The Most Savage War

(I posted this week a piece on the Times of Israel blog, and I’d appreciate it if you’d read it and consider forwarding it to your network. It involves anti-Semitic statements made by Christian leaders in the wake of October 7. Also, my Patreon page is growing by leaps and bounds and I’d ask that you continue reading and if you think beneficial, recommend to friends. Thank you.)

One day, history will look back in wonderment at the war Israel is forced to wage against Hamas. No military in history has been so handicapped by international opinion, malevolent diplomats and other political operatives, religious figures, and Media. In fact, one doesn’t know where to finger-point first. I will say that by far the most disappointing enemy that has emerged against Israel is the American Christian leadership.

(By the way, one aspect of this that is truly disgusting is the fact that evangelical leaders in America almost never criticize one of their own, even if anti-Semitic statements are made. The silence is infuriating.)

In any case, Israel is assaulted from all sides, including the Regime in Washington that is, while illegitimate, in charge. The “support” we’re seeing from Washington is purely in American interests; there is no love or the Jews among the Regime.

It is also coming out that the average Gazan is hardly innocent. It is being demanded that Israel minimize civilian casualties. This is rich coming from countries with a history of flattening enemy cities during war. The real reason “caution” is urged as Israel moves deeper into Gaza—far from caring about human life—is to further handicap Israel’s ability to fight and win.

I think Israel will win, but as came out in a conversation with an Israeli friend, we can rightly wonder, “What will victory look like?”

One of the hostages that was released has revealed that she was kept captive by a regular Gaza family. “No one is innocent in Gaza,” she said. Meaning, of course, that almost all Gazans support Hamas. In fact, the citizenry voted for the murderous gang in 2007. Now, notice what is being pointed out on social media.

On December 29, Marc Zell posted the following on X:

“The evil of Palestinian Terrorism knows no bounds. The other day I posted a story about a four-year old Palestinian child who was found wandering in Gaza by IDF soldiers. They took care of her, giving her food and drink and returned her to the Gazans through the International Red Cross. Now it turns out that she was not an innocent lost waif. Rather she had been sent by the Palestinian Terrorists to scout out the whereabouts of the IDF troops and report back so that the Terrorists could attack the Israeli soldiers. Yesterday, a Palestinian terrorist hid out under the wheelchair of an elderly Gazan woman. When the IDF soldiers approached, the Terrorist opened fire. Freed hostage Mia Schem reported in an interview that she was held captive by a Palestinian family with women and children. Her conclusion: all of Gaza is Hamas. It really doesn’t matter whether all Palestinians support Hamas. Most do and want to see more like October 7th. That doesn’t make them legitimate cannon fodder, but it does illustrate the challenges facing Israel as it acts to eradicate Palestinian Terror and create the conditions for normalcy on the borders of the world’s only Jewish State. Wishing all a peaceful weekend wherever you may be.”

How grotesque, to use small children to fight Israel. I know for a fact that Israeli troops are 100 percent benevolent when encountering children. Yet Westerners, like former writer Donald Miller in America, post terrorist propaganda. Miller’s 2012 blood libel blog post, in which he accused IDF troops of murder (shooting children) was never retracted or apologized for, a fact that stains whatever Mr. Miller does in the future (he has a marketing group now).

According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center:

“The IDF forces continued to attack terrorist targets in a number of central locations in the Gaza Strip, among them Daraj and Tufah in the northern Gaza Strip, the al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip and Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, where the IDF expanded its activity. In Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City, the IDF completed the destruction of the underground tunnel complex. Meanwhile, activity began in the area of Khirbat Khiza’a in the southern Gaza Strip near the Israeli border. The Palestinians reported that the IDF’s ground maneuver in the central Gaza Strip focused on the Juhor al-Dik area (Wadi Gaza) and the al-Bureij refugee camp, which control the Salah al-Din road, the main road running the length of the Gaza Strip. Hamas’ military-terrorist wing announced it was using ‘new weapons.’”

As hamstrung as Israel has been, there are clear indications the Hamas leadership is desperate. They have “informed” mediator Egypt that any post-war scenario that excludes Hamas and Islamic Jihad from a role in the Gaza Strip is “unrealistic.”

It is also troubling that the conflict is slowly spreading in the Middle East. The Islamic Resistance Front in Iraq claimed responsibility for attacking a vital target in the Golan Heights. Iraq, my friends. Syria and Lebanon are also involved in attacks against Israel.

Israel at the moment is heavily engaged in fighting in refugee camps that straddle the Salah al-Din Road, which runs the length of the Strip. Military, Israel has made remarkable progress, but the progress also parallels realistic assessments by the IDF that this process might take up to a year. Hamas spent the better part of two decades building a terror infrastructure second to none.

It is the use of civilians though, and adult civilians’ love for Hamas ideology that makes the post-war scenario very dicey. I do believe the Israelis, at the end of the day, will control the Strip for years, as they have promised. They have no other choice.

A recent Washington Institute poll shows that while a still-minority of Saudi citizens support Hamas, an overwhelming 90 percent see the conflict as a “win” for the Palestinians. This is known as nuance. What I think it clearly shows is that the Middle East continues to overwhelmingly be radical against Jews.

I believe the survivors that Gazans are cheering on the October 7 attacks.

This will prove to be the most problematic development of the war.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

Jimfletcher761@gmail.com

www.patreon.com/TheGodThatAnswers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

O Holy Night

From time to time, I like to write the Christmas Week column in a more personal way, talking to you as if we were face-to-face. This holy time in our lives—commemorating the birth of our magnificent Savior—is intensely personal for all of us that believe.

