Monday, July 21, 2014

The Real 'Forever War'

7/21/2014 
Palestinian Hamas militants carrying weapons ride on a vehicle during an anti-Israel parade in Gaza City March 10, 2014. Photo by Reuters
In the late 1970’s, the novelist Joe Haldeman wrote one of the better-known science fiction books, “The Forever War.”  The novel is ostensibly about the Vietnam War, at least so the author describes it in the 1997 edition, which he calls the “definitive edition” in the Author’s Note that precedes it (pp. ix).  At the time of its writing (1970+) this war seemed interminable, though at the time of the Author’s Note is had already ended, even if not so much within the heads of some of those who actually took some part.
The problem is, that there really IS a “Forever War” and it is being fought right now – or rather, one of its perennial battles is; perhaps one of its Great Battles, if Europeans do not interfere with a decisive result.
This war began in year 1652 by reckoning of the Hebrew calendar, or 4122 years ago.  This is as close to a definition of “Forever War” as possible.  The war with Hamas began with The Flood.  In that case, the battle was fought directly by the Divine Intervention.  After this great battle, the world knew peace from this concept for a while – until Israel gained its independence on its own land.  Essentially, the world knew quiet from Hamas until King David.
What is Hamas?  The Arabs that perpetrated this “movement” upon the world claim it is an Arabic acronym (“Harkat al-Makuma al-Aslamiya).  The ‘acronym’ was invented after-the-fact.  “Hamas” is a Hebrew word.  It appears many times in the bible.  The first time it appears is in the description of the reason for the Great Flood.
The definition of Hamas is very strange.  To English, it is usually translated as theft. Theft is usually the act of taking something for the purpose of the thief’s wealth.  Hamas is quite different.  The purpose of Hamas is not wealth; it is to cause maximum harm to the other.  In other words, the idea of Hamas is a definition of egregious evil.  Evil for evil’s sake; harm for the sake of causing the other to hurt.
Hamas is discussed 65 times in the bible; of these, thirteen in Psalms (chapters 7, 11, 18, 25, 27, 35, 55, 58, 72, 73, 74 & 140).  The term is consistently used to depict more then ‘just’ an evil impulse, but a general concept of intentionally causing extreme harm to others, for no clear gain by the person or group performing Hamas.  The other uses of the word throughout the bible, in all of its parts, are entirely consistent with this meaning.
David referred to the Philistines as Hamas, and repeatedly begs Heaven for divine intervention.  He doesn’t receive it.  Again, “Hamas” is not ‘simply theft’ it is an expression of evil intent to cause harm.
Historically, we see two pre-conditions for Hamas, Israel in its land and self-governing its land (ignoring that first instance, of the Flood).
A brief glance at the history of this instance of Hamas shows that the organisation rears in 1982, when the population of Israel passed four million, 34 years after self-governance – even evil takes time to ripen.  However, the choice of this ‘telling’ name is equally Divine Intervention and is not “chance”.
What is the evidence that this Hamas is the historical Hamas?  PM Binyamin Netanyahu: “We use missile defence to protect people; they use people to protect missiles.”
A brief review of the recent history shows that in 2005 Israel evacuated every last Jew from the Gaza Strip, even the graves of the dead.  Until the evacuation, the hothouses of the area were worked by Arab labourers and they achieved, at their peak, some one hundred million dollars in agricultural revenue.  Fourteen days after the evacuation, the area had returned to being desert, all the hothouses had been burned to the ground, all of the equipment (worth tens of million of dollars) had been destroyed.
Hamas had not yet taken control of the area and did not govern anything.  Only two years later, in 2007, Hamas took over governing the area, while massacring all the PLO (Palestinian Authority) representatives.  This rump mini-state proceeded to garner billions of dollars of support from various international forums, nations and persons.  All ‘donors’ expected that this money would be used, at least in part (no sane person had any idea that rampant corruption would NOT be practiced) for betterment of the citizens of the area.  In fact, not a penny was spent on civil infrastructure, on work places, on export industry or on ‘defence’.  None of it was spent on weapons for attacking and killing ‘enemy’ soldiers.  Instead, all of it was spent on building a fantastically complex infrastructure for killing civilians, and only civilians.
In their perennial warring on the Israeli villages, towns and cities across the border, they continually fire only at civilians, with a preference for children.  Their main transport infrastructure is based upon use of ambulances to transport bombs and missiles.  They continually use their own citizens as Human Shields – even ordering them to ignore Israeli warning of imminent bombing.  See the testimonials, for instance, of UK Colonel Richard Kemp, both to the BBC and before the United Nations.
The Hamas Charter and Manifesto openly declares that their ultimate objective is annihilation of all Jews, anywhere in the world; not Israelis.  If they were ‘nasty’ only to Israelis, one could perceive them as a military or militant organisation, for instance, to depose and distance those who they perceive as conquerors and interlopers.  If they were ‘nasty’ only to Jews one could try to claim that they are fighting “simply a race war.”  But they are equally cruel to their own folks.
There is no choice, in logic, in absolute facts or in perception but to comprehend that we are speaking of an organisation that perceives ultimate evil, for its own sake, as their primary objective. In fact, historical Hamas.

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