It is really hard to not be disappointed in my friends (yes, they are actually my friends. I can still be disappointed in them in the same way I can be disappointed with the news: it's still news).
These friends are the ones who bemoan the current goings-on in Israel, the ones who plead for mercy for the children, the ones who question the validity of Israel.
Here is what I'm disappointed with: it's not the bleating for peace, it's not the thinking that innocents should be saved, and it's not the questioning. It's the hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a very special issue for me, as I am one who left the church because of my own whitewashed tomb. It's also a very personal issue for me, as my (dead to me) father continues to preach a gospel he continues to not follow.
Here is the crux: if you are a Christian lamenting the situation in "occupied" Palestine, you are only sorry because those are souls (Islamic) you can't convert to Christianity, but you are not sorry about the tragedy of death (unlike the esteemed Stanford Gibson, I don't know how to make footnotes so I will add this here: the explicitly stated goal of Christianity is to save the lost and not to care for the weak : Luke 19:10, Ezekiel 34:12, Matthew 18:11, 1 Timothy 1:15). If you are a non-Christian (including atheist), you are confused about the "rights" of an "indigenous" people who "belong" to the space and deserve the same rights as the "interlopers." The citizens of Gaza elected (by popular vote) Hamas.
(All of below is taken from Wikipedia, emphasis mine,...perhaps not the best of sources, but...it's a source)
Since Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, numerous reconciliation attempts are made. Despite a number of agreements, those attempts have not been successful. Israel and major parts of the international community, notably the United States have effectively opposed reconciliation.[58] Israel consistenly argues that Hamas wants to destroy Israel, referring to the 1988 Hamas Covenant and ignoring the present more moderate Hamas striving for an independent Palestinian state within the 1967-borders.
In 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would never make peace with Hamas and ″cannot accept Hamas as a negotiating partner″.[59] In 2011, he ruled out a peace agreement, if Fatah and Hamas would reconcile. He said: ″The PA must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas. There is no possibility for peace with both″ and ″How can you talk to us about peace when you're talking about peace with Hamas. You can choose [to make] peace with Israel or you can choose peace with Hamas″. An Israeli official declared that Israel would cut its ties with the Palestinian Authority if it brought Hamas into its government.[60]
In September 2013, Abbas admitted that he was under pressure from the US and Israel not to achieve unity with Hamas.[61] PLC council member for Hamas Anwar Zaboun said that both USA and EU maintain a veto on the reconciliation.[23]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatah-Hamas_conflict#2013
The issue is that Israel lives in constant fear, a fear of the rest of the world and even more importantly, a fear that Israel's citizens will be killed:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/07/30/Hamas-TV-Muslims-to-exterminate-the-Jews
That's something most countries/people don't have to deal with. Even "North" Korea isn't living in fear of the rest of the world. But it's simply because of a religion, a religion of the sun/son that has turned all hearts hard and made peace impossible. I long for the days when strife was purely ideological, the Commies vs. the Capitalists. There is no panacea for this conflict because there is no turning plowshares into swords/swords into plowshares, there is only throwing down some books and no one is willing to do that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pojL_35QlSI
As a caveat, I don't know how to import videos, so I'm trusting any reader to watch the two I've posted. (I'm going to amend that statement: I could figure it out, but I don't care to.)
In final analysis, lugubrious faces don't equate to actual wrongs done. Fending off imminent attack doesn't seem aggressive. A knock on the door/bomb on the roof seems much more sympathetic than an unannounced return/rapture. A nation that allows an aggressor to live next door seems...better than Christian.
These friends are the ones who bemoan the current goings-on in Israel, the ones who plead for mercy for the children, the ones who question the validity of Israel.
Here is what I'm disappointed with: it's not the bleating for peace, it's not the thinking that innocents should be saved, and it's not the questioning. It's the hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a very special issue for me, as I am one who left the church because of my own whitewashed tomb. It's also a very personal issue for me, as my (dead to me) father continues to preach a gospel he continues to not follow.
Here is the crux: if you are a Christian lamenting the situation in "occupied" Palestine, you are only sorry because those are souls (Islamic) you can't convert to Christianity, but you are not sorry about the tragedy of death (unlike the esteemed Stanford Gibson, I don't know how to make footnotes so I will add this here: the explicitly stated goal of Christianity is to save the lost and not to care for the weak : Luke 19:10, Ezekiel 34:12, Matthew 18:11, 1 Timothy 1:15). If you are a non-Christian (including atheist), you are confused about the "rights" of an "indigenous" people who "belong" to the space and deserve the same rights as the "interlopers." The citizens of Gaza elected (by popular vote) Hamas.
(All of below is taken from Wikipedia, emphasis mine,...perhaps not the best of sources, but...it's a source)
Since Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, numerous reconciliation attempts are made. Despite a number of agreements, those attempts have not been successful. Israel and major parts of the international community, notably the United States have effectively opposed reconciliation.[58] Israel consistenly argues that Hamas wants to destroy Israel, referring to the 1988 Hamas Covenant and ignoring the present more moderate Hamas striving for an independent Palestinian state within the 1967-borders.
In 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would never make peace with Hamas and ″cannot accept Hamas as a negotiating partner″.[59] In 2011, he ruled out a peace agreement, if Fatah and Hamas would reconcile. He said: ″The PA must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas. There is no possibility for peace with both″ and ″How can you talk to us about peace when you're talking about peace with Hamas. You can choose [to make] peace with Israel or you can choose peace with Hamas″. An Israeli official declared that Israel would cut its ties with the Palestinian Authority if it brought Hamas into its government.[60]
In September 2013, Abbas admitted that he was under pressure from the US and Israel not to achieve unity with Hamas.[61] PLC council member for Hamas Anwar Zaboun said that both USA and EU maintain a veto on the reconciliation.[23]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatah-Hamas_conflict#2013
The issue is that Israel lives in constant fear, a fear of the rest of the world and even more importantly, a fear that Israel's citizens will be killed:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/07/30/Hamas-TV-Muslims-to-exterminate-the-Jews
That's something most countries/people don't have to deal with. Even "North" Korea isn't living in fear of the rest of the world. But it's simply because of a religion, a religion of the sun/son that has turned all hearts hard and made peace impossible. I long for the days when strife was purely ideological, the Commies vs. the Capitalists. There is no panacea for this conflict because there is no turning plowshares into swords/swords into plowshares, there is only throwing down some books and no one is willing to do that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pojL_35QlSI
As a caveat, I don't know how to import videos, so I'm trusting any reader to watch the two I've posted. (I'm going to amend that statement: I could figure it out, but I don't care to.)
In final analysis, lugubrious faces don't equate to actual wrongs done. Fending off imminent attack doesn't seem aggressive. A knock on the door/bomb on the roof seems much more sympathetic than an unannounced return/rapture. A nation that allows an aggressor to live next door seems...better than Christian.
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