Two headlines in The Wall Street Journal last week brought home how small the world has become.

“The Intifada comes to Boulder,” read one.

“Ukraine’s drone strike is a warning — for the U.S.,” read the other.

The first referred to how the Palestinian uprising against Israel suddenly landed in our backyard last Sunday when a man shouted “Free Palestine!” and hurled Molotov cocktails at Jewish demonstrators in Boulder, injuring 15 people he said he fully intended to kill.

The other referred to Ukraine’s remarkable drone strike that same day that damaged as many as 40 strategic bombers 3,000 miles inside Russia, the same bombers that have rained hellfire on Kiev.

The attacks in Boulder “are intended to terrorize the Jewish diaspora and send a message to Jews that they are targets anywhere in the world,” the Journal wrote.

Of the Ukrainian attack, “One urgent lesson beyond that conflict is that the U.S. homeland is far more vulnerable than most Americans realize.” The success of the Trojan horse drone attack showed the world how low-cost, high-tech drone strikes can do great harm to even the most heavily defended world powers.

“Americans are accustomed to wars fought far from home by a force of volunteers,” wrote the Journal, “but everyone in the U.S. will be on the front lines of the next conflict.”

It looks like we already are.

Welcome to the age of the Everywhere War, where the world’s worst clashes no longer heed geographical boundaries or national borders. Instead, they can have a profound and far-reaching impact on a global scale, influencing international relations, economies, and inter-community dynamics, even in a “peace, love and understanding” kind of place like Boulder.

The Boulder attack may have been shocking, but not surprising,

“The whole Jewish community is reeling, shocked that this hideous hate crime could happen right here in downtown, beautiful Boulder, Colorado,” Boulder Rabbi Marc Soloway said during a vigil for the victims Wednesday night. “And yet, we have seen this coming.”

Antisemitic incidents in the U.S. hit an all-time high in 2024, with the ADL documenting more than 9,300 cases — a 5% increase over the previous year, according to our reporter Nico Brambila. That represents a fourfold rise over five years and a ninefold surge over the past decade. In that rise we can see the shadows the Gaza war has cast here at home.

But why has an ancient, 2,000-year-old fight in a faraway land struck so powerfully and violently here, roiling our streets, campuses and op-ed pages?

Globalizing the intifada

One reason is that pro-Palestinian activists are very intentionally trying to make the Gaza conflict a global conflict.

In anti-Israel demonstrations around the world, the most frequently heard chant is “globalize the intifada.” Widespread violent actions against synagogues, Jewish homes, cultural centers and individuals have been taken in the name of making Jews pay a price all over the world.

Chloe Skinner, a research fellow for the pro-Palestinian Institute of Development Studies, explained the view of activists this way: “Beneath the burgeoning death toll across Palestine are global systems of power, rooted in the logic, history and presence of colonial violence. As such, in the face of this genocide, the intifada — the ‘shaking off’ of colonial dynamics of racism, violence, dehumanization and division — must be globalized.”

The United States’ strong economic and military backing of Israel makes it perhaps the prime battlefront for that globalizing.

World’s arena

We are also a polyglot country, teeming with many nationalities. There is no longer one ethnic group setting all the rules guiding the U.S. And because of that mixing bowl, many of the world’s disagreements play out on a smaller scale right here.

Migration

Of course, massive migrations have spread the problems of war-torn countries directly to our shores as people flee their homes and seek refuge. President Donald Trump’s massive crackdown on immigration has promised to keep us safer from these migrations, as much as that is ultimately possible. But such mass displacements are happening all over the world, leading to refugee crises everywhere, all at once, requiring extraordinary international cooperation to address at a time when the United States is pulling back from the world.

Transnational crime

In another world-shrinking dynamic, transnational drug cartels have globalized their supply lines, which has far-reaching impacts on public safety and economic stability. The fentanyl flowing to the U.S often starts with precursor ingredients in China, which are than shipped to Mexico, assembled in labs there, and smuggled into the United States.

Digital commons

The World Wide Web and digital technologies have created new global platforms for violence, including cyberbullying, online harassment, and the spread of hate speech, which can inflame individuals and communities anywhere.

Drones change warfare

And now there are small, deadly drones like those Ukraine snuck into Russia and used to take out more than $7 billion worth of long-range bombers with technology that costs pennies in comparison. 

On a recent tour of NORAD, I asked one of the officers there what the general plan was to stop attacks by swarms of drones. “We’re working on that,” he said chillingly.

I was recently in a conversation with Ukrainian journalists, who told me the best weapon against drones is a shotgun in the front seat of their pickups.

That drone attack could give new impetus to Trump’s planned “Golden Dome” missile-defense shield, which aims to protect the U.S. from drones and spy blimps in addition to missiles. Israel’s recent success shooting down drones with lasers points the way for a shield of our own, much of which could be built and operated right here in Colorado.

In an era that has spawned Doctors Without Borders, Reporters Without Borders, and even Clowns Without Borders, is it any surprise that we now have War Without Borders?

Let’s pray, however, that these recent attacks also give new impetus to our instinct for collective action and bridge building so well represented by those Organizations Without Borders.

When the size of the world collapses in moments like this, there is another takeaway: 10,000 miles away from each other, we’re all still sisters and brothers. The funeral bells tolling in Gaza and Ukraine also toll for us. 

As Robert Williams, executive director of the USC Shoah Foundation, said at Wednesday’s vigil in Boulder: “We have a real national — I’d say global — obligation to stop turning a blind eye.”