Day 11 of Open Ended Ceasefire
It is a quiet Shabbat morning in Jerusalem and the Ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is holding. I can hear the children playing in the swimming pool down below. Life is returning to 'normal' in Israel. Most families in the southern towns and kibbutzim have returned to their homes to repair their damaged homes and put their lives back on track. Some families however have decided that 'enough is enough' and they will not be returning to their homes in the south.
On Monday this week two million Israeli children went back to school for the new school year. It was not a normal start however. The Education Ministry decided that the first two weeks would be devoted to allowing the children to express their experiences of the war and doing relaxing activities designed to enable children to process their emotions. Although most children seem to take rockets and sirens in their stride, long term emotional trauma is evident in many and can affect them all their lives. Many suffer bedwetting, nightmares, and excessive anxieties.
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| http://a57.foxnews.com/global.fncstatic.com/static/managed/img/fn2/feeds/Associated%20Press/2014/09/01/876/493/Mideast%20Israel%20Back%20to%20School-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 |
One mother reported that "At age 5, kindergartner Daniel Neardea of Rishon LeZion recognizes the different sounds of incoming rockets and Iron Dome interceptors and can identify Israel's chief of staff and the top Hamas political leaders"
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Describing the summer as "loud," his mother, Enav Neardea, said her children mostly took the rockets and sirens in stride, even when they disrupted their activities at the playground or swimming pool. "I guess they understand this is part of their lives now."
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-israel-schools-20140902-story.html
Although the ceasefire is holding it is possible the rocket fire and hostilities will resume once the talks aimed at bringing about a permanent ceasefire begin in Cairo begin soon. No doubt Hamas has taken the opportunity to rearm and regroup. It is already boasting about the 'next round' as I reported in my last post. Hamas' demands for Israel to remove the 'blockade' of Gaza entry points and ports will never be accepted by Israel. I would hope that this latest war would have made it abundantly evident to all that Israel cannot allow Hamas to have open borders. We have seen how, even with the so-called blockade, they were able to smuggle in thousands of rockets and other military supplies, and build miles and miles of tunnels - a whole underground network. Imagine what they could do if there were no controls on their imports.
On the other hand Israel is demanding that Hamas will submit to disarmament, something they are not likely to agree to, unless the world was to unite against them and force the issue, something it seems little inclined to do.
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| Victory celebrations in Gaza |
So the question now is merely, not whether Hamas will resume rocket fire upon Israel, but rather when. It could be tomorrow or next week or next month or next year, but sooner or later it seems inevitable. Hamas is not cowed nor defeated but feel they have won a great victory over Israel in that they held out for 50 days and successfully turned many governments and people in the free world against us. Furthermore, as a result of this campaign Hamas' popularity has skyrocketed amongst Palestinians. Polls carried out after the Ceasefire began by the Ramallah based Center for Policy and Survey Research in the West Bank and Gaza show that 88% of Palestinians support Hamas, and 79% believe that Hamas had won. 94% were satisfied with Hamas military performance and 78% were satisfied with Hamas' defense of its civilian population. 86% support the launching of rockets against Israel should current negotiations fail. http://www.pcpsr.org/en/node/489
These figures are astounding and reflect the disconnect with reality resulting from biased media reporting, and brainwashing that takes place in Palestinian schools and homes from an early age. It also gives a lie to the concept of 'innocent civilians'. Clearly most of the people of Gaza back Hamas and are therefore very far from innocent.
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| This is what 'victory' looks like in Gaza |
Now the UN World Court is intending to try our political and military leaders for 'war crimes'. HAS THE WORLD GONE MAD?
The British Colonel Richard Kemp, the former leader of the British forces in Afghanistan, and who observed the IDF operations at close quarters during the Operation Protective Edge, had this to say in an interview with the BBC, " There has never been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing in Gaza . " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WssrKJ3Iqcw. He tells of one Israeli pilot he spoke to who had aborted a mission 17 times because civilians were spotted in the vicinity.
