Israel and Hamas; Clashing in Gaza in 2008-2009

There are many people who are seeing the clashes between Israel and the Palestinian Group, Hamas which is now in control of the Gaza Strip. For many years Israel and various Palestinian groups who support a Palestinian homeland have clashed in armed battles where the Israeli army has fought against paramilitary units. Some people support Hamas who believe that Israel should not exist as a nation while others support Israel who are attacking Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Despite what the news says it is important for us to look at the conflict between Israel and Hamas in a clear validated way that cuts free from the hidden agendas of various groups; in order to do this we must see the claims of the various sides of the conflict.

First is the claim by Hamas; does Israel have the right to exist? Hamas bases their attacks on the belief that Israel has no right to exist as a nation or as a country. It is easy to belief in statement without checking out the evidence, to follow what one says in blind faith or in light of our own personal biases; however in order to see if Israel has the right to exist we must look at the historical evidence.

Most member of the Palestinian people are Islamic; there are a few Palestinian Christians who live in Gaza as well as the West Bank however many of them are intimidated by the pressure of Muslims by social persecution. As a result of most Palestinians being Islamic they trace their history in the region is Israel back to around 632 AD; or 1400 years ago.

For Israel which is a Jewish State the claim to the land is the following. Israel traces its history back to the time of the Biblical Judges; and later as a unified nation under King David around 1000 BC or sometime before 3000 years ago. The claim of the Jews to the land of Israel is therefore twice as old as the claim of the Palestinians; it is not only a claim but it is a verifiable claim due to archeology and the finding of thousands of historical relics; artifacts, and ruins such as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Not only is Israel's right to exist a firm historical claim but it is also a claim that the faiths support; both Christianity, which is the world's largest religion with 2.5 to 3 billion followers and Judiasm give historical as well as religious record to the existence of Israel as a nation from around 1000 BC. It is a fact that the pagan Roman Empire which destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD and Masada in 73 AD or almost 2000 years ago attests to the claim of Israel being a Jewish Nation; therefore Israel as a nation does have a right to exist; it is not a matter for dispute both is its historicity or religious claims; which means that Hamas having a claim that Israel should not exist is completely false. For anyone to say that Israel as a Jewish nation should not have the right to exist would be like saying Native Americans have no right to exist even though we know they built great cities like Tikal or Chichen Itza; it would be like saying China has no right to exist even though they have a culture spanning thousands of years and have temples in Xian or Beijing to prove it; Israel has the right to exist and thhus has the perfect right to be a country that defends itself.

Jews in Israel have always lived in Israel for thousands of years; although many left in ancient times due to the destruction of ancient Israel by the pagan Roman Empire; some Jews have always remained in the land that is now Israel and since the establishment of the modern Jewish state of Israel in 1948 many Jews have come to Israel with different shades, and colours of skin complexion, yet always Jewsish in identity; they have come from Europe, Russia, India, Iran, Iraq, Ethiopia, Tunisia and Morrocco, literally from all over the world.

Secondly, Israel claims that Hamas has fired rockets into Israel? We know that this claim is true for Hamas has rather boldly filmed rocket attacks on Israel and the damage of these rockets is well documented in southern Israel. Hamas has even claimed that they would arm themselves with more rockets that are smuggled in from across the Egyptian border which have a longer range and can do more damage in southern Israel.

Now that we have established the fact that Israel has the right to exist as a country it is obvious that any country which exists has the right to defend itself. Any country be it a Western nation, a nation in the Far East and along the Pacific Rim or even an Arab nation like Saudi Arabia would defend itself and its citizens from an attack by a percieved outside force; one only has to look at when Iraq invaded Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in the Battle of Khafji; the Saudi Arabian army clashed with the Iraqi army and pushed them out of Khafji and back across the occupied Kuwaiti border. With the past refernce in mind it should be no mystery as to why Israel has attacked Hamas in the Gaza Strip; Hamas is an outside force; they are bombarding Israeli citizens and no nation on earth would allow such an action without a military response; Israel has done what any nation would do; responded by attacking Hamas in their self proclaimed territory. No one ever asks any other nation, if a nation has acted to heavily when they are attacked. In 11 September 2001 the United States was attacked on its home soil; the United States gave a military response against terrorists; it was never questioned so why is it now that people say Israel is acting to heavily against Hamas? No, Israel is doing what any nation would do if their innocent citizens were attacked by terrorists; by people who target citizens and not soidiers; and the response however heavy it may look is justifiable, any nation would and has done the same on repeated occasion.

It is a common practice that Hamas attacks Israel and then when they see Israel attack back in a way in which Israel will win the fight they are quick to claim that Israel is victimizing their people; they never think that they started the attacks and that Israel is simply responding and defending themselves; they never think that they themselves started victimizing others first and this is why they are under attack now. It is as if a man constantly pets a bear with rocks and then cries, "Help, I'm victimized," when the bear gets up and starts tearing at his trousers in order to get kill the man. Obviously the man should not throw rocks at the bear. Obviously Hamas is wrong to attack Israel and Israel has every right to strike back at Hamas in Gaza; people like the president of Iran don't seem to understand that because they are religiously and ethnically prejudice; they exceed the prejudism we see in America by leaps and bounds.

Thirdly, their is the matter of faith when it comes to Israel and Hamas. Israel is Jewish and Hamas is mostly Islamic. In Islam their are some who believe that the world began with their faith and will end with the entire world being that one faith; these individuals obviously do not have room for people of other faiths; Judiasm and Christianity to them really should not exist and it causes a challenge for them. How can Christianity and Judiasm be older than Islam when they believe the world started with their faith? Obviously the world was not Islamic before the 500's and the world obviously never heard of Islam before it was founded.

It is the same problem that causes many in the Islamic world to sort of cringe when any geographical land that once held a majority of Islamic believers becomes Jewish as with Israel or with India which is Hindu, or with Spain, parts of Indonesia or Nigeria, which is Christian. All Muslims do not believe this but to that state of mind those who do believe it have a problem to face; the world didn't start Islam and the world isn't ending as Islamic and it refutes everything they know to be true to they hate the West for supporting Israel; they hate Christianity becuase it not only claims to be true but can give a reason for being true and can validate what we Christians believe where they cannot; They hate Christianity also because millions of Muslims are converted to Christianity every year and it is seen as a threat to their religion; lastly they hate Israel for all of thee above; for every reason that has just been given so Hamas and many Arabs do not want Israel to exist and fire rockets at Israel to harm the nation; they attack Jews in India like in Mumbai; yet the world never sees the ideas behind the actions.

Israel has every right to defend itself. Israel has every right to exist. In comparison to the Arab world which are religiously children of Abraham's son Ishmael; Israel which are descendants of Abraham's son Isaac are all related; they are all sons of Abraham yet they hate each other sadly. In comparison between what the Arabs or descendant of Ishmael have the Jews in Israel only have a small amount of territory; the Arabs or sons of Ishmael have 98% of the Middle East but the Jews in Israel or sons of Isaac in comparison only have 2% of the Middle East yet people like Hamas are are angry of not having 2% even though their brothers own 98% of the land in the Middle East. Israel; the sons os Isaac are not asking for 50% they are only asking to live in peace with 2% and people like Hamas won't even offer that much peace even though they have 98%; that is intolerance if I've ever saw it and if they feel that way about their brothers in the bossom of Abraham it is safe to say they won;t care about any Christian Nations who worship Jesus the Messiah who they call Isa, who came to earth as a Prince of Peace by the way of Israel.

Israel has the right to exist, they have the right to defend themselves and it is not logical or rational, it is not nearly sensible to think otherwise. Israel has the total right to defend themselves.