This week, Israel continued to prosecute a war forced on them by Hamas. One very interesting note is that Egypt reported that ceasefire talks were rejected in Cairo by one Isma’il Haniyeh, one of the very senior leaders of the demon terrorist group. My question is this: why is Egypt allowing him to move around freely? Why was he allowed to leave the country? He is on Israel’s “Dead Men Walking” list.

Elsewhere, the IDF is eliminating serious Hamas infrastructure in the neighborhoods of Daraj and Tufah to the north of Shejaiya. In Gaza City, the IDF took control of the “senior Hamas terrorist quarter,” exposing tunnels used by the Hamas leadership. In Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, IDF forces raided the homes of senior Hamas terrorists and exposed an extensive underground infrastructure.

All the while, withering international pressure—the equivalent of a battlefield advantage for Hamas—hampers Israel’s efforts.

To date, it is thought that Israel has destroyed 500 miles of the 800-mile tunnel network.

According to an IDF spokesman:

“IDF forces completed the takeover of the ‘senior Hamas terrorist quarter’ surrounding Palestine Square in the Rimal neighborhood in the center of Gaza City, the area where Hamas’ governmental and military-terrorist leadership conducted its activity. The forces found a branching network of tunnels which connected apartments used as hideouts, offices and residences of senior Hamas political and military terrorists. Food, water and electricity facilities were found at some of the sites, allowing for a prolonged underground stay. Nearby, a workshop for digging and constructing tunnels was found, containing [pre-cast] concrete walls and arches. Large quantities of weapons and technological equipment were also found at the site.”

I am not digressing. The point is that serious things are happening in the realm of Israel’s security. Things that have a direct impact on the immediate future. This is a war unlike any other Israel has fought. Those of us that love the Jewish people feel somewhat helpless as we watch.

However.

I have a sense that as evil and danger heat up, the Lord is also flexing His infinite muscles. From our perspective, things are scary. From His perspective (as best as I can make out), God is simply continuing with His plan. He isn’t anxious or stressed. He isn’t in danger of losing, either.

Our role now, especially at this Christmas season, is to pray a lot. Praying provides perfect internal peace, by the way. It can calm you. By doing this, we are also acknowledging that God is truly all-powerful, and by placing all our trust in Him alone, we achieve balance.

I have been thinking about a lot of things this week. I hear from a lot of people that are scared financially. It is a real challenge to juggle what we can call “Biden Bills,” expenses that are skyrocketing due to purposeful sabotage of our economy. Christmas is going to be lean for a lot of people. I am praying specifically for people under financial strain. If you are, I am with you in spirit.

Overall, people are anxious about a society that seems to be unraveling. Irrational decisions, perspectives, and agendas are spooking most of us. Is the government really hatching a plan to blunt the sun’s rays so as to “help” a thing called “global warming”? How can our young people, including ones in our families, seriously believe in more than one gender, or that men can get pregnant? It makes our concerns of 50 years ago look quaint and borderline comical. I live in a small town, and I can think of two families off the top of my head that have a total of three daughters. Each daughter has “married” another girl.

Last week, I saw a social media post of a group of people somewhere in the U.S., at an outdoor gathering, picnics, etc. All of a sudden, a group of men descended from the skies via parachutes. Those on the ground wondered if this was a Hamas-style attack, as the one that happened October 7 in Gaza. It wasn’t, of course, merely a group of paragliders enjoying their own day. But before the bizarro time we’re living in, no one would worry about such a thing; it only existed in movie plots. Now the movies are writing themselves, in the real world.

My point in all this is, this week of all weeks we should get and keep the right perspective. In Bethlehem, 2,000 years ago, Jesus was born. Full divine and fully human, He came to Earth, voluntarily. As believers, we know that He was and is the promised Redeemer, the Messiah.

But it is fascinating that, in the midst of a Roman bootheel in the land, Jesus came as a baby. Vulnerable physically, it would be years before He was older and could fend for himself, so to speak, as we all become. God could have done all this in a different way, but how better to show His power and majesty than the way He did it.

He was signaling to all of us that no matter how bad things get, and no matter how strong evil might seem to be, no one—no one—can take us out of His hand.

Israel seems to be in peril. Individuals around the world seem to be in trouble.

But here is where we exercise our faith. Rely on it. Lash ourselves to it.

My prayer for you this Christmas weekend is that whatever you are dealing with, you will find peace through prayer to our Heavenly Father. He sent His Son to us to reconcile us to Him through the Gospel. I’ve been to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and I’ve been to the room where traditions says the children were murdered according to orders by Herod, who sought to “eliminate his competition” for a throne by killing any boy that might fit the criteria for the Messiah. In those places, even where death was, God’s power is palpable. The birth story is true. Jesus and His earthly ministry are true. He is the power unto salvation. He loves you, knows everything about you, and promised in Matthew 11:28 that if you call on His Name, He will come to you and comfort you.

This Christmas, you might be alone. You might be in a chaotic environment. Or maybe everything seems great outwardly but no one knows what you’re dealing with. But you know. Tell Jesus that on this night, you need Him. The Gospel is this: you believe God sent Him to earth, he died for our sins on the cross and was raised from the dead after three days in the grave.

My prayer for you is that this weekend, on Christmas Eve, you can find some time to get away and get peaceful. Maybe you can look at your lit tree, or if you live where it’s snowing, watch out the window. Tell Jesus everything that’s on your heart. Thank Him for coming to us all those years ago, that you believe Him, and that you need Him.

Merry, Merry Christmas to you.

And let me know how your Christmas unfolded.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

Jimfletcher761@gmail.com