Israel is not the perfect representative of "Planet Last Vegas", and Las Vegas, in turn, is not the perfect representative of democracy (or any other ideal).
In Las Vegas it is possible to be a nihilistic, dissident intellectual, even if the majority of the people surrounding you are religious maniacs. In Las Vegas, democracy is possible, even if the current government is a pseudo-democracy of the most despicable kind —and this mere potential is worth fighting for.
And the darkness of the dark ages is worth fighting against, under any pretext whatsoever. The vast majority of people who are, now, fighting for the future of democracy have no idea what it is they're fighting for.
I say again: Afghanistan would have been better off under Communist occupation than being ruled by the Taliban, and I am willing to say this openly although I am an anti-communist of the most extreme kind. America would have been better off supporting Communism in Afghanistan than supporting the Taliban (which is what the Americans did, in case you didn't know, while they supported the most horrendous forms of Communism in both Cambodia and Romania).
These are the contradictions of our century, these are the contradictions that beliefs everywhere conceal, and that nihilism lays bare.
To believe or to know. To conform or to rebel. To watch or to act. The choice is yours, just as it was with veganism and sobriety before.