Jim Fletcher from "Israel Watch".
(This week marks Jim's 300th “Israel Watch” for RaptureReady. He is grateful to the RR family, beginning with Todd and Terry, for the opportunity to talk about the relevance of modern Israel.)
Israel is not LegitimateJust as Barack Obama came out in favor of same-sex marriage last year, calculating that the time was now right culturally, so too do Israel haters now feel emboldened to put their hands tightly on the lever of the hangman’s scaffolding.An article this week from Jerome Slater from the Christian Science Monitor was quite instructive.Many of us pro Israel activists have asked for a long time, “Why didn’t Israel get credit for pulling out of Gaza? After all, now it can’t be said they are ‘occupying’ the Strip anymore.”Slater has answered that for us: It doesn’t matter.
By Slater’s reasoning—which is leftist worldview—Israel is still occupying the Gaza Strip, since the IDF maintains a perimeter presence. This of course is because Hamas (and, presumably, the larger Palestinian population, since they elected the terror group) likes to murder Jews. Yet, again, notice the chilling irony:Israel no longer occupies Gaza, except that it does.This passes for reality in 2013.The lead paragraph of Slater’s analysis/diatribe goes like this:“Israel's ceasefire with Hamas is holding, but unless Israel completely lifts its blockade and includes Hamas in two-state negotiations, renewed rocket attacks from Gaza are likely. Should that happen, Israel would not be justified in arguing self-defense.”
Since 1967, the Soviet-inspired Palestinian/PLO propaganda has been nothing short of brilliant. Let your supernatural hatred seethe under the surface, offer coffee to gullible Westerners, lament the “occupation,” and never have to hijack a plane again. The combination of the international community’s gullibility, and its own inherent anti-semitism has paved the yellow brick road for the PLO, which has never abandoned its goal of liquidating the Jewish state.Slater’s reasoning, which, as I’ve been writing about non-stop is also the view of the Religious Left in America, goes like this:
“Israel, however, is not defending its homeland against unprovoked attack. Rather it is ‘defending’ a nonexistent right to continue its occupation (direct or indirect) and repression of the Palestinians – and that is what provokes Palestinian attacks from Gaza.”This is quite important, my friends. He is saying that he believes the Palestinian narrative, that the occupation breeds violence, not the other way around. This is the other worldview in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Leaders around the world, including American pastors and ministry leaders, believe Palestinian frustration, joblessness, lack of a sovereign homeland, etc., is caused by the presence of Jews in the former Roman/Muslim/Turkish province of Palestine.Slater says that after Operation Cast Lead in 2008, several human rights groups defined Israel’s response to Palestinian terrorism as “war crimes.”I hope you are beginning to see that in the view of the international community, Israel cannot raise a legitimate defense for any reason, in any area. Do you get it? Much like the argument over gun control now raging in America, the left is simply marching relentlessly toward its goals. Obama means to try and disarm regular Americans, period. No discussion, no dialogue on Capitol Hill or in a coffee shop in Peoria will stop that advance.Likewise, no presentation of facts, no appeals to serious efforts to get the Palestinians to abandon their goals of mass murder will have any effect.Naturally, you understand what these scenarios lead to, don’t you?Confrontation.
The decades-long conflict leads finally to conflict.Slater insists that Israeli strikes have landed on hospitals, schools, and ambulances. He (deliberately?) leaves out the all-important fact that the IDF goes to extreme lengths to avoid such strikes…but Hamas uses those hospitals, schools, and ambulances as shields.It is international weakness and cowardice that perpetuates the conflict.I’ve heard quite a bit of talk lately that commentators (such as yours truly) talk too much about gloom and doom, and write depressing stuff.I can’t speak for others. What I know is that a presentation of facts allows all of us the opportunity to live in reality, a place from which we can make good decisions.More than that, I often attempt to pull back a curtain on a glorious future, because even amid all this conflict, we see very clearly that God acts and is acting in history. Most importantly—get this—He will act in history.Those who love the Jewish people know that the world’s injustice and inversions of the truth are but for a little while. Scripture is soaked with the message that dawn is coming, because God has said quite clearly that He will exact justice for His people.That’s why a hopelessly skewed perspective, from yet another journalist, is not reality. It is merely pitiful, reflecting the wisdom of the world.Israel is permanent, if Scripture is to be believed. I’m afraid her current tormenters will not realize that until it’s too late.
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