Israel’s Current War With Hamas

“Ladies and gentlemen, the Bible says that there is a time for peace and a time for war. This is a time for war. A war for our common future. Today we draw a line between the forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism. It is a time for everyone to decide where they stand. Israel will stand against the forces of barbarism until victory. I hope and pray that civilized nations everywhere will back this fight.” - Benjamin Netanyahu | Fox News, Oct. 30, 2023

As an old rehabilitated hippie, I am still a peace-loving pacifist at heart. However, I am also a realist. I realize that pacifism does not work on a national scale unless everyone agrees to be pacifists. Sadly, the Hamas terrorists have no desire for peace. Their stated aim is to kill Jews and abolish the modern State of Israel, “from the river to the sea.”

Reading about all the pro-Hamas, pro-Palestinian demonstrations in America and in other non-Muslim nations surprised me, but it did not utterly shock me. It did not shock me, because I know that many people quickly form strong opinions on issues that they know very little about. That is human nature. But it did surprise me, because I did not realize how many people there are who are either outright wicked, or extremely ignorant, or both.

LEARNING ABOUT ARABS & ISLAM

Forty or fifty years ago, most Americans knew very little about Arabs and Islam. Growing up as a kid, the only knowledge I had about Arabs was from stereotypical stories like Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Aladdin’s Lamp, and from movies and TV shows like Sinbad the Sailor and I Dream of Jeanie, and from Ray Stevens’ hit song “Ahab the Arab,” who “rode on his camel named Clyde.”

As a teenager, the only Muslim I ever met in person was a man from Turkey. My stepfather had worked for Caterpillar in Turkey for a few years in the 1950s. There he became friends with a Muslim man who later immigrated to America and settled in Chicago, about three hours from East Peoria. Occasionally this Muslim man would come to our home to visit my stepfather. The man's name was “Djaheevz,” or something like that. My siblings and I couldn't pronounce his name. It sounded to us like “dry heaves,” so we just referred to him as Dry Heaves.

Because Dry Heaves only visited my stepfather and did not talk to me, I did not learn anything about Islam from him.

A few years later, I met some Arab Muslim students when my buddy Fred and I were evangelizing and passing out tracts at the Bradley University campus in Peoria. We spoke to the two young men about Jesus. They told us they were Muslims. They explained to us that Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet, but they do not believe that He rose from the dead. We debated with them for a while and told them what the New Testament said about the Resurrection of Jesus. That was my first exposure to Islam. That was probably around 1973 or 1974.

In 1976 my wife and I went to Israel. From 1976 to 1981, we lived in Israel for a little over two years. During our first year there, we lived for six months in an Arab apartment building in Sheik Jarrah, a Muslim neighborhood in Jerusalem. We spent most of our study time and socializing time with Christians and Jews, but we also had a lot of interaction with Arab Muslims. I learned quite a bit about Arab culture and Islam from my interaction with them, and from reading lots of books and periodicals.

THE IRAN HOSTAGE CRISIS

My wife and I were in America in 1979 when the Iran Hostage Crisis erupted. In November of that year, a group of Muslim radicals stormed the U. S. Embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans as hostages. The hostages were horribly mistreated and were not released until after 444 days in captivity.

The Iran Hostage Crisis was a major news story that year. At that time, most Americans knew very little about Islam. Friends from our church knew that we had recently lived in Israel for quite some time. Some of those friends came to see us and asked us questions.

“What are Moslems? What does their religion teach? What do they want? What does ‘Islam’ mean? Who are these people?”

That was 44 years ago. Now many Americans know the meanings of words like jihad, hijab, and Allah achbar.

Shortly after the Iran Hostage Crisis first erupted, the popular newscaster Paul Harvey made some very interesting points on his radio broadcast. I remember it well. I could not find a transcript of that specific program anywhere online, but in effect Mr. Harvey said something like the following:

“We need to understand that those people who took Americans hostage do not think the way we in the Western world think. We cannot reason with them in the same way that we reason with other people. We need to understand how they think and what things they value. That will help us know how to deal with them.”

Then Mr. Harvey told about an incident that happened some years prior. I cannot remember when or where it happened, and I could not find that information online, but the year and the place are unimportant. For some reason, Muslims wanted to delay the trains from going through, so groups of them would lie down on the railroad tracks. Each day the police would have to come and drag them off one by one so the trains could go forward. According to Paul Harvey, the authorities decided to smear pig lard on the railroad ties. Because of Muslims’ abhorrence of pork, they would not come near the railroad tracks. End of problem. Mr. Harvey suggested that maybe America should threaten to spray melted pork lard on the cities of Iran if the hostages were not freed.

Paul Harvey was right. Muslims do not think the way we think. And the non-Muslims who are currently speaking out in support of Hamas are not thinking at all. They are ignorant about the history of the so-called Palestinian people.

PALESTINIANS

The pro-Palestinian anti-Semites are accusing Israel of apartheid and colonization. People get the mistaken notion that the Palestinian Arabs had their own country with their own government, until those evil Zionists invaded their land, drove them from their homes, and took over the place.

But the Palestinian Arabs did not have their own country in that land. There was never a Palestinian Arab nation, nor a Palestinian government ruling the Holy Land. After the Romans defeated the Jews, they gave this land the name “Palestine,” a cognate of Philistines, the ancient enemy of Israel. Thereafter, the term “Palestinian” referred to anyone who lived in Palestine, whether they were Arab, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or something else. A Palestinian was simply someone who lived in Palestine. The Jewish newspaper that is now called the Jerusalem Post as originally called the Palestinian Post, even though it was a Jewish newspaper. In the 1920s the Palestinian flag had a large Jewish Star of David emblazoned on it, similar to Israel’s flag today. (See the French Illustrated Dictionary, Nouveau Petit LaRousse, published in Paris, 1926 edition.)

In the 1800s most of the Holy Land was barren wasteland. To get an idea of the degree of barrenness, read Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad, the book in which he described the condition of Palestine at that time. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Jews from Europe, Russia, and other places came to Palestine. They drained the swamps, irrigated the deserts, and made the land bloom again. They settled on barren lands that belonged to no one, and they bought private lands from Arab owners.

Before World War 1, Palestine was ruled by the Ottoman Turkish Empire. After World War 1, Palestine came under British rule. In 1917 the British declared their support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” This statement is known as the Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration was approved by the League of Nations in 1922. In 1947 the United Nations passed a resolution that allowed the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine. In 1948 David Ben Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel. U. S. President Harry S Truman officially recognized Israel that very same day. In 1949, Israel was admitted to the U. N. as a full member.

Since the establishment of the modern State of Israel, Arab Muslims have opposed Israel by starting numerous wars. Between wars, Muslims have resorted to constant terrorist attacks, most often attacking vulnerable civilians, as in these latest attacks in Israel.

Some of the news stories about the brutality and cruelty of these latest attacks are sickening. When I read about what the Hamas terrorists have done, I am reminded of David’s words:

“Surely Thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against Thee wickedly, and Thine enemies take Thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate Thee? And am not I grieved with those that rise up against Thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies” (Ps. 139:19-22).

I hate Hamas with perfect hatred. Hamas hates Israel because they hate the God of Israel. I love Israel because I love the God of Israel.

| DB