One might ask, why is the UN not trying the Hamas leadership for their war crimes - firing over 4000 rockets at Israeli civilians and using their own civilians for living shields and propaganda? What about the 160 Gazan children who died while being forced to construct the underground tunnels for Hamas? http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/38316-140726-report-hamas-used-child-labor-in-tunnel-building Is that not a war crime or at least a terrible violation of human rights?
Instead of criticizing Israel at every turn (we are quite good at doing that for ourselves) the world should be thanking Israel for its courageous stand at the very front line of the war against terror, which threatens all of Western civilization and the free world. The world is under its greatest threat since World War II and slowly, slowly, and perhaps too late, it is beginning to wake up to that fact. Sadly the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern people, and the displacement of millions more, were more or less overlooked by the West as the Islamic Salafi - Jihadist groups advanced. It was not until an American journalist was brutally beheaded that the Western world has begun to wake up to the threat.
Today a conference of 19 NATO countries signed a pledge to bring down the Islamic State (ISIS) using both financial embargoes and military might. Time will tell if they will do so. Will they use 'proportional force' or hold back when the first civilian casualties occur? Does the Western world have the moral courage to carry out its threats? We will see.
Even if the Nato coalition can bring down the Islamic State militarily it cannot stop the ideology, which thrives on violence and opposition. The battle is spiritual not material or military. It can only be won by spiritual means. This week I was reminded of the part we Christian believers need to play in all of this. Not many of us are soldiers in the armies of the 'free' world but we are all soldiers of God's army. This week I was watching the movie "The Hobbit" on TV. At one point Gandalf, the good wizard, remarked that in his long experience it was not the great and mighty that held back the darkness but the ordinary folk, the little people, with an act of kindness here, a smile there or a word of encouragement. Words of wisdom indeed. No matter how small we may feel ourselves to be we have a part to play in holding back the forces of darkness that are threatening to overwhelm us. Prayer is our weapon and we need in these days to wield it with strength, courage, perseverance and hope. We are all on the front line of the battle and we know that the victory is already won in the heavenly places.
Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He[ is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.II Thessalonians 2 (NJKV)
Clearly the call for Christians today is to stand fast in prayer and to discern clearly on which side they stand. The passage above predicts a 'falling away' in the last times, and a strong delusion in which many will believe the lie. Let us all take great care we are all lovers of truth and diligently search for it.
In our praying we need to pray with understanding and in the Spirit. For this reason I have put together a short history of Salafi-Jihadism and the Islamic State, outlined below.
Salafism 101 or 'Know Your Enemy'
Most non-Muslims have no idea what Salafist Islam is but it is important we understand what we are facing. Salafism is a fundamentalist movement that arose during the second half of the nineteenth century as a reaction against the spread of Western ideas and the perceived corruption of pure Islamic culture. Salafists desire a return to the 'pure' form of Islam that was practiced in the earliest days of their faith, particularly during the period when Islam was ruled by the first four Caliphs (religious leaders who succeeded Mohammed). The world Caliph (Khalifa) means 'successor'. They promote jihad which is the struggle for the supremacy of Islam and this term usually carries a military connotation. Persons who are engaged in jihad are called the mujahideen. Salafists are Sunni Muslims and regard Shiite Islam as heresy.
The Salafi-Jihadi ideology thus aims to:
- return to the authentic beliefs and practices of the pious ancestors who were the companions of Mohammed,
- To establish an Islamic State or Caliphate ruled by the strict and harshest interpretations of Islamic Sharia Law
- promote the concept of tawhid or the oneness/unity of God ( and the denial that he has a Son!)
- endorse the waging of jihad against regimes they regard as idolatrous, including the Shiite, Jewish and Christian 'infidels'.
After the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Zarqawi, set up the forerunner of today's Islamic State in Iraq. At that time it was made up mainly of Iraqis. This organization first directed its jihad at the Shiites and in August of 2003 it bombed the Imam Ali shrine in Najav, the holiest place of Shiite worship in Iraq, killing 95 worshippers including Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir al-Hakim, the leader of the Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) .
