Support For Israel? Never In Doubt!

You might think that just because I am a Bible believing Christian, that my support for Israel is based on prophecy or some particular Biblical mandate. In part, you would be correct. I truly believe that Israel’s very existence today is God ordained, a country born out of the ashes of the holocaust and a people who are still very precious to Him.

That being said, there is another reason why I support Israel: their actions against Hamas are justified.

Clearly, Israel has been patient for several years as rockets have been fired out of the Gaza strip and have hit Israeli towns and countryside. People have been injured and I’ve been told that some have been killed, while the Jewish state has withheld responding. Likely, international pressure forced Israel to hold back, but there comes a time when enough is enough.

Over the past few weeks, Israel has been responding as clearly the time was right.

The situation in the Gaza territory is very sad, but the Palestinians have only themselves to blame. Not so much any of the poor, disenfranchised residents who have no voice or choice in the matter, rather the leadership of the land, a people who are de facto terrorists.

The Palestinian people did elect Hamas, choosing to turn their backs on Yasir Arafat’s Fatah party. Fatah is certainly no angelic organization, but compared to Hamas there is a certain amount of legitimacy, international acceptance and Israeli dialogue. Hamas, however, has sworn to defeat Israel and is keeping its residents captive.

Many of the rockets and missiles fired from Gaza have been launched from residential or public buildings such as schools. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has carefully and surgically taken out targets attempting to avoid civilian casualties. Unfortunately, as in any war, some civilians do die but Hamas is to be blamed, not Israel.

My understanding of the Hamas organization is that it is being supported and funded by Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has threatened to destroy Israel and is even now developing a nuclear capability. It is no secret that Israel already possesses this technology, but they certainly haven’t threatened to drive anyone into the sea as Ahmadinejad has said he would do of Israel.

Meanwhile, the international community keeps its hands folded and mouths shut until Israel chooses to defend herself.

In just over a week the US will have a new president, as Barack Obama will be sworn into office on January 20th. I have no idea what his policy will be in regards to Israel and the Middle East, but I certainly hope that they he will not bow to international pressure by pushing Israel into agreeing to a worthless ceasefire.

Israel has a lot of cleaning out and cleaning up to do with Gaza and we don’t need a new American president to dictate how a sovereign country will handle itself. Even with missiles still firing down on Israeli towns, the IDF is showing restraint by resisting the urge to carpet bomb while employing surgical strikes against Hamas.

War is never pretty, but Israel has the right to defend herself. The court of public opinion may be against Israel, but as far as I am concerned Israel is doing the right thing when it comes to responding to Hamas.