Middle East

Proportional = Israel Unleashed

Those calling for a proportionate Israeli response are unwittingly calling for Israel to unleash her military might on her enemies.

Is that a bleating I hear from around the globe? “Israel’s response to Hizbollah is disproportionate.” “Israel must abide by the doctrine of proportionality.” And so forth.

If that is indeed bleating I hear, the sheep are once again being misled by wolves that only look and sound like sheep. Their diet reveals them for what they are . . . a revelation that tends to come too late for the wooly, short-sighted mutton clan.

If Hizbollah has expended 10% of its missiles and rockets against mostly-civilian targets, it seems a proportionate Israeli response would be to use at least 10% of its arsenal against Hizbollah.

If Hizbollah has been attacking Israel on and off for six years, then it seems a proportionate Israeli response would be at least six year’s worth of on-and-off attacks against Hizbollah . . . compressed into six weeks (for example).

If Hizbollah is using civilian areas for launching attacks, then it seems a proportionate Israeli response would be at least attacks on those same civilian areas.

If Hizbollah precipitated this latest round of conflict by killing eight Israeli soldiers and abducting two in an unprovoked raid, then it seems there can be no proportionate Israeli response. Mathematically, how do you match a 0/8 proportion? It is a proportion of infinity. It is without limit.

Now, why do I say at least as often as I do? Because it doesn’t seem proportionate to me to allow the aggressor to define that proportion. That in itself is utterly disproportionate.

Look at it mathematically again. If the aggressor kills one in an unprovoked attack, is the proportionate response to kill only one? Of course not! The aggressor, by attacking unprovoked, leaves his target free to respond way out of proportion to the initial attack . . . because that is precisely what the aggressor did. You see, an unprovoked attack is already a disproportionate action.

Thus, those calling for a proportionate Israeli response are unwittingly calling for Israel to unleash her military might on her enemies.

(Does this post reveal a bloodthirsty streak in a non-resistant conservative Mennonite heart? Of course not. Each life lost in this conflict was so precious in God’s sight that He sent His only Son to die for that person’s eternal redemption.)

WWIII: Dominos Down

Hamas pushed at the first teetering domino. Hezbollah finished the job.

On June 28 (1914), some guy shot Austria’s Archduke Ferdinand and Missus. I wonder how many years it took for someone to pinpoint that “small” event as the starting point of the cataclysmic event that was World War I.

This afternoon, scant over an hour ago, I stood in our kitchen finishing my piece of homemade fresh strawberry pie. That (c. 1300 Pacific) was the time when it struck me that World War III had begun.

The small event in this case was the Hamas capture and abduction of an Israeli soldier on June 25 (2006).

Israel replied with an air assault on Gaza and a not-so-veiled threat against the Palestinian Prime Minister, himself a Hamas man.

Then last night Hezbollah one-upped Hamas with a from-Lebanon attack that “bagged” two Israeli soldiers.

Israel called that an act of war and held Lebanon responsible.

Israel unleashed a limited-but-punishing sea and air assault on Lebanon, even ruining at least two runways at Beirut International Airport.

So how do I get to WWIII from there?

I think Iran is behind both of those Israeli-soldier abductions.

Reports that Hezbollah wants to send its captives to Iran only add further weight to that.

Fox News has just announced that the two kidnapped Israeli soldiers may be taken to Iran.

It appears to me that Iran hopes to provoke Israel to broaden its attack to include Iran.

Of course, this would explain the efforts against Lebanese military and civilian airfields. The Israelis want to ensure that Goldwasser and Regev do not wind up in Teheran. If they do, however, Iran would have two choices: turn the soldiers over to the International Red Cross/Red Crescent immediately, or assume the role of combatant in the conflict. Unless Iran turned over the soldiers to a neutral party, they will have committed an act of war. Unlike the Carter administration in 1979, the Israelis would not likely allow 444 days to pass before getting them back or responding in kind.

The Israelis may well see this as sufficient provocation to at least take out Iran’s nuclear facilities, especially as they see the US fiddling with UN.

So, with Israel fighting a war on three fronts, it would seem logical that the terrorist kin of the two Hs would join the fray, launching a string of homicide assaults — not just against Israel but against US interests in Iraq, in the homeland, and elsewhere abroad.

With Iran and Israel now duking it out, and Israel over-extended, the US has no choice but to take up the fight that’s been taken to it, unleashing its own assault on Iran.

That sends out the ACTIVATE signal to Iranian and terrorist cells in the US, Mexico, and Canada. They undertake a series of strikes all across the USA.

