Recently, the Turkish government accused Israel of Genocide, and referred to Israel as “more barbaric than Hitler.” An educated reader has to seriously analyze this incredibly harsh comment….more barbaric than a man responsible for plotting and calculating the destruction of six million people?
Is that really what is happening in this conflict with Gaza?
How does that explain the August 2005 removal/withdrawal of 10,000 Israelis from their homes, communities and livelihood?
That does not seem to hurt the Arabs in Gaza…..seems to be a tremendous loss for the Jews living there….
Benjamin Netanyahu warned the USA and Israeli governments that the vacuum would be filled with the terrorist organization, Hamas, and the disengagement would give Hamas a launching pad to fire rockets into Israel.
Just in the past two weeks, Hamas has fired 2,040 rockets into Israel. That’s 145 a day.
Since the beginning of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, much of the Egyptian media has laid the blame squarely on the Islamist group Hamas, which controls the tiny Palestinian enclave.
Some journalists have even said that all Palestinians are to blame for their current plight. Adel Nehaman, a columnist for the Egyptian daily El-Watan, said bluntly: "Sorry Gazans, I cannot support you until you rid yourselves of Hamas."
Azza Sami, a writer for government daily Al-Ahram, went so far as to congratulate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Twitter: "Thank you Netanyahu, and God give us more men like you to destroy Hamas!"
Star presenter of the Al-Faraeen TV channel, Tawfik Okasha, an ardent supporter of Egypt’s military regime and known for his firm stance against the ousted Muslim Brotherhood, attacked the entire Palestinian population live on air.
There is the other side of the story as well.
Many have the opinion, as was mentioned earlier, that the Israelis want to blast all the people in Gaza off the map. They attribute Israel’s aggression to their Occupation, living on land that is not theirs.
Certainly “occupation” is not about Gaza since every square inch of Gaza was given to the Palestinians.
All Israelis were completely uprooted!
The Israeli government wanted the people living in Gaza to succeed. To help the economy, they gave the new residents 3000 greenhouses that had previously produced fruit and flowers for export.
The new residents expressed their gratitude by demolishing all 3000 greenhouses!
Instead of beginning to build a new state that would bless and prosper the citizens, Gaza became a massive military base run by Hamas to create terror against Israel.
Where are the roads? The train tracks? The industry? Infrastructure for vibrant communities?
There are tunnels, each built with 300 tons of cement, for miles and miles underground to hide weapons and hide terrorists.
Millions of dollars have been spent importing weapons and placing them in schools, hospitals, mosques and people’s homes.
Prime Minister Netanyahu summed it up last week, “here’s the difference between us,” he explained, “We’re using missile defense to protect our civilians and they are using their civilians to protect their missiles.”
The motivation for Israelis is not hate for other people, it’s love for their nation.
1. Where were the nation’s borders, and what was Palestine’s capital?
2. What were its major cities?
3. Who owned the “Palestine Post"?
4. What was the language of “Palestine” and what form of government did it have?
5. Who were the rulers of “Palestine”?
6. What was the name of the “Palestine’s” currency?
7. What was “Palestine’s” major religion?
8. What kind of economy did “Palestine” have?
If anyone is to be honest and truthful in answering these questions, it will be obvious, there never was a nation of Palestine, nor were the people living in the area run by different empires ever all Arab or ever all Muslim. The “Palestinian Post” became the “Jerusalem Post” in 1948. The owners did not change.
So what is the reasoning, besides hate, for Hamas’ violent aggression?
Why does Hamas deliberately aim at civilians? While Israel painstakingly tries to warn the people to leave the area before they target Hamas weapon centers embedded in civilian areas?
Last week, Iron Dome intercepted 191 rockets, most were headed toward heavily populated areas of Israel.
Sadly, Hamas’ hatred is not just toward the Israelis. They cause pain for their own people as well.
One of Hamas’ rockets struck a main cable that carried electricity from Israel into Gaza. It left 70,000 residents without electricity. PM Netanyahu told the Israeli electrical Company not to put their technicians in harm’s way immediately trying to fix it.
Eventually, Israel got the electricity back on despite the fact that Gaza created the outage, and Gaza owes the Israel Electric corporation NIS 220 million! (That’s out of the staggering NIS 1.5 billion of unpaid Palestinian debts!)
The funny thing is, Hamas assures the Arabs living in Israel not to fear, their missiles target only Hebrews! Don’t believe me? Watch this!
http://youtu.be/rBkazXb0wCg
On July 19, a 32 year old Israeli Bedouin was killed by a rocket fired from Gaza. 4 of his relatives were injured, including a 4-month-old baby in critical condition.
The rockets being shot are Fajr 5 missiles supplied by Iran along with drones! The Islamic revolutionary Guard Corps has stated with pride that Iran has armed “the resistance in Gaza to help destroy Israel and give Iran credit.”
Israeli children are taught to prepare for these rocket attacks even before they are old enough to understand.
For example, Al-Farouq Mosque was attacked by Israel on July 12.
Why did Israel attack a “house of worship”?
Hamas was using the mosque as a center for operations and a place to stockpile rockets and other weapons. The use of mosques for military purposes as a part of jihad is legitimate based on Islamic tradition (hadith) that states that the prophet Mohammed used a mosque for political and military purposes in addition to worship.
Israel hit the mosque as a military target.
