Israel

Iranian leaders have denied the legitimacy of the internationally recognized sovereign state of Israel at every UN meeting they have ever attended, and called for its destruction.

Today, they called the leaders of a terror group that has killed hundreds of Americans (and thousands of Lebanese and Syrians, and which, within recent weeks, internationally targeted 12 Druze children for the crime of playing soccer in Northern Israel), “our martyrs,” and attacked Israel in “retaliation” for their assassination.

In doing so, Iran explicitly identified with a military organization, Hizbullah, that is currently engaged in an active campaign to drive the Jewish people living in Israel from their homes. It amounts to an open declaration of war, and proves that their commitment to the destruction of Israel is more than just words.

If Israel is to survive, it has no choice but to address the immediate, existential threat posed by Iran.

It actually makes sense that some Jewish people support “Palestine,” and here’s why. Jewish people follow a set of teachings and belong to a community where compassion and justice are highly valued. Jewish people have a long history of standing on the side of those who they see as having been oppressed, “because we know what it’s like.” In addition, Jewish individuals are generally free to – no, they are encouraged to – think for themselves and support whatever causes seem the most reasonable. This is actually an idea that “The West” copied from Judaism (indirectly, by way of Protestant Christianity).

Now I’m going to Google to see how many activist groups I can find with names like “Muslims for Israel,” or “Zionist Qataris,” or “Gazans against antisemitism.” Wish me luck. 🙂

If you are pro-Palestine, you should educate yourself on what it is you are supporting. In particular, have a look at this quote from the Hamas Charter (which, as agents of Hamas will insist, is not available anywhere due to its having been taken down as part of a secret conspiracy between the Jews and the US Government to oppress the Palestinian people, and which is actually publicly available online at Yale University):

“Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. It needs all sincere efforts. It is a step that inevitably should be followed by other steps. The Movement is but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished and Allah’s victory is realised.”

Notice that this paragraph does not say, “our struggle against Israel.”

Again, I recommend you read the whole charter; particularly if your information about this subject comes primarily from news sources or from Palestinians, who in spite of allegedly being confined in an “open air prison” and unable to leave, have, inexplicably, began streaming into the United States and western Europe by the thousands, each parroting identical talking points.

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp

You should also probably save a copy for yourself for when it inevitably gets taken down. 😉

Thus says the LORD:

“For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they took captive the whole captivity
To deliver them up to Edom.

But I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza,
Which shall devour its palaces.
[…]

And the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,”
Says the Lord GOD.

Amos 1:6-8

My prayer for the war in Israel is that it would end soon, with minimal civilian casualties; that the remaining hostages would be freed; and that the people of Gaza would never again be under the thumb of a brutal terrorist regime like Hamas.

The incident surrounding the aid trucks in Gaza city yesterday is a real tragedy. The worst thing anyone could do would be to minimize it. It’s also important that we be mindful of the context.

1) Israel is at war with Gaza. The government of Gaza, Hamas, is still dedicated to the annihilation of every last Jewish civilian living in the nation of Israel. The war will only end when either Hamas has been permanently neutralized, or every last Jewish civilian has been horrifically slaughtered.

As the Palestinian activists like to remind us, the war I’m referring to didn’t begin on October 7th; while Israel has only officially been at war with Gaza since then, various Palestinian militant groups have been at war with Israel continuously since 1948.

2) The details surrounding the incident are unclear. There is lots of video footage of perfectly healthy Palestinian men standing and walking around, shouting about what they saw and how badly they were injured – but the only publicly-available video of the incident is a bit of blurry, aerial footage from an IDF drone, that doesn’t clearly show the exact sequence of events.

3) I’ve been reading news reports claiming that the Health Ministry in Gaza releases reliable numbers. This is absolutely false. It is a matter of public record that the Health Ministry in Gaza routinely inflates civilian casualties. This means that even the 120 number from the shooting that happened yesterday is likely inaccurate.

4) There are conflicting, unreliable accounts:

– Palestinian eye witnesses say that Israel attacked an aid convoy. The IDF is saying that the soldiers were there to protect the convoy.

– Palestinian eye witnesses say that the IDF opened fire on them from the convoy. (Notice that this is already a contradiction – did the IDF attack the convoy? Or did they attack the civilians from the convoy)? IDF soldiers who were present said that they only fired “warning shots,” or that they only “shot them in the legs” (Yeah, right). They are also saying that most of the civilians who died were either hit by the aid trucks as they tried to escape, or were caught up in a stampede.

– English-speaking news outlets painted a picture of docile civilians being viciously attacked without warning while they were patiently waiting for their food. IDF soldiers who were present are saying that the civilians swarmed the aid trucks, putting the drivers and IDF soldiers at risk. Palestinian eye witnesses also admit to this, explaining that they were desperate after weeks of having nothing to eat but pet food.

– The IDF has not released an official statement about what “actually” happened, pending an investigation. Of course, Hamas, which was supposedly not present at the incident, has already released an official statement, without performing any type of investigation.

5) There is a distinct possibility that the IDF did something wrong here. If that’s the case, then everyone involved needs to be held responsible.

6) Do not forget that, in the middle of an on-going war with Gaza, Israel is facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid to the civilian population of a group they are at war against – this particular aid convoy was one among hundreds, which we have heard nothing about until now. (In fact, we have been repeatedly told that Israel is making it impossible for humanitarian aid to be delivered to Gaza).

Many people have compared the incursion into Gaza with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. These people will be hard put to find an example of the Russian military delivering humanitarian aid by the hundreds of truckloads to Ukrainian civilians. [I got an email from a reader who is familiar with the situation on the ground in Ukraine, informing me that the Russian military does, in fact, provide humanitarian aid to Ukranian civilians in areas that it has taken control of].

If this war is an attempt by Israel to commit ethnic cleansing, then it is the most inept, half-hearted endeavor the world has ever seen.