I'm having a hard time assigning blame here and I don't want anyone to tell me what to think because I'll figure it out on my own eventually and decide for myself. We live in hope.
Thinking on the screen...count yourselves super blessed to see the inner workings of what passes for my mind. Just pretend this is written by a 5th grader and you're good.
So on the one hand, we have got Hamas going off on Israel and then Israel is now going off on and
trying to obliterate the entire population of the Gaza Strip (giving them a chance to run thus either forcing them on Egypt or piling them up in a corner like ducks in a barrel) which is not comprised of solely Hamas but includes (so far as I can tell at this point) innocent civilians (which may/may not be at the mercy of Hamas) as well as US Citizens and foreign missionaries, and I don't know who all else but people having no affiliation at all with Hamas except for shared location.
But before that it looks like Israel perpetrated acts of discrimination against Gaza including the recent attack on the Al-Alqsa Mosque which Hamas claims was the catalyst for murdering babies. Hamas wants to wipe Israel off the map, a goal that I think will never happen. So the Gazans are the baby being thrown out with the Hamas bathwater in this current conflict.
Which begs the question: Where does the blame really fall?
My guess (and I know I think differently about this and you guys probably think I can't think my way out of a paper bag anyway) is that Israel is after the original borders that were given to them by Yaweh.
My reasons:
--Israel doesn't appear
need the additional land for any particular
use unless I'm missing a shipping port somewhere.
--The entire region is steeped in religiocultural traditions the history of which is fraught with contention.
--I think the decisions that Israel makes aren't exclusively political in the sense that I think they're deeply religious (but I think they have things wrong) in nature because Israel believes that the land was given to them by Yahweh early on in scripture.
--I think that Israel acts on deeply held religious belief and thus the ethnocentrism and the idea that their cause is just and righteous.
--I think that Israel wants to reclaim ALL the boundaries of the land that was promised and given to them by Yahweh and the Gaza Strip is just one part of fulfilling that goal. Some part of me thinks that if my thinking is correct, Israel needs to go back to their own scriptures for a bit of a review.
--I also think that Israel has gone so far and so fast overboard in their religious zeal that they may/may not realize the impact on the rest of the world which is they are essentially inviting the rest of the world to the fray or perhaps that is part of their strategy although I don't know why it would be.
--If they were New Testament believing Christians doing this, I could see reasons why they'd
intentionally invite the world to engage in war but even at that rate, I'd say it wouldn't be Biblical in
any sense of the word.
--Since the Israelis follow the Old Testament they subscribe an "eye for an eye" and that's what they're acting on to justify to their attempt to reclaim the land.
I'm trying to work both sides of the conflict here...the religious and the political...in my head.
Since I'm two seconds away from finishing up the painting in my kitchen, I shall bore you all with my head another time.
Otherwise please don't read my posts. It's a little embarrassing.
