Jewells of Thought

Okay I admit I got this title from the Senior Advisor of Israel’s Prime Minister. This distinct method of life and living is the fundamental difference between Hamas and Israel to think about right now.

Life… who values life more?

There are books I have read that can still give me nightmares when I think about them. The Holocaust may have happened in the past century, but I was also born in that last century. It is closer to me than today’s college students believe it is to them because of revisionist historians. They don’t see the events of before and during World World II as explicitly as I have studied those times.

Some books whether they are biographies or historical fiction can be spot on depicting the tensions of Europe and of Americans not knowing what to believe and seeing with their eyes true unadulterated evil. The first time I watched Shindler’s List I was a young teenager. Talk about nightmares there were times living in our trailer that I would have dreams thinking I heard the Gestapo arrive in our drive. I remember this so well because it scared the absolute jeezers out of me and in a way still has ever since.

Yet after all that has been done to the Jewish people throughout history we are being told Hamas is the victim. October 7th was in fact the worst atrocity since the Holocaust, but we now have kids half my age saying Israel should begin cease-firing. This was an attack against Israel not by them.

Hearing this advisor use this very specific word clicked for me. Inversion. What does that mean? A reversal of position, order, form or relationship; the condition of being turned inward or inside out. This comes from the Merriam Webster dictionary, but my phrase would also be perversion of natural law.

When have you ever seen Israel targeting women and children as they were targeted in the Holocaust and even on October 7th. Hamas uses the civilian population as their human shields to protect their military not the civilian population. The tunnels they are hiding these 240 hostages are under hospitals and anywhere where children are, specifically so they can blame the deaths of these hostages on Israeli firepower.

Hamas doesn’t care about anyone, Israel does, that is why they have warned those in the Gaza strip about their advances anytime they do anything in that vicinity. This terrorist organization is exactly what that means; they promote terror. They are an authoritarian group who have forced civilians to stay in the Gaza Strip against their will. There is a line and Hamas force feeds these lines word for word to their captive civilians whether they are women, children, doctors or soldiers. Nothing gets to the media without their sanitized version being promoted; the truth is simply subjective.

As a Christian no matter how far away from Bible times we have come; God chose to bring His Son into this world as a Jewish baby. Standing with Israel is pretty much up there with being a commandment. Loving others as you would have them love you is also a commandment to remember.

After Moses led the Israelites out of slavery there were 40 years of living in the wilderness. Those slaves didn’t stay slaves because of military minded Jews like Moses and Joshua. They became a lean fighting machine by the time of the destruction of Jericho. As a state, Israel has always had to be on guard being surrounded by all these Arab nations. They instituted a policy for their citizens to serve and be in the reserves until they are in their 40s. Why do they do this? Protecting their nation and their families. They have to adapt to the morphing threat against them, but they don’t want civilians to suffer either which is why they actively warn civilians to leave the area in advance of the charge. What do you do though, when Hamas threatens those same civilians from fleeing that very area?

Who does Hamas love exactly?