We just witnessed history: Britain voted to exit the European Union. Far be it from me to intervene in internal British or European affairs, but from the outside, what Britain just went through appears of a piece with a process taking place the world over in different forms.

While the aftershocks of Britain’s decision are yet to be seen, the broad changes to the European landscape have been manifest for some time. The influx of refugees, terrorism and the fear it engenders, have been translated in a multiplicity of complex ways into broad feelings of isolationism, atomization, and ultra-nationalism. The response of liberals the world over must be clear: liberals of the world, unite!

Tragic moments like the recent terror attacks in Istanbul, Paris and Brussels that have taken the lives of so many innocent civilians have taught us all that the challenges and the threats to modern, liberal societies are at their core ideological. The stated purpose of these terror organizations is to fight the free world and everything it stands for; this is why the war against radical Islamic terror is a war of values. Its immediate consequences are known: the toll on daily life, the horror and grief, the fear. But terror and the fear it disseminates has another, less obvious consequence: xenophobia. It is through this fear of the other that our enemies are now succeeding in shifting our values and corroding us from the inside. I need not mention the names of some of the more powerful far-right, ultra-nationalist (even neo-Nazi) parties to make my point. The free world – the global majority of moderate liberals of all faiths – is now paying a global price not only in blood and treasure, but with the very liberal values that have for so long made us who we are.

Read the full article at Jewish News.