Anyone who grew up in the 1970's remembers the television show M*A*S*H. In fact, with reruns, most are familiar with the sitcom set during the Korean War and the distinctly anti-war message embedded in the often brilliant comedy. For the record, I am anti-war. What sane person is not. War is the absolute worst humanity has to offer. But war is a reality in this fallen world, and so war we have, and will continue to have, until Jesus returns.
Anyone who watched M*A*S*H acknowledges the first few years were by far the best. The original cast of Alan Alda as Hawkeye Pierce, Wayne Rogers as Trapper John McIntyre, McLean Stevenson as Henry Blake, Loretta Switt as Margaret "Hotlips" Hoolihan and Larry Linville as Frank Burns was ensemble comedy at its best. One of my favorite episodes was named "5 O'Clock Charlie." In this episode, a wayward North Korean plane that sounded like an off balance washing machine would fly over M*A*S*H 4077 at or around 5 o'clock in the afternoon and lob a single bomb at an ammo dump beside the camp. He always missed. His afternoon visits became a social gathering for the entertainment starved doctors and nurses. They would gather in lawn chairs, sip martinis, and make wagers with the one who came closest to how far "Charlie" had missed the target taking home the pot. It was funny. It made a statement as to the absurdity of war. But in the end, it was a television show. War is real, yet somehow, many view the current ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas through the lens that Israel should treat Hamas as camp 4077 treated "5 O'Clock Charlie."
This conflict is occurring for one reason only. Hamas, which is officially recognized by the U.S. Government as a terrorist organization, will not stop firing missiles in to Israel. Like "5 O'Clock Charlie," their aim is not very good. And those rockets that are aimed well are met with a strong anti-missile defense system Israel calls the "Iron Dome." Hamas also has dug over 30 discovered tunnels in to Israel by which they planned too and have already carried out terrorist activities. Due to Israel's far superior fire power the casualties for Hamas are far, far higher than those of Israel. And because the casualties are so one-sided, many are saying Israel is in the wrong for responding to the persistent attacks Hamas continues to launch. According to these critics, Israel needs to take a cue from the cast of M*A*S*H, and simply watch the bombs fly, because really.....what are they hitting?
Adding greatly to the criticism of Israel is that most of the casualties suffered in the Gaza strip are civilians. How could Israel be so immoral and cruel in targeting innocent people, including many children? Israel should cease and desist it's operations, the cost is to high. Of course, these critics conveniently ignore the fact Hamas launches these rockets and builds these tunnels in neighborhoods, hospitals, mosques, so as to intentionally build the body bag count. Build it with their own civilian casualties. But to many, this doesn't matter. Innocent people are dying. Israel is clearly in the wrong, basically because they are far more proficient at waging and winning a war than Hamas is.
Logic is lost in these criticisms, but in the Middle East, logic rarely prevails. It is a cesspool of pure evil as witnessed by the continued slaughter going on in Syria, the onward march of the insanely wicked IS in Iraq, Iran's continuing quest for a nuclear bomb and funding and supply of terror groups by proxy, Turkey's inflammatory anti-semitic rhetoric, Qutar serving as a bankroll for terror efforts, and Lybia still in turmoil after it's regime change. Even fairly stable countries by Middle East standards like Jordan and Lebanon have a majority of their populations holding vile hatred for the Jewish people. In this land of never ending chaos Israel has two allies right now; Egypt, with whom they have fought six wars, and Saudi Arabia, who only seeks to protect their oil goldmine. Meanwhile Israel, the only democracy in the region, one that also recognizes Arabs as citizens, is the bad guy. Yep, that's logical.
Many have stated the obvious. Their is no nation anywhere on earth, at any time in earth's history, that would simply sit back and allow rockets to be fired at it or tunnels for terrorism to be dug across their border. But we're not speaking of any other nation, we're speaking of Israel. And Israel is and always will be held to a different standard than everyone else. Israel should just break out the lawn chairs, sip their martini's, and watch the rockets fly. Even in self defense, they are unethical and evil.
As we speak outside mediators have negotiated another ceasefire. I believe this is number seven. The previous six were violated when Hamas once again lobbed rockets at Israel. This one just was as well, once again by Hamas rockets fired at Israel. But of course, it's Israel's fault. They are too good at defending themselves. It's not fair they should kill far more of their enemy than their enemy has killed. Nevermind the fact Israel has not committed one offensive action, that every move they have made has been in response to an attack upon their citizenry. Even if this lastest ceasefire had lasted more than a few hours, does anyone really believe Israel's enemies will not attack again?
Hamas, along with Hezbollah, IS, Iran and let's face it, the majority of the populations of all other nations surrounding Israel, have one goal. It is a goal they plainly state. Israel must cease to exist and the Jewish people must be exterminated. Obliteration of a nation, and a people. We call that genocide. Yet Israel, the nation who has yet to act in an offensive manner, is the one accused of genocide. They kill innocent civilians. They wage war to well. If it were a television show, it would be satire of the highest form.
But it's not a television show. It's war, and it's real. War is never pretty. Rush Limbaugh has said for years the object of war is "to kill people and break things." As blunt as that may be, it is the truth. The object of war is to defeat your enemy to the point they can never attack you again. People will die, including innocents. Israel does not want war. They desire to live without the threat of continued attacks. Yet the enemies of Israel want only war, and are willing to sacrifice their own by the thousands to win a P.R. battle and weaken Israel. Weaken them for the day when all the enemies come together, or WMD's are available, and Israel can finally be obliterated and the Jewish people wiped out.
Israel is to blame for the lack of the two state solution. Their is never any mention of the fact their has never been a nation of Palestine before. Israel must give up it's land to make this happen. The Palestinian people, Arab people, receive no offer of land from their Arab brethren. You don't see Jordan, or Lebanon, or Egypt, or Syria offering to give up any land to truly bring about peace and a Palestinian state. But of course, they don't want peace, and are willing to sacrifice the Palestinian's for the end of Israel and the Jews. Nothing else matters.
But Israel wages war better than those around them, at least so far. So, the Palestinian people will continue to be a pawn in the demonic game of destroy the Jews. But Israel will continue to defend itself and defeat their enemies. They will always lose the P.R. battle, but haven't they always? Thankfully Israel has a leader right now in Benjamin Netenyahu who could care less about the world's public opinion. Israel's only chink in the armor is if a more pacifist government comes to power and negotiates a deal that weakens Israel to the point it cannot adequately defend itself. That could happen, but not right now.
Being one who believes in bible prophecy from a pre-millennial, pre-tribulation view, I simply view these events as prophetic chess pieces moving in to place in God's foreknowledge which He has revealed to us. Jerusalem is indeed that "very heavy stone for all peoples(Zech 12:3)," and Israel's enemies are simply doing what God told us they would do. Psalm 83:4 tells us their intent, as they have clearly stated. It says, "They(Israel's enemies) have said, 'Come and let us cut them(the Jewish people) off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more." Or as Hamas says, "we will drive them in to the sea and destroy them."
Oh that this were simply entertainment, like "5 O'Clock Charlie" was. A television show with a happy ending. But it's not, it is war. We should all be anti-war, but does this mean we ignore reality, logic and a nations obligation to defend it's people? Only if it's Israel.
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