EYELESS IN GAZA 1 – LET THE SCALES FALL
By James Wilson
Enroute
to Israel I flew with a young Israeli couple.
They said of Israelis, “We are ordinary people trying to live well. Millions hate us just because we live, and so
we live in constant danger. But all we
have ever wanted is as normal a life as possible. Please do not romanticize us, nor expect us
to accept death passively.”
As
I write the guns fell silent three days before Hamas resumed rocket fire and
Israel responded with air strikes. Israel,
in a fight for her life but humanitarian to the end, withdrew all her troops a
week ago. It is the same fight for life
that began with her founding in 1948.
And the aggressors are the same neo Nazis whose forefathers cut their
teeth in Berlin when the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was the guest of Adolph Hitler
throughout the war. Let any who doubt
read any history of the Middle East during the war years not written in Iran. And let them wonder why so many Palestinian
and Arab agitators deny the Holocaust as an isolated fringe group among the
leaders of the world. Their Nazi mentors
taught them well.
But
let’s review the events of the past month.
They began with the brutal kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens,
one of them an American citizen. They
did not begin with the rain of seven thousand unprovoked rockets each year on
Israeli civilian areas, although that would be provocation enough. They did not begin when Israel withdrew from
Gaza in 2005, even though the rocket fire increased by about 500%. But the kidnapping and execution of three of
their children was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Israel determined to destroy the tunnels that
made these crimes possible.
Israel
stands accused of targeting civilians.
Yet they are the only nation on earth – besides the United States – who
warns civilians to evacuate the area of their operations, giving away any hope
of surprising their enemies. They warn
Palestinian civilians placed at risk – sometimes days in advance – while Israeli
sirens give about fifteen seconds’ warning before an incoming Hamas rocket
detonates. I find it remarkable that we
see nightly coverage of Palestinians left dead, injured, and homeless by
Israeli air and artillery strikes while seeing no pictorial coverage of the
destruction in Israel wrought by thirty-five hundred rocket strikes in this
month alone. Truth is exactly what Prime
Minister Netanyahu has said, “There is a difference between us. We are using our missiles to protect our
children. They are using their children
to protect their missiles.”
Truth
is Hamas deliberately stores and launches its rockets from beneath schools,
hospitals, and even private homes. Truth
is Hamas has been a complete bust at governing Gaza even after they were
democratically elected by the very people the commentators call innocent. (Don’t get me wrong; all children are
innocent; the question is who puts them at risk.) The Gaza government was bankrupt after losing
the support of Syria, Iran and Egypt; they had no way to pay their forty
thousand employees and unemployment was 50% -- way up from when Israel pulled
out in 2005. Their attitude was, “Why
not attack Israel? Our charter demands
their obliteration. What is to
lose?” And they have proven right. Our president gifted them with forty seven
million dollars in so-called humanitarian aid; does anyone believe it will be
used for aid? The very tunnels the
Israelis blow up are made from concrete they donated for building houses,
schools and hospitals. But that means nothing
when a government views its citizens as weapons of warfare.
It
is incredibly rare when war is so clearly a contest between right and wrong;
yet this conflict is just that. But what
– some say – about the United Nations? We’ll
address that in my next post.
Meanwhile,
Aldous Huxley earned fame in 1936 writing Eyeless in Gaza. The title refers to Samson, the blinded Jew
who put out the eyes of his own heart before his enemies burned out the eyes in
his head. Before death Samson replaced
his heart eyes and returned to serving God.
He redeemed himself albeit too late to save his physical eyes. The American government and many peoples of
the world have blinded themselves to the simple choice between the God of life
and the god of death in Gaza, but the blinding need be neither physical nor
permanent. Let us follow the God who
says (Genesis 12:3) we are blessed when we bless Israel but not so much when we
reject or ignore her. Let us no longer
be eyeless in Gaza.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living
As Ambassadors of Relationships and The
Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by
e-mailing him at
praynorthstate@charter.net
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