Meanwhile, the Dear Leader in North Korea sees the US fighting at home as well as on four foreign fronts (Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, and Israel) and figures out its time to unify the Korean peninsula. His first move is to use sleeper agents to decapitate SKorea’s government. Then he shreds Seoul (with conventional or crude nuclear weapons, it makes no difference, the end result is the same). With the government gone and Seoul gone, and American troops pinned down, the South collapses…but gradually, extending America’s distraction there.

The Chinese catch on also, and make their move on Taiwan.

And the Russians aim for Ukraine. At least.

The story goes on, with several countries “going nuclear” in the weapons employed.

Well, there you have it. Just a lot of off-the-cuff speculation. Oh, and off-the-charts, too. Crazy, I know. And preposterous. But I thought I should at least go on record here.

Whatever the case, men and nations pursue peace and will never find it if they continue to insist on factoring out the Prince of Peace.

If you are among those who look at current events and see compelling cause for personal and familial precautionary measures, be sure you stockpile plenty.

And be sure to tend to more than mere physical and financial survival.

See to your soul. It needn’t be destined for utter destruction, even though all else shares that fate.

Disclaimer: I know the above is poorly written and structured, but I have neither time nor interest in tuning up my effort.

Child Sacrifice?

Children should get better than this:

This is not a clash of civilizations, as child sacrifice is one of the hallmarks of uncivilization. This is a struggle for our survival as a race, as one side sheds every trapping of civilization, of decency, of humanity in an effort to win through sheer revulsive behavior.

What has happened to mankind’s inborn love of children, especially our own?

I agree with the writer above — it is uncivilized to sacrifice children for an adult campaign, an adult struggle, an adult agenda.

Sacrificing children because of adult selfishness is abominable.

I can condemn the Palestinians for that.

I can condemn abortion providers and consumers for that.

I can condemn abusers for that.

And I suppose such condemnation is not mine alone.

But how do children — my own children — suffer because of my own selfishness and my own agendas?

The above article highlights such a tragedy.

But what is happening in our own country, in our own communities, in our own churches, and in our own families?

Wrongly wound children at your own peril! God will most surely avenge them in His own time.

Where’s the Media on This?

Did you know about this?

But how many people heard about the recent arrest and jailing in Saudi Arabia of a group of Filipino guest workers for holding Christian prayer services in the privacy of their home? Or who knows about the three Sunday School teachers charged in Indonesia last year with the crime of “Christianization” and summarily sentenced to three years in prison?

The story is similar wherever Sharia — orthodox Islamic law — reigns supreme. From Pakistan to Darfur, Christians have become regular targets for Islamic gangs who shoot at worshipers, then torch their houses of worship.

Even in Islamic countries not strictly run by Sharia law, pressures mount on local Christians to leave the homes they’ve known for centuries. Iraq’s Christian sects, among the oldest Christian communities anywhere in the world, have been directly targeted by terrorist bombs, and Christians are now high on the list of those fleeing Iraq’s sectarian strife. Thirty years ago, Lebanon was 60% Christian. Since then, an estimated 3.5 million Christians have emigrated, reducing the country’s Christian population percentage to barely 25%. And in the Palestinian territories, direct and indirect pressures have also led to an increasing Christian exodus. One striking result: Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus and once a predominantly Christian Arab community now has an overwhelming Muslim majority.

Where is the media on this?

Is It My Eyes?


Or is there something fishy about this photo?


OK, I wasn’t going to post anything more today, but I saw this photo this story:

A Shi’ite man is held by friends as he shouts during a mock funeral for victims of a shooting incident at a mosque in Baghdad March 27, 2006. (Ali Jasim/Reuters)

Maybe it is just my eyes.

That guy sure seems like a giant, all out of proportion to the other guys.

Maybe it’s just the camera angle, but why doesn’t anyone else seem similarly enlarged?

Loose Rubberband Gun

Not to be confused with a loose cannon, please. 😉

Here we have Mr. (not to be confused with reverend, for God alone is reverend) Robertson holding forth regarding Ariel Sharon’s stroke:

The Reverend Pat Robertson says Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s massive stroke could be God’s punishment for giving up Israeli territory.

He is right. It could be God’s punishment.

It also could be God saying, “Ariel, you’ve done what I sent you to do. Time to leave the scene.”

I much prefer Joel Rosenberg’s perspective to Pat Robertson’s. Here is just one paragraph from Rosenberg’s blog:

Let us pray, therefore, for the Israeli leader, for his family, his senior advisors, and for Vice Premier Ehud Olmert, who is now serving as acting Prime Minister as this difficult moment unfolds. Let us also pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the safety and protection of the Israeli people, who now face one of the most severe leadership crises in their modern history, even as terrorists smuggle arms into the West Bank and Gaza and Iran threatens to wipe Israel “off the map.”

Amen!

Above all, love God!