A Commentary
Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu is facing a most critical choice; Whether to crush Hamas once and for all or to bow to the wishes of America, Israel’s putative ally. Through its actions, the Obama administration has shown that it has bought into the whole concept of moral equivalency. In fact, perhaps they’ve gone even farther, taking the de facto Palestinian position on many issues. Though this round of fighting was begun by Hamas when they kidnapped and killed the three Israeli teenagers; though they’ve launched over 2,000 rockets against civilian targets; though they use their own people as human shields and launch attacks from hospitals and schools – it is Israel that has suffered international opprobrium; received only lip service from this President and been pressured to accept a cease fire that would advance the cause and position of the Hamas terrorists. Consider Secretary Kerry’s proposed cease fire. Why was there no call to dismantle Hamas’ rocket arsenal? Why was the network of attack tunnels not addressed by the good Secretary? Why was Kerry holding a Middle East confab with Qatar, European leaders – and Turkey “whose “Hamas-backing leadership” has compared Netanyahu to Hitler and accused Israel of attempted genocide through its current campaign?[i] Should they be considered a neutral party whose input is valued in resolving this situation? The result of all this dithering led to the acceptance by Israel of a UN demanded “humanitarian cease fire” which Hamas ignored. As DEBKA explained: “It also left Hamas free to shoot rockets any time, with the US, Europe, Iran, Qatar and Turkey at its back.”[ii] The Prime Minister’s dilemma is exacerbated by the allies Israel has come by in the process. While the US is operating to protect Hamas, the Saudis, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt are encouraging Israel to put an end to the Hamas threat. That’s a direct slap at Secretary Kerry and President Obama.
What has been lost in all of this is moral clarity. While there are shades of gray in every war: There are Good Guys & Bad Guys in this conflict. However President Obama, Secretary Kerry and the government they lead cannot seem to recognize that. The starting point for understanding all of this should be the Hamas Charter. In their own founding document, Hamas vows its commitment to the destruction of Israel. In article 6 they declare their intention to “raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.” Article 11 states: “The land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [Holy Possession] consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgment Day.” And the very preamble to the Charter offers: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” The Charter goes on to state how “the Liberation of Palestine is an individual duty for every Moslem wherever he may be.”[iii] How can Israel make peace with an enemy still dedicated to its destruction? Yet that is just what America, Europe and the UN would have them do! It is worthy to note here that while the US and its cronies carry water for the Palestinian cause, Egypt, the UAE and now even the Palestinian Authority – (admittedly for their own political reasons) – support Israel in this war against Hamas.
More egregious than that, the terror group regularly uses hospitals and mosques as military staging points, and reporters as well as its own sick and wounded as human shields. The Washington Post reported that Shifa Hospital in Gaza City had become an acting headquarters for Hamas officials. A reporter observed a mosque being loaded up with rockets. And Japan’s Mainichai Shimbun carried the story of how 20 journalists were not allowed to leave an area – so they might serve as shields for military operations.[iv]
But the story does not end there. The same Hamas which condemns and bewails the killing of civilians through IDF operations utilized child labor to build the dozens of tunnels which they use to launch attacks against Israeli civilians. This “secret tunnel system” was built on the backs of child labor. Even a report in the pro-Palestinian Journal of Palestine Studies noted that as of December 2011 “at least 160 children have been killed in the tunnels, according to Hamas officials.”[v] That same Hamas also deliberately puts their own civilians in harm’s way – just for the public relations value of having Israel inflict casualties on them. This outlook is confirmed by Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of a founding member of Hamas who was being groomed for a leadership position in the organization. Yousef, who subsequently dedicated his life to Christ says: “Hamas does not care about the lives of Palestinians; does not care about the lives of Israelis or Americans. They don’t care about their own lives. They consider dying for the sake of their ideology a way of worship…..Hamas is not seeking coexistence and compromise.” There is a covenant with hell and with death in operation here! We are dealing with more than human evil. This darkness has a deep spiritual connection – that must be recognized.
And make no mistake: Nothing occurs in a vacuum. Nothing of significance occurs without purpose. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood which swept into power with US connivance – just to be swept out again. America stands guilty in its support of the Brotherhood in Egypt. America stands guilty of arming radical Islamists in Syria. According to USAid.Gov, “US foreign assistance to the West Bank and Gaza helps to build a more democratic, stable and secure region.”[vi] [After you finish laughing, read on.] America stands guilty through every dollar it sends – no matter how well it is monitored – of supporting a regime that builds tunnels and stocks missiles and rockets rather than attend to the needs of its people. It is like the world is standing on its head. To paraphrase CS Lewis: The world doesn’t “know the difference between what nature has meant for nourishment, and what it meant for garbage.”[vii] America it seems is taking the darkened path. It is purposefully embracing the ‘garbage’ against all logic and moral certitude. Isaiah 5:20 puts it thusly. “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness.” We’ve embraced the darkness and rejected the clear light of Scripture. It is time for this nation to turn to God and repent.
[i] JOHN KERRY AND THE OBAMA ADMINSTRATION’S BETRAYAL OF ISRAEL, NTEB, July 27, 2014
[ii] Netanyahu’s dilemma, DEBKAfile, July 28, 2014
[iii] THE COVENANT OF THE HAMAS – MAIN POINTS, http://fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/880818a.htm, Viewed July 30, 2014
[iv] Foreign Reporters Reveal Depths of Hamas Depravity, Israel Today, July 28, 2014
[v] Report: Hamas Used Child Labor to Build Terror Tunnels; Hundreds Killed, Breitbart, July 27, 2014
[vi] http://www.usaid.gov/west-bank-and-gaza, Viewed July 30, 2014
[vii] Ravi Zacharias explaining a quote by CS Lewis as recorded in: C. S. LEWIS, BERTRAND RUSSELL, MARTIN LUTHER &
A BRET MCATEE CONVERSATION, Iron Ink, June 18, 2011
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