The images from the fighting in Gaza are harrowing but ultimately deceptive. They portray a mighty invading army, one equipped with F-16 jets that have bombed a civilian population defended by a few thousand fighters armed with primitive rockets. But widen the lens and the true nature of this conflict emerges. Hamas, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, is a proxy for the real enemy Israel is confronting: Iran. And Israel’s current operation against Hamas represents a unique chance to deal a strategic blow to Iranian expansionism.
Until now, the Iranian revolution has appeared unstoppable. The Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s ended with Iranian troops occupying Iraqi territory. Iranian influence then spread to Saudi Arabia’s heavily Shiite and oil-rich Eastern province, and to Lebanon through Hezbollah. Since the fall of their long-standing enemy, Saddam Hussein, Iranians have deeply infiltrated Iraq. Syria has been drawn into Iran’s sphere, and even the Sunni sheikdoms of the gulf now defer to Iran, dispatching foreign ministers to Tehran and defying international sanctions against it. Iran has co-opted Hamas, a Sunni organization closely linked to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, transforming the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a jihad against the Jewish state. But Iran’s boldest achievement has been to thwart world pressure and approach the nuclear threshold. Once fortified with nuclear weapons, Iranian hegemony in the Middle East would be complete.
On Christmas day, Hamas approved Sharia law for Gaza, the punishment of “crucifixion, dismemberment, lashes and execution†for those who raise “a weapon against Palestine on behalf of the enemy during war.
To understand the mind of Hamas, see the insignia of that organization at MCJ: http://themcj.com/?p=1909#comments
The Anglican Curmudgeon has published an astute analysis of the current skirmish: http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2008/12/crucify-him-do-we-care.html
As has Cal Thomas: http://www.calthomas.com/index.php?news=2476
Jesus said, “By their fruits shall ye know them.”
We recently read of the 13 year old female who was stoned to death for immorality. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7708169.stm
Jesus would have asked them, writing in the dirt, ‘Where is the man, the rapist/s? Why aren’t they also being stoned for immorality and uncleanness?’
Jesus could see the hearts of the cowardly misogynist men who drag a woman to ‘justice’ because they are easily overpowered and victimized…who let the men who disrespectfully use a woman for their gratification go and but take delight in exposing and killing the woman involved (voluntarily, by necessity (to earn money) or unvoluntarily by rape, coercion and threat).
The islam is not alone – hindu fundamentalists recently stormed an orphanage and burned one nun alive and raped another:
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=13056
Unfortunately, the invasion just makes Hamas stronger. The way to get rid of Hamas is to allow another alternative to arise organically from the Palestinian people.
Hamas was started by Israel and the US with the idea that the Palestinians would turn to Islam and away from Fateh.
Unfortunately, the war in Iraq had one clear winner: Iran. Iran wants direct negotiations with the US, and believes that Israel wags the dog, so they will continue to threaten Israel in order to get to their real negotiation partner.
It troubles me that the media are being kept out of Gaza by the Israeli ministry, in direct defiance of a High Court order. It troubles me, too, that the article cited above should make such dismissive claims about civilian suffering. The presupposition under the article is that the media of the whole world are lying, and that the watching, reading and listening public is duped. When people start saying that sort of thing, the only conclusion must be that they have lost the argument.
Hamas is so busy showing its tail end…legalizing crucifixion, dismemberment, lashes…islam doesn’t need any more publicity it has been sufficiently exposed as just another evil barbaric pagan misogynistic hate-based religion.