Israel and Jihadist Challenge

By Rabbi Alan Yuter
Posted Wednesday, August 2, 2006

Israel occupied Gaza, Judea, Samaria, and Golan in the 1967 War, which was a defensive war. Israel left Gaza, which was called “occupied territory,” unilaterally. Israel also re-entered Lebanon to stop terror, and stayed eighteen years. When asked to leave Lebanon, Israel agreed to go if and only if Lebanon, as a sovereign state, would assume its responsibility and not allow Israel to be terrorized from its territory.

After leaving Gaza and southern Lebanon, which would seem to make those areas. Hizbollah in Lebanon was lobbing bombs for years. When you bomb a country and kidnap its citizens, you have an act of war. Lebanon refused, albeit out of weakness, to police its borders. If Lebanon has an army, it should have used it against Hizbollah. If Lebanon sovereignty cannot be imposed within its borders, it must blame the offending Hizbollah and not the Israelis. The real issue is that the Lebanese are more afraid of its terrorists than the Israelis. Hizbollah does not want peace, it wants Israel conquered.

The Jihadists are the fundamentalist who are the clients of Iran. The Iranians are Shi’ites, which reminds us of the Hebrew word for “sect,” or se’ah. Their opponents are called Sunnis. This word reminds us of the word “to repeat” or “to teach,” shinna, from which the word “Mishnah”, the core document of the Oral Torah, is derived. The oral tradition makes the Bible live and talk to changing times. Sunni Islam has its oral Tradition which mediates and can, with good will, moderate its values. Shi’a Islam cannot do this. Shi’ites do not know how to mediate or moderate. The Hizbollah are not now supported by Egypt, the Saudis, or Jordan because the Shi’a want to rule the world. Israel is blamed because it occupies territory that the Shi’a wish to rule.

The Hizbollah and Hamas do not care about the local Arab population. After winning local loyalties by providing social services, Shi’a activists won political support. Now, Hamas and Hizbollah attack Israeli civilians from civilian human shield areas. The bomb that exploded in the Haifa train depot was designed to cause pain. The extremists do not have rules of engagement or methods of dialogue. And because moderate Arabs realize this, we find a divide within the Isalmic world.

Consider the public words of the Lebanese Prime Minister, Fuad Senora claimed that Israel is, and not was, “occupying our land.” He claims that for what Hizbollah did Israel’s response was “disproportionate.” After years of terror, tkhe response that is proportionate is sufficient to bring Gilead Shalit, the kidnapped soldier, home, and the terror bombing to stop. He called Israel criminal and called for an immediate cease fire. By not standing up to evil Senora concedes to evil and is doomed to suffer because he does not have the strength to be free. Israel does not kill children with intention, but Hizbollah does. Israel destroys infrastructure in Lebanon because Lebanon refuses to stand up for right. There was supposed to be a demilitarized zone in South Lebanon after Israel withdrew. Israel withdrew, and Hizbollah came in with its anti-Jewish arsenal. If the world is silent when Israel withdrew, and the world is silent when Hizbollah attacks Israel, it would do well to be silent when Israel defends itself.

Iran is a Shi’ite state that passes judgment on the west and on Islam that will not submit to its version of religion. It has succeeded in Lebanon and Gaza in winning the loyalty of the oppressed, poor, and disenfranchised. But this sad population will suffer as human shields. Religion is here a political justsification for people in power to justify their power

We find the same flaw in the Roman Church, that also asked the Israelis to use restraint. No one asked for or chided Hizbolleh for lack of restraint in the pursuit of its aims. And if ever in power, Hizbolleh and Shi’ite Islam would not likely accord the Church what it believes to be its due. When threatened with survival, a nation is entitled, for Church doctrine, to engage in a “just war.” An echo of this ancient Christian doctrine is found in the American national anthem, “we conquer we must” because our “cause is just.” Sadly the loss of Jewish life is less deplored than the deaths of those who trespass Jewish sovereignty, legitimacy, and the right to live.

The reality is that Bombay, Madrid, London, Manhattan, Paris are all vulnerable. Totalitarian Islam wants to conquer the world with updated swords. This totalitarian religion allows the lie, to sue for peace while preparing for war. This religion will call Arab land “occupied” if Jews have sovereignty. The same applies to Spain, which was conquered by the Umayyid’s in the Middle Ages. Ironically, the Ummaytid’s were moderates who would have been scandalized by Shi’ite intolerance. It was under Umayyid Islam that Judaism produced its “Golden Age” in Spain.

The reality is that the nations of the world has still not come to peace as the Jews of silence have morphed into the Jews of power. A Jew who defends him/herself is not consistent to the way the Jew has been portrayed in the mythology of the West. Israel’s military action is criticized as not in proportion to the offense against it. When a nation’s life is threatened, it protects its citizens. When those bent upon its demise attacks with missiles of destruction, when they announce that they intend to destroy Israel, proportion must be understood from the point of view of those under attack.

The Iranian Shi’a do not care about people, they care about control. Democracy is not tolerated, because one does not have a right to be theologically incorrect. The West would do well to realize that that the War being fought in Lebanon is not between Hizbollah and Israel alone. We have a war between the West, with Israel as its proxy, and Iran’s proxies in Gaza and Lebanon. The Saudi Sunnis realize how implacable the Shi’a are. We would do well to consider their concern.

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