that the Jews and Israel are uniquely deserving of collective punishment.
The disintegration of the 2020s is staggering in its speed. The 2030s will see a much deeper entrenchment of forces opposed to freedom, with the pro-freedom forces besieged. However, those forces promoting freedom have also been strengthening and doing so at equally staggering speed.
What will happen when the forces of tyranny cast off restraint on a global scale? What could tyrants achieve with far greater technology including artificial intelligence and mass surveillance, and far more deadly weaponry including huge arsenals of nuclear weapons up to 3,000 times more powerful than that used in Hiroshima? What would happen if they were operating in the context of a financial crisis far worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s, combined with unprecedented global environmental breakdown?
In a Besieged City
If today’s predicaments arise from collapsing foundations, then survival demands a return to those very sources of historic resilience. What was it that enabled our forefathers to endure hardship, to survive and even thrive in societies that were imperfect yet functional, societies built upon freedom, justice, and truth? What values did they cling to, and what faith sustained them, even when the cost was immense and the sacrifices profound?
In the 1930s, the Jewish people had no Israel. They faced persecution, displacement, and annihilation without the shelter of a homeland. Today, Israel exists—not merely as a state, but as the living heart and origin of Judeo-Christian civilization. Against all odds, this tiny nation has survived and thrived for eight decades. It has endured relentless terrorism, both internal and external, while being vastly outnumbered and encircled by hostile armies backed by wealth and power. It has faced internal challenges fueled by westernized or communistic anti-establishment movements, and persistent assaults from globalist antisemitic forces, institutions, and campaigns.
Yet Israel remains. More than that, it flourishes. Its survival is not accidental. Rather than viewing Israel as a problem, should we not see it as a symbol of hope and a source of solutions?
Are not other nations now contending with forces similar to those Israel has long resisted: terrorism, ideological subversion, cultural fragmentation, and globalist hostility? If so, then Israel may stand not only as a model for resistance but as a vital ally. Its experience offers lessons in courage, unity, and perseverance. Its existence testifies that freedom, justice, and truth can prevail. Perhaps the path forward for the world is not to reinvent resilience but to rediscover it, by looking to Israel, and to the values that sustained our forefathers, as a beacon in an age of turbulence.
Bibliography
Global Reports & Data
• United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). World Social Report 2025: A New Policy Consensus to Accelerate Social Progress. New York: United Nations, April 2025. Available at: DESA Publications
• United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). A World of Debt 2025. Geneva: UNCTAD, July 2025. Available at: UNCTAD Publication
Historical Context
• Bonhoeffer Initiative. Church Struggle and Resistance. Accessed November 2025. Available at: Bonhoeffer Initiative
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Holocaust Encyclopedia. Accessed November 2025. Available at: USHMM
• Prinz, Alois. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Resistance to the Nazis. Deutschland.de, April 2025. Available at: Deutschland.de
General References
• Wikipedia contributors. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In Wikipedia. Accessed November 2025. Available at: Wikipedia
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