I am so sick of these people. OK… I know they are Baalei Chesed. They are renowned for helping their coreligionists in a myriad of ways. They provide food and shelter and all manner of kindness to those in need. And there are many in their camp who qualify. They bend over backwards to help in any and every way they can. Their network of Chesed is widely known and respected. And it is why they are so popular among their own. Especially the devout. But despite their vaunted devotion to God, they have become an evil people in their perceived service to Him.
Hamas can do Chesed all day long for its people. It doesn’t matter. The reason their people suffer is no one’s fault but their own. They perpetuate that status with their deadly antagonism towards Israel. An antagonism that includes daily indiscriminate bombardment of Israeli population centers from Gaza. Their Chesed does not extend to non Muslims. To Hamas, we are all infidels requiring either conversion, subservience to them, or elimination. That is the nature of their hatred of the Jew – who adds insult to injury by occupying Palestine.
Let us not make any mistake about this. To Hamas and other Islamists, Jews are not only occupiers, they are infidels who have usurped what they believe is their Muslim God given right to the land. Until they achieve the goal of taking it back, they will use all means at their disposal to accomplish it. Including the rockets they fire indiscriminately into Israel. Human life means nothing to them in that goal. Not even their own.
That’s why they place their rockets bases in school yards and other civilian population centers in Gaza. They use their own people as human shields. And the devout Islamist civilian allows them to do it. They all want to be martyrs for the cause. There is no greater achievement in life than to die for God. Getting Palestine is such a goal. I will never forget the sight I once saw on the TV News of a Muslim mother expressing her joy that her son blew himself up in a suicide attack against Israel.
I know that Palestinians do suffer all manner of inconvenience and disgrace due to their situation. Israel’s need to protect itself from infiltrating terrorists causes them to have some very harsh treatment for Palestinians.
Palestinians rightfully object to being treated like terrorists. Most of them are indeed not terrorists. But Israel has no choice. The Jihadists take advantage of any laxity that Israel shows them in this regard. So Israel has to be tough.
Nonetheless, if you are an Arab and your wife and children are on the receiving end of such treatment you don’t think about why you are being treated like a potential terrorist. You look at the people treating you that way and hate them for doing this to you. No thought is really given to the reasons for that treatment. Or the fact that Israel would never treat them that way if not for the terrorists among them.
This is the propaganda of the Islamists. They call Israel oppressive occupiers – comparing Israel to the Apartheid State of pre Mandela South Africa. South Africa was a racist state. Israel not only grants citizenship to resident Arabs they serve in the K’nesset as equals – being elected by their own constituency. If there is any prejudice against them now it is because of the fallout of the overall decades long conflict. It didn’t have to be that way. If the Arabs would have accepted us from the start – Israel could have had the same relationship with its Arab neighbors that the US has with Canada.
Hamas doesn’t care about any of that. They cast Israel as modern day Nazis. Now after constantly pounding Israel with rockets (supplied by Iran) from their bases in Gaza, Israel decided to finally act and hit them back with targeted assassinations of Hamas leaders. Israel has hit other areas of Gaza where rocket launchers are located. Civilians – some of them children were killed. Hamas couldn’t wait to proclaim Israel as baby killers. But who are the real baby killers here? It is Hamas who purposely places their rocket launchers in school yards.