Hamas, designated a terror group by Western nations, is an Islamist fundamentalist group whose 1988 Covenant openly supports a Sharia law-based paradisical Caliphate free of non-believers and a world free of Jews (end of Article 7).
Despite Israel's compliance with humanitarian concerns, rules of war, and attempts to avoid Palestinian civilian deaths, the perception remains that Israel should be the one to make concessions for a ceasefire, not Hamas, which should immediately release the hostages it took.
Hamas, like other Islamic groups from a different culture, does not accede to the West's laws of war – this much is clear from their treatment of hostages. Freed hostages tell of "cages, beatings and death threats." Hamas, in violation of the truce agreement, has not permitted the Red Cross to see the hostages. One can imagine how come.
The conflict therefore becomes one between a Western state, ultimately seeking peaceful coexistence and adhering to the ethics of a just war, assaulted by terrorist groups pursuing total conquest and seeming to be driven by an ideology of unquenchable animosity toward "unbelievers."
Most Western leaders apparently desire to divide Israel, even further than it already has been divided, into two sectors: one for the Jews and one for the Palestinians -- all in the name of human rights, social justice, and supposed fair play.
At its core, these proposals are anti-Zionist and in practical effect, anti-Semitic. For a start, more than half the land promised to Jews by the 1917 Balfour Declaration was reallocated by the British authorities to what is now the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordon. Jewish rights to what remains of their historic land is continually denied, along with stupefying proposals that the Jews should be forced to be ruled by the very people desiring their extinction.
What accommodation, however, can there possibly be between two conflicting core narratives, in which one party seeks the ideal of martyrdom -- "We love death as our enemies love life" -- while the other desires to live in peace, without constant threats to its existence?
Israel is not only fighting to prevent long-term future attacks from Gaza, but also to defeat terrorists from overwhelming the Judeo-Christian values that have been achieved over centuries with much sacrifice.
Israel has actually been singled out for implementing "More measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other nation in history."
Israel is the "only country in world," the British journalist Douglas Murray pointed out, "who are never allowed to win a war, which is a reason why wars keep occurring."
US President Joe Biden and his ministers of state try their utmost to impose unacceptable cease-fire agreements upon Israel. Fortunately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "the Churchill of the Middle East," will have none of it. Israel stands firm against prematurely ceasing military action: their ultimate aim is not only to destroy Hamas's military capability and to rescue remaining hostages, but to defeat terror for the future of the Free World.
"It is left to little Israel to make the first stand against radical evil and the new axis of nations dedicated to the demise of the West. With resolve, courage, and dedication, but, alas, with much more sacrifice, Israel will show the way." — Professor Leon R. Kass, aei.org, November 3, 2023.
Despite Israel's compliance with humanitarian concerns, rules of war, and attempts to avoid Palestinian civilian deaths, the perception remains that Israel should be the one to make concessions for a ceasefire, not Hamas, which should immediately release the hostages it took.
Hamas, like other Islamic groups from a different culture, does not accede to the West's laws of war – this much is clear from their treatment of hostages.
Hamas, a so-called liberation movement, was voted into power as the governing party by the Palestinian people of Gaza in 2006. The group immediately engaged in armed conflict with Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority and his Fatah faction, and forcibly removed them from Gaza, including by throwing at least one official off the 15th floor of a building. Hamas also undertook a jihad (holy war) against the neighbouring country of Israel by attempting to kill Israelis or drive them away to take control of the land.
Hamas, designated a terror group by Western nations, is an Islamist fundamentalist group whose 1988 Covenant openly supports a Sharia law-based paradisical Caliphate free of non-believers and a world free of Jews (end of Article 7). Captured non-believers, including Christians, are offered the choice of converting to Islam; being murdered or living among their captors as "dhimmis" – literally, "protected" third-class residents who have to pay protection tax, the jizya, and live under humiliating laws.
"Following the path of Allah means, in the narrowest sense, propagating Islam through holy war," said the renowned philosopher Franz Rosenzweig as early as 1921. His observation highlights the crux of the problem: there are two sets of rules. Jihadists fight according to their holy-war rules while Israelis are restricted to Western rules of a "just war," including, for instance, the Geneva Conventions.
Israel, however, does not act indiscriminately but employs all possible safeguards to prevent or minimize casualties which, under international law, it is obliged to do. "Israel Has Created a New Standard for Urban Warfare. Why Will No One Admit It?" wrote John Spencer, urban warfare specialist and chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute (MWI) at West Point.
Jihadists during a war follow a different code of conduct; Israel, as a democratic nation, is committed to broad principles of just war theory and a restricted use of force wherein every military move is carefully, even obsessively, monitored by Western powers.
These constraints can only compromise Israel's freedom to respond as necessary in a fluid, real-time, permanently hostile environment. As the terrorists are given a pass, it has become increasingly difficult for Israel to hold the high moral ground they actually merit. Despite unprecedented efforts to protect the lives of Gaza's civilians, such as dropping thousands of leaflets and making thousands of telephone calls to warn them to evacuate danger zones while Hamas operatives shot at them to prevent them from leaving, Israel -- which Hamas, with the backing of Iran, savagely attacked on October 7, 2023 -- is still often wrongly seen as the aggressor.
Israel has also been forced to contend with false claims of civilian casualties by Gaza's Ministry of Health – which is run, of course, by Hamas. Despite Israel's compliance with humanitarian concerns, rules of war, and attempts to avoid Palestinian civilian deaths, the perception remains that Israel should be the one to make concessions for a ceasefire, not Hamas, which should immediately release the hostages it took.
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Nils A. Haug is an author and columnist. A Lawyer by profession, he is member of the International Bar Association, the National Association of Scholars, a faculty member at Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the Academy of Philosophy and Letters. Retired from law, his particular field of interest is political theory interconnected with current events. He holds a Ph.D. in Apologetical Theology.
Dr. Haug is author of 'Politics, Law, and Disorder in the Garden of Eden – the Quest for Identity'; and 'Enemies of the Innocent – Life, Truth, and Meaning in a Dark Age.' His work has been published by First Things Journal, The American Mind, Quadrant, Gatestone Institute, National Association of Scholars, Anglican Mainstream, Document Danmark, Jewish News Syndicate, and others.
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