The nations of the world cluster vulture-like over the very much alive body of one of the world's smaller nations - Israel. There are just over five million Jews in the land and a million Israeli-Arabs - the latter with full rights of citizenship, and economically dependent on Israel's economic success.
Israel's 'sin', apparently, has been to defend itself from the vile aggression of the Palestinian Arab population of the West Bank, led by the Egyptian Yasser Arafat. The Israel Defence Force (IDF) is accused of war crimes including the needless deaths of civilians.
[Syria's far greater crimes against its own citizens are conveniently forgotten.]
War Crimes?
Yet a ten-year old Arab lad is sent to 'greet' an IDF patrol - killing six with the explosives they had strapped to his body. What civilized people use their children - boys and girls - as weapons? Or use them as shields behind which snipers hide? Or booby-trap waste receptacles, or forbid civilians to leave their booby-trapped homes? What civilized people teach their children from birth to hate, to see murder as a religious duty? Yet that is what Israel faces.
The allegations against Israel turned out to be false, though forcefully expressed both by the heavily biased United Nations and by Amnesty International. About fifty bodies were found in Jenin - almost all in military uniform. Put this, however, in the context of a war for survival. The aim of Arafat, backed by other murderous surrounding regimes, is to exterminate Israel - 'to drive her into the Sea'. Accommodation is not on the agenda! For Israel it is fight - or disappear from history!
Lesson of History
In a previous war for survival (Britain in 1939-1945) Allied bombers specifically targeted civilian populations in Germany. Death toll: 600,000 men women and children - civilians all. The IDF sought to avoid civilian deaths by refraining from aerial attack with deadly F-16s.
Another example... Over forty three thousand German civilians died and over nine hundred thousand civilians were made homeless in four nights of Allied - i.e., the British and American Air Forces - air raids, code named "Operation Gomorrah" against Hamburg in July, 1943. And German air-raids killed 40,000 British civilians including 5,000 children. What, too, of Nagasaki and Hiroshima?
A whiff of hypocrisy permeates the air in 2002!
Truth v. Propaganda
'The first casualty of war is truth' is an old dictum. In war, misinformation (i.e., propaganda) rules. Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, for example, has been accused of crimes in south Lebanon 20 years ago, supposedly having encouraged the Lebanese Christian militia to massacre the inmates of two refugee camps, known to be sheltering Arab terrorists. The 'camps' were in fact virtual towns, with a combined population of 50,000. There were under 500 killed - with fewer than fifty civilians!
For some reason the world's politicians and media are intent on pillorying Israel. Forget the 'War on Terrorism' - this is different! It's OK, it seems, for the West to exterminate al Qaeda or Taliban (from two miles up with mega-bombs).
A Heavy Stone
'Jerusalem' - in prophetic terms standing for the entire nation - is in the Bible foretold to be at the center of the world stage in the 'time of the end'. And that's after some nineteen centuries of relative obscurity.
Wrote Zechariah: "...in that day I [i.e., the LORD] will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all peoples. All who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations [the UN] be gathered against it (ch 12:3).
For short-term gain the West accommodates oil-rich nations like totalitarian Saudi Arabia despite its acknowledged active financial support for worldwide terrorism - e.g., in the form of the Islamic al Qaeda - and its open support for Palestinian suicide bombers.
The day is coming, however, when all nations will be weighed in the balance of God's Scales of Justice. How they dealt with Israel will be one of the key pieces of evidence!
To comment on this article or request more information, please contact James McBride by e-mail at the comment form below.
For PDF or mailed copy, see CGOM. Excerpt from New Horizons Issue 34, July/August 2002. Edited by James McBride of the Churches of God, United Kingdom.
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