Taking Advice
The international community is resorting to its usual expressions of support for the embattled State of Israel, indulging in its kindly remonstrations of quiet regard for the well-being of the country and its people. And advice comes not only from the country's friends and allies, but from other sources, as well. The cease-and-desist appeals from so many sources however, appear on this occasion to be falling on deaf ears. Oh well, perhaps not deaf entirely; perhaps ears more attuned to the pleading of its people to put a permanent stop to the never-ending assaults.Israel is always cognizant of the opinion of world leaders who look on with an air of feeble regret at its constant battle to re-assert its presence in the geography it shares with so many who would appreciate its dissolution and disappearance. Doesn't everyone like to be liked? No one, and no country appreciates not having allies, supporters to its existence. We all require affirmation of our value, and would far rather be accepted than rejected.
On this particular occasion Israel does well to reject advice rendered from all those whose attention remains fixated on the plight of the Palestinian people mired in poverty in Gaza. Dependent entirely on the political machinations of an Islamist group devoted to its goal of triumphing militarily and through public relations, over the embattled nation still, after 60 years, having to defend its sovereign territory and the safety of its people.
Hamas's chief, Khaled Meshaal, safely tucked away in a hidden haven in Syria warns Israel "If you commit the stupidity of launching a ground offensive, then a black destiny awaits you"; obviously incapable of recognizing the stupidity of Hamas in lobbing several thousand rockets too many into Israel, bringing down on the Palestinian Gazans the black destiny that Hamas deliberately planned for them.
Human nature being such that even if one's own tribe betrays one, they are more to be trusted than the enemy that responds to the assaults that brings the action that imperils civilians.
Aid workers wail that sewage runs in the streets of Gaza. Tourists visiting the small town of Bethlehem have noted with concern and disgust that the people there live unconcernedly with garbage strewn in the streets, disinterested in public utilities that would ensure that public hygiene is adequately looked after.
Those same aid workers decry the lack of electricity and water during the assault against Hamas by Israel. The scarcity of food and medicines were also a predictable outcome. None of which was of any real concern to Hamas as far as their impact on the people. All of which dire conditions feed directly into the planned public relations scheme that the Islamists know so well how to play, in exploiting the concerns and the compassion of Westerners, while enraging public opinion in Muslim states.
The ability of the terror groups to manipulate public opinion against a State battling an intransigently-determined hostility seeking its destruction is a manifestation of their understanding of the weak underbelly of the West. That values and ideals expressed by democratically free countries are the point of entry of fanatical jihadists who exhibit no such compassion themselves for the well-being of others.
The communities of Palestinians how under attack by the IDF simply because of their close proximity to the infrastructure of Hamas by deliberate design, must recognize the position they have been placed in, as pawns to the ambitions of Islamists who simply do not hold the sanctity and value of human life in respect.
They are dedicated to their concept of prevailing over an enemy, and once that enemy has been destroyed, moving on to the next, to ultimately revel in the triumph of perseverance in dealing mass death to accomplish their purpose. Theirs is the ultimate nihilism, masked in the vacuous cloak of fundamentalist spiritualism. Their volatile hatred of any whom they designate the enemy, any who advance a cause different than their own, speaks of their inhumanity.
There is no reasonable approach to finding peace with that ideology that values the glory of martyrdom in the name of Islam.
Labels: Israel, Middle East, Political Realities, Religion
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, January 03, 2009
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