Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Islamic Fundamentalism is the Real Enemy

Bus hit by rockets fired from Gaza (The Telegraph)
Either Palestinians have the best PR machine in world history - or their representation by the mainstream media is biased. I’m pretty sure it is mostly the latter.

There is nothing new about media reportage in the Middle East. The narrative is always about the suffering Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing at the hands of the all powerful Israeli military.

Their overcrowded conditions, poor economy, lack of enough food and medical supplies is due to Israel’s blockade of supplies that would improve their lives. Gaza is fenced in on all sides. And that has brought desperate Gazans to attempt to overrun the blockade by any means necessary – for their very survival!

Again, this is nothing new. Rarely does the media even mention that all this has been brought about by the determination of Hamas Palestinians that rule Gaza. Whose sworn goal is the liberation of their holy land, Palestine, from the infidel Israelis. Even at the expense of martyrdom. They have been joined in that goal by virtually all of fundamentalist Islam. From Hezbollah in Lebanon to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Again – nothing new. Nor is it new that these facts are virtually ignored by mainstream media reporters in the region.

Which is why I haven’t been commenting on the current flareup there. Not that it doesn’t concern me. Of course it does. Every Jew hurt of killed simply because they are defending their country or worse - simply because they are a Jew living in the holy land pains me greatly. It’s just that none of this is new. If I were to comment on it as much as it deserves, I would be repeating myself. And I would be doing it at the expense of other important issues. Many of them as existential to Judaism as is the conflict there to Israel.

But I can’t watch what is going on yet again without comment. Scenes like the one depicted in the photograph above have moved me to comment yet again.

According to some estimates as many as 400 rockets have been fired indiscriminately into populated areas in Southern Israel. Including the city of Ashkelon. (See video below) Not that rocket attacks are new either. But rocket attacks continue in such great number that it makes me wonder just how they get those rockets. Why haven’t the boycotts and blockades against Gaza worked to keep them out?

I don’t have an answer to that question. But I do have an answer to where they are getting them: The high probability is that they are being supplied by Iran.

The mainstream media simply reports that violence has once again flared up between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza. As though both parties are to blame - but that the underlying problem is that Palestinians in Gaza are drawn to use violence as the only resort to get out from under Israel’s oppressive thumb.

I wish the mainstream media would have the integrity to report the facts. Yes, Gaza is suffering.  Why don’t they report the real reasons why? It might be because the media believes that if not for Israel - life would be better there. And then Gaza and Israel would behave like good neighbors.

But I doubt they are really that naive. Any serious journalist that ever took the time to see what is really going on there would know that the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza are not sourced in Israel’s legitimate security needs. I think the media knows that it isn’t as simple as that. But don’t have the integrity to say what the source of Palestinian suffering in Gaza really is. 

It is the Islamic fundamentalist goal of taking back all of Palestine from the hands of the infidel Jews and return it to their rightful owners, Islam. There is not the slightest doubt in my mind about that. To fundamentalists this is a religious imperative. There is no compromising on what they believe to be the will of God. 

That requires doing whatever it takes including martyrdom. And if lying about it serves that goal, it is a religious imperative to do so. If depriving their own citizens basic needs and blaming it on Israel serves that purpose, they will do it enthusiastically. They will put innocent children in harm’s way so that any defensive tactic taken by Israel in Gaza will virtually assure that children will be killed. All in the goal of driving world opinion of Jews as baby killers undeserving of heir own state. Jews that are responsible for all the suffering they currently endure.

But that real suffering that can only be blamed on the religious views of the fundamentalist Palestinians that rule Gaza in the form of Hamas.

Iran is of the same exact mindset and has been so since the overthrow of the Shah 40 years ago - and fundamentalism took over. Jews are considered evil interlopers into the holy Islamic land of Palestine and defile it by their mere presence. 

Like Hamas, Iran too believes that Palestine must be liberated for the sake of Islam. There is little difference between Islamic fundamentalist sects on that score. Fundamentalists of Shia and Sunni Islam may be mortal enemies. But on this they agree: The immortal Jew must be swept out of holy Islamic soil or be killed in the process. There are no innocent Jews - if they live in Israel. They are just evil infidels that need to be erased one way or another.

That Iran feels that way is not a secret. Their religious and political leaders shout it from their rooftops. It should not surprise anyone that the Iran, biggest supporter of terror in the world supplies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon with those rockets. An unlimited supply that seems to be getting deadlier with each attack.

Which to me is the best reason to have canceled that terrible deal with Iran. Even if it did temporarily stop them from developing their own nuclear weapons, it did nothing to stop them from supplying their surrogates in Lebanon and Gaza with an unlimited supply of deadly weapons. I’m glad to see the pressure reinstated on Iran by the United States. 

Even if they do decide to reinstate their nuclear weapons program (an to the best of my knowledge they haven’t yet) they may not get the chance and very well end up with a new revolution by their own people now suffering at the hands of their Islamic leaders. That would be the best of all possible outcomes. If Islamic fundamentalism is destroyed and replaced with some sort of western style democracy. It would end their exportation of terror. 

It might even lead to the restoration of diplomatic relations between Israel and Iran. Which was the case before Islamic fundamentalism took over in 1979.  If I am right and Iran is the primary (if not exclusive) supplier of rockets to Gaza and Lebanon, that would end too. Without Iran backing them Gaza and Lebanon would have little in the way of weapons to use against Israel. 

Not that this would stop them completely. Where there is a will there is a way. Hamas has proven they can do a lot of damage by sheer innovation. Like terror tunnels and gasoline filled balloons set on fire and sent over the border into populated areas into Israel.

Unfortunately I do not believe there is a solution to the violence coming out of Gaza. As long as there is a religious imperative and fanatics willing to do whatever it takes to implement it - Israel will have no choice but to continue to defend itself. And that will continue to make life difficult for innocent Gaza citizens. Which will continue to cause them to blame Israel for their troubles. And on the surface, who can blame them? Certainly not the mainstream media who sympathize with their plight and imply - if not directly say - it is Israel’s fault.

I see no solution to fighting an ideal that is instilled into fundamentalist Muslims form birth and constantly reinforced by religious and political leaders as well as by their media, schools, and through various of their entertainment media.

But if we can at least get those rockets out of there, that will be progress.