Palestinians

The Toll of War

So much sadness and pain both hidden and contained in this next sentence!

Moawiya Hassanein, head of Gaza medical emergency services, told AFP the number of Palestinians killed since the Israeli operation was launched on December 27 was now 512, including 87 children.

Allow me a question, though.

Suppose the Israelis were in Gaza and the Palestinians were in Israel.

And suppose the population and military weights were also reversed.

And suppose it were the Palestinians attacking the Israelis.

Would the death toll be the same for Israelis as it is now for Palestinians?

What Comes Next?

That’s the question.

But I have something different in mind with it than you might expect.

So read this first:

Israeli warplanes retaliating for rocket fire from the Gaza Strip pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in unprecedented waves of airstrikes Saturday, killing at least 155 and wounding more than 310 in the single bloodiest day of fighting in recent memory.

As you were “inputting” this information into your head, what came next?

I don’t mean what comes next on the ground in the Middle East.

I mean, after you learned of the above airstrikes, what came next in your thoughts and attitudes?

Read it all

Target: Samir Kuntar

Samir Kuntar

Sure, this fellow is a target of various Israeli forces.

But I have him in mind as a prayer target.

Is this the kind of person Christians should pray for?

Kuntar was serving multiple life sentences in an Israeli prison for murdering three Israelis, including smashing to death a 4-year-old girl with the butt of his rifle.

Among his yet-living victims who make good prayer targets: the mother to the above girl.

Smadar Haran Kaiser

As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. "This is just like what happened to my mother," I thought.

Oh, Those Israelis!

The MSM continues exercising their right to free speech. Here's a little interpreting . . . .

Is this another anti-Israeli, pro-Hezbollah propaganda piece disgusted disguised as news?

Israeli commandos have struck deep into Lebanon, snatching five suspected Hezbollah guerrillas in a helicopter raid that spectacularly snubbed international pressure for an end to the three-week-old conflict.

struck deep into Lebanon = “The Israelis are really violating Lebanese sovereignty now.”

spectacularly snubbed = “The Israelis are still thumbing their nose at too many of us.”

while Hezbollah resumed raining rocket fire on Israel.

Hezbollah resumed = “They were provoked by the Israelis.”

Israel had called a 48-hour partial halt to air attacks after a raid on the Lebanese village of Qana on Sunday which killed 52 civilians, most of them children.

after a raid = “The Israelis did the Qana thing (and don’t bother us with what the new media is reporting about Hezbollah’s cold-blooded staged event).”

killed…civilians = “Who else but Israelis would kill non-combatants — you know, regular people like you, dear reader? These Jews obviously don’t know how to wage a war in a civilized way (and don’t harass us with the preposterous notion that Hezbollah fighters are dressing as civilians and operating from among civilians).”

children = “Killing harmless civilians living in their own homes out of their own free will is terrible enough, but this is beyond savagery. And we reject the outlandish anti-Arab idea that Hezbollah is callously using children and women as hostages, human-shields, and propaganda pieces.”

Local police said the Israelis snatched five people in the raid

people = “Just like you, these are civilians — not warriors, not terrorists, not Hezbollah. I’m telling you, someone needs to restrain these Israelis!”

That’s enough of that.

Am I being cynical or bothered or mocking or suspicious?

That seems quite likely, eh?

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.)

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.

Above all, love God!
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