[Note: Hamas Charter (August 1988): From the following brief excerpt we see that a socialist and jihadist ideology is made quite clear in Articles 12 &13, which states: “HAMAS regards Nationalism (Wataniyya) as part and parcel of the religious faith. Nothing is loftier or deeper in Nationalism than waging Jihad against the enemy and confronting him when he sets foot on the land of the Muslims. And this becomes an individual duty binding on every Muslim man and woman; a woman must go out and fight the enemy even without her husband’s authorization, and slave without his masters’ permission.”
Continuing in Article 13 we read that: “[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion; the nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its faith, the movement educates its member to adhere to its principles and to raise the banner of Allah over their homeland as they fight their Jihad:… Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the nonbelievers as arbitrators in the lands of Islam…. There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. The initiatives, proposals and International Conferences are but a waste of time and exercise in futility” (The Israel-Arab Reader, A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict, Penguin Books, Editors: Walter Laqueur and Dan Schueftan, 8th edition, 2016, p. 341).]
[Note: Some count Hamas’ greater influence to have begun in 2005 when Israel left Gaza, which included the removal of Israeli settlements from Gaza and the West Bank.]
[Note: Some think that Hamas is like the Taliban while others think they are similar to ISIS, with the latter having its beginnings in the political turmoil of Iraq as ISIS attempted to expand its territorial conquests from Iraq to Syria, with plans to take the entire Levant.]
[Note: One cannot help but notice that the attack by Hamas on Israel in October of 2023 was not an attempt to seize land, but rather to kill and take hostages, which were expectedly labeled as terrorist actions. The taking of hostages, including nationals from other countries, will certainly have ramifications for how international interventions will be conducted in the future.]
[Note: A lesson of the Cold War tells us that many believe the West was able defeat communism, but failed to win the hearts and minds of the people, which could have been done by supporting good governance and education in areas affected by socialist regimes.]
[Note: It should be noted that approximately 165 of the 190 plus members of the United Nations recognize Israel as a sovereign State. Just as the majority of the General Assembly of the United Nations uphold the idea of the Palestinians having their own State in the Middle East.]
[Note: The great paradox of the 21st century is that we have bountiful resources and speedily advancing progress in our modern day, but we also have a world filled with poverty, famine and political conflict.]
[Note: With the formation of terrorist groups, we see that over time, as Islamic militancy gained a footing in the region, there has also been a rise in Jihadist terrorist groups and the spreading of their ideology, sometimes called Islamists.]
[Note: To claim that Israel today has a right to the land that was once generally known as “Palestine” is a notion without biblical foundation. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day had some knowledge of the same geopolitical situation, as they assumed they had a right to this geographic inheritance by simply being “lineal” descendants of Abraham, an issue that was directly challenged by Jesus. For Jesus told them they would have to accept the stipulations of a New Covenant to insure their inheritance, simply because the commonwealth had broken the stipulations of the First Covenant, and as they continued to do so, they were eventually ousted from the land that was once the Commonwealth of Israel.
When the people of ancient Israel signed on to the First Covenant they became part of a growing body of law that formed under the leadership of Moses. But the Ten Commandments, that is the stipulations of the covenant, which were related to the blessings afforded to Abraham and his descendants, became attached to the First Covenant from the beginning, as these stipulations are the rules of reconciliation necessary for an everlasting inheritance in the land, and the promise of an inheritance to everlasting life.
Today, the people of Israel do not function under the First Covenant, even though some are bound to the rabbinic traditions that can be found in Israel today, and as they are not in the land today as a result of obedience to the stipulations, the most we can say is that God allowed some to live in the land today as a matter of God’s will, and so a way was made through the nations to grant mandates for the people of Israel, and the Palestinian peoples.
Thus, it is the United Nations mandates that hold sway over the geopolitical situation in the regions once known as Palestine, and so until the return of Jesus, who will reset the geopolitics of all nations and establish their governance and education and their bounds, the Israelis and Palestinians must learn to rely on cooperation to function as separate States in the Middle East.] (andrewburdettewrites.com)
