There are many people in the world who think that Israel has a right to defend itself against incessant and continuing rocket fire from Gaza which has rained down on it for the last seven years. Even the US president, Mr. Obama says it. They are happy to say, ‘defend yourselves – but don’t hurt anyone whilst doing it!’ They are not prepared, or are not able to say how this can be done. They are under the misguided impression that Hamas is an entity with which it is possible to negotiate.
Michael Shine
There are many people in the world who throw accusations at Israel for existing. These people think that if they demonstrate violently enough and shout “Death to the Jews!” that this will bring about the downfall of the one democratic and modern country in the region. I doubt if they are correct. As a British Jew living in Israel, I have some pretty strong objections to that idea.
There are many people in the world who say that the rockets that Hamas fire at Israel are really of no consequence. They say “Look at how few Jews have been killed compared to the death toll in Gaza”. Would they be happier if more Jews had been killed? Would this have made a difference to the equation if Israel had not spent its resources in attempting to protect its citizens? Sitting in the comfort of their homes in Europe or America, they think that they have found where the evil is. The problem is that what they think that they are seeing is the complete opposite. They are not thinking of the trauma of the Israeli children who, since birth, have been raised with the sounds of air-raid sirens, with having to run to bomb-shelters 24 hours a day, with living with constant fear. Hamas may not cause a lot of damage, but the intention to kill thousands of innocents is there. Attempted murder is a crime in most countries in the civilized world, isn’t it?
Add to the rockets the discovery of the terror tunnels, built with money intended to build hospitals and schools and infrastructure for the benefit of the ‘Palestinian’ civilians in Gaza, the money for these tunnels having been stolen from these people by Hamas for their own barbaric ideology and their own personal fortunes.
My friend, Beau Schultz recently wrote: “As many as 40 complex, fortified tunnels have been discovered by the Israeli Defense Forces leading from Gaza into Israel. The tunnels, in many cases, extend right into the middle of Israeli communities.
Credible sources in Israel are reporting that Hamas was planning a major attack on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which falls on September 24th this year. Hundreds of Hamas commandos, dressed in IDF uniforms, would have emerged in the middle of the night in dozens of Israeli communities. The chaos and death toll would have been catastrophic.”
There are many people in the world who think that it is all Israel’s fault for having come into existence. They claim that Israel stole the land from the ‘Palestinians’. Others, more erudite than I, have exploded that myth many times over. If anyone stole land, they would be better looking at Jordan, which expropriated land intended for Israel (in the UN declaration for the setting up of the Jewish Homeland in 1948) and annexed it (i.e. that which is known as the West bank – which Jordan lost back to Israel when it joined the Arab war of aggression against Israel in 1967). See: https://israelseen.com/2014/07/29/michael-shine-a-personal-view-of-recent-history-in-the-middle-east/
What is the answer to this never-ending problem? Because westerners brought up in the Judaic-Christian ethical morality, believe that one can always negotiate with an adversary to eventually reach an equitable solution, they are nearly always bound to be wrong in their thinking and continue to come to a wrong conclusion. There are adversaries that one can negotiate with and reach an agreement. It happened with the IRA and Great Britain – eventually. There are those that can’t. Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister at the start of the WW2, thought that it was possible to negotiate with Hitler – he was wrong wasn’t he? Could America negotiate with the North Vietnamese? Could the West negotiate with Stalin? Why was there a ‘Cold War’ between Communism and the rest of the world? We all should know by now that there are ideologies and wickedness that cannot be negotiated with. Such an ideology is that of the Islamic Jihadist.
In simple terms the Islamic Jihadist wants one thing only. It wants the world to revert to the dark ages. It wants a world-wide Caliphate. Do these peace-loving people who demonize Israel know what that is? This must be very doubtful. They probably do not think that far ahead. It is a world dominated by Muslim ideology, the death of those who think differently to them. It is every country in the world dominated by Sharia law, the stoning to death off women for owning a mobile phone, the beheading of anyone who is Gay, the shooting of anyone playing music at a wedding, indeed the killing of anyone who does not agree with their lopsided way of thinking, and of course the destruction of Israel and the killing of all Jews! One such organization is ISIS, who in just the last 24 hours, the peace-loving Mr. Obama has instructed his war machine to attack, to save innocent lives. Another similar organization is of course Hamas, who, whilst making the lives of those who elected them into power, a misery, are the ones that Israel is currently defending itself against, in exactly the same way that Mr. Obama is defending those in Iraq. I strongly recommend that you read a very thoughtful piece written by David French, who is a US vet of the Iraq war
One of the down-sides of defence against aggression is that there are people who do get hurt with no intention, or, by accident. Sometimes, some of the people that get hurt are non-combatants. When Great Britain and America fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, innocent non-combatants were killed in the attacks against the militias. Many of them! When the attacking force hides itself amongst non-combatants, when it fires its missiles from Hospitals and Churches, from Mosques and Schools, full knowing that there will be retaliatory fire, indeed, wanting it for ‘good’ publicity against its enemy, who is to blame when the non-combatants get hurt? The international press has now confirmed that this is indeed the case and even the BBC, known for its one-sided take on the conflict have acknowledged this, (http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-28198622 ) and many non-Jihadi Muslims have been virulent in blaming Hamas and placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of their shoulders for each and every casualty in Gaza.
See: [youtube=youtu.be/F1qpaWTu0eU&w=520&h=315]
Michael Shine
Israel is currently in the forefront of the world’s battle against Islamic Jihadism. There are those that think that Israel can reach a lasting peace with the enemies of peace, Hamas, and all of its like-thinking brothers in arms, by negotiation and giving in to its demands. It can’t. You can’t! We can’t!
Michael Shine