After Saddam Hussein was toppled Shiites replaced Sunnis who had long ruled in Iraq, and this fueled Zarqawi's war against the Shiites. Zarqawi sent dozens of suicide bombers to blow themselves up in schools, cafes and markets in Shiite dominated towns. By 2004 he had joined Bin Laden's al Qaeda and he called his group Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).
Al Zarqawi began to see himself as not only an emir (a political and military commander) but as a spiritual leader or caliph. He never reached this goal however because in June 2006 he was killed by a US air force bomb. Zarqawi was succeeded by Abu Bakr al Baghdahi, who is still the current leader. Under al Baghdadi's leadership the movement became less of a guerilla style terrorist organization and more of an organized army, numbering thousands of trained and armed men. They opened a second front and attacked the Shiites of Syria, and the organization was renamed ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). Baghdadi imposed strict Sharia Law on the towns he conquered, and harshly enforced it.
By 2014 President Assad's forces had regrouped and were fighting back. He retook the city of Homs which was the symbolic heart of the ISIS uprising. Consequently Baghdadi planned a bigger strike which led to the taking of the city of Mosul, initiating a new phase in which he demonstrated a willingness to seize and control territory. Baghdadi also promoted himself to "Caliph and renamed his group "The Islamic State". His ambition is to rule the whole region from the Mediterranean to the Gulf. In Mosul he gave the command that 'infidels', Christians and Kurds, pay a special tax, leave, convert or face death. Thousands fled as the ancient Christian community there was targeted and those who were unable to flee were beheaded, stoned, crucified and enslaved.
In declaring himself Caliph Ibrahim, as Bagdhadi now styles himself, he may have overplayed his hand. Many more moderate Muslims see it as illegitimate, since according to the tradition, Caliphs were supposed to be chosen in consultation with all Muslim scholars. A Caliph could not appoint himself. What is more, the institution of the caliphate has not been functioning for around 1000 years. A Caliph must also be physically whole and mentally sane, and must be of the Quraysh tribe of the Arabian peninsula. On the other hand, amongst Muslims there is a mystical belief that if you can establish a caliphate then everything will fall into place, something akin to the Messianic idea in Judaism and Christianity. The promise of the inexorable, righteous expansion of Islam draws zealous recruits from all over the world.
Salafi-Jihadist ideology has given rise to many competing groups and terror organizations, and this lack of unity is their weak underbelly. Al Qaeda, although also Salafi, disagreed with ISIS' focus on fellow Muslims (albeit Shiites) and were disgusted by their brutality and therefore broke off all ties with them in 2013. ISIS, as it was then called, was too brutal for al Qaeda!
Hamas is also based on a Salafi-Jihadist ideology but ISIS failed to support Hamas in the latest round of violence against Israel, not because it does not want the overthrow of Israel but it has a clearly defined and systematic program and the Hamas offensive did not fit in with its plans. This is its plan:
- Build a firm base for the Islamic State in Iraq to serve as a springboard for waging war in Syria and Lebanon
- Weaken the USA politically and economically by means of terror attacks on the USA mainland an US interests in Muslim countries
- Expand the Islamic State to cover Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and possibly Gaza
- Then, conquering Jerusalem and destroying Israel.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/isis-a-short-history/376030/2/
If the Islamic State’s history is any indication, then one should be concerned about it deepening political polarization and sectarianism in both Lebanon and Jordan, let alone trying to further its appeal by carrying out spectacular acts of violence in the Middle East or the West. The international community should internalize the fact that the Islamic State is theologically driven to apply Salafist ideology in belief and manifest action by way of jihad in the path of Allah against idolatrous regimes and unbelievers to expand “God’s realm” on earth
Robert G. Rabil Robert G. Rabil is a professor of political science and the LLS distinguished professor of current affairs at Florida Atlantic University. http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-isis-chronicles-history-10895?page=3
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| Hamas soldiers in Gaza http://patdollard.com/category/middle-east/page/11/ |
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHY HAMAS FIGHTERS ARE ALWAYS MASKED?
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