However, in early July, Hamas struck the ALEH Negev-Nahalat Rehabilitation Village in Israel with a GRAD rocket. All 160 severely disabled residents were moved into protective shelters along with their beds and essential medical equipment. It took extra care to help the residents understand why their routine was altered without creating great fear. Of course, stockpiled weapons were not stored in the facility, only handicapped individuals were residing there.
The question is raised in all this, who is targeting the civilians?
The barrage of rocket fire on Israel has resulted in a small number of casualties; however the impact of constant sirens going off and 15 seconds to reach a bunker can play difficult games with the nerves.
Hamas’ strategy has seemed to shift to convince Israel to invade by land with the hopes of kidnapping at least one soldier.
A group of Hamas terrorists disguised as Israeli soldiers emerged from a tunnel a few days ago. They managed to kill two Israeli soldiers before an IDF soldier killed one of them. The others fled to Gaza.
They found tranquilizers and handcuffs on the terrorist’s body. The IDF also found rocket propelled grenades and AK_47 machine guns in the tunnel.
Hamas knows one living soldier in their possession will break the resolve of the Israelis quicker than 10,000 rockets!
On Sunday, The IDF led an attack on the Al Sheja’iya neighborhood, killing 60 people and wounding 400 according to the Palestinian’s report. The Israelis had 13 soldiers killed and possibly a fourteenth captured by Hamas’ Qassam Brigades.
Why was there an attack on this civilian neighborhood? Hamas was storing rocket launchers, rockets. There were workshops to produce rockets and ammunition, and terrorist tunnels were found.
Is Hamas’ presence in civilian areas a sign that the Palestinian community is in full support of their activities?
When interviewed, one Gaza taxi driver, Abu Ali, told the Associated Press that “Everybody here hates Hamas, but they’re too afraid to say so publicly. Our food comes from Israel but we give them in return, rockets.”
Hamas could not even hold their fire for 2.5 hours so the people in Gaza could get humanitarian aid!
Another young Gaza peace activist who asked to remain anonymous said he wished Israel would just reoccupy the coastal enclave so that local residents could rid themselves of Hamas rule!
Hamas’ disregard for the safety and protection of its youth was revealed again when, for the second time in less than a week (the first being July 17th), rockets were found in a school in Gaza operated by the UN Relief and Works Agency. UNRWA could not confirm the number of rockets because they withdrew from the premises as soon as the rockets were discovered. The school is in between two other UNRWA schools that accommodate 1500 people. Where is Hamas’ concern for the well-being of the children in these facilities where bombs are stockpiled?
In contrast, Israelis do not use their children as political pawns. While most kids go to summer camp to swim, do crafts and hang out with friends, the kids in Gaza learn how to fire weapons, capture IDF soldiers, and destroy Israel. Their camps help raise up a new generation of terrorists!
Despite all this, some still accuse Israel of not showing a humanitarian side; however, the Israeli’s mercy transcends reason!
The Turkish news reported that, “the IDF is using forbidden weapons, intentionally killing children and murdering Muslims for no reason.
The Turkish PM accused Israel of “systematically committing horrors and acts of terror against the Palestinians since 1948.”
HOWEVER, Israel is the devil until a family member of a Palestinian leader needs emergency medical care like in November of 2013.
Hamas’ leader, Ismail Haniyeh’s granddaughter contracted an acute infection in her digestive tract. She was deteriorating quickly and in critical condition. Haniyeh sent his one year old granddaughter to Israel for treatment, and the Jewish state ,without hesitation, opened its arms to help the child.
Last year alone, 13,734 Palestinnians were admitted for medical care into Israel via the Erez Crossing. Sadly, Hamas hit the Crossing with rockets last Tuesday night.
Saturday, PM Netanyahu announced, “we had opened up a hospital, a humanitarian field hospital on the edge of Gaza, and Hamas won’t let the people come.”
Yet despite Hamas’ disregard for their own citizens, Israel continues to facilitate five trucks with 100 tons of medicine and supplies to hospitals in Gaza on a routine basis despite rocket fire.
If you are still not convinced of Israel’s humanitarian character, and you still believe that the nation wants to systematically wipe Gaza out by targeting civilian areas, then take note of this:
Hamas has distributed “social media guidelines” to the people in Gaza. The people are instructed to refer to EVERYONE killed as a “civilians” and not to forget to add “innocent civilian” in their description of those killed in Israeli attacks regardless of their status in jihad or the military.
Furthermore, the instructions read : DO NOT post photos of rockets being fired from civilian population centers!
This was sent out by the Hamas Interior Ministry!
Hamas uses this to enforce the perceptions of Israeli aggression, and to keep hidden the rockets being fired from civilian locations.
However, just yesterday, when Israel agreed to the Red Cross’ request for a ceasefire in Shuja’iya, Hamas opened fire from the Wafa Hospital.
We must pray for the people living in Gaza to be free of the deceptive government of Hamas.
We must pray for the innocent people on both sides who love their families and simply want to live peaceably.
We pray Psalm 27:13:
I WOULD HAVE LOST HEART, UNLESS I HAD BELIEVED
THAT I WOULD SEE THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD
IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING.
WE HOLD FAST THE CONFESSION OF OUR HOPE WITHOUT
WAVERING,
FOR HE WHO PROMISED IS FAITHFUL! Hebrews 10:23
