The Biggest Picture

     The exchanges of rhetoric over the IDF invasion of Gaza have already breached the ludicrousness threshold and are rocketing toward utter insanity. The tweet embedded here lays the matter out plainly. And as I said immediately below that, wars of extermination have no rules.

     No amount of hand-wringing will change the fundamentals here. Hamas isn’t interested in land, or treaties, or a recognized state. Hamas wants Israel annihilated. Indeed, Hamas, in keeping with its Islamic basis, wants every Jew on Earth dead. That’s a core tenet of Islamic teaching, whether you like it or not.

     A people that faces that sort of enemy must make war against that enemy in full awareness of its enemy’s intentions. It cannot extend any mercy at all. Indeed, it would be folly for Israel to take prisoners. Hamas, which intends the annihilation of Israel, must itself be annihilated. Combatants and noncombatant supporters alike must be put to the sword, else it will rise again.

     Is that likely to provoke a wider war? Yes, it is. Hezbollah, another organization whose aim is to destroy Israel, is already mobilizing to support Hamas. Should it enter the contest, it too must be destroyed. What else are the Jews of Israel to do with enemies that seek their nation’s destruction and are willing to pursue that aim by any and every expedient means?

     Iran is supposedly behind Hezbollah. Stipulate it for the sake of argument. While for Israel to face Iran in open battle might seem suicidal, Israel possesses a nuclear capability, which Iran lacks – for now. If Iranian hostility toward Israel should erupt into actual warfare, Israel would surely use its nukes. They’re for exactly such an eventuality.

     The point is national survival. There are no bigger pictures.

***

     Let no one forget that Hamas initiated the current hostilities by breaking through Israel’s security fencing and slaughtering 1400 Israelis: mostly civilians, largely women and children. It then called for a “cease-fire.” Why? Because its masters realized that they had finally provoked Israel into the only sensible response: a war frankly aimed at Hamas’s extermination. That they hadn’t realized that before their invasion might puzzle sensible people, but the fact remains. If they were counting on Israel being restrained by “international opinion,” they counted badly.

     Let no one be ignorant of this: the Usurper Regime has no interest in supporting Israel. Its partisans in Congress will fight to the death to prevent American war materiel from being sent to Israel. As for money, the Democrats have already tipped their hand by insisting that such aid be legislatively tied to further funding for Ukraine. Can there be any doubt about their priorities?

     Let no one deflect the conversation to “humanitarian” considerations. That’s a thin veil behind which hide a determination to keep Israel from doing what it must for its own people” i.e., exterminating Hamas. The Islamic states that surround Israel won’t even accept Gazan refugees; why should we? Indeed, why should we imagine that Hamas entertained any “humanitarian” considerations when it slaughtered hundreds of Israeli civilians?

     In a war of extermination, “humanitarian” considerations are conspicuous by their absence…as is only logical.

***

     The most succinct summation of the matter was recently provided by Kurt Schlichter:

     The world’s true nature is that good is forever pitted against evil.
     That has never changed. What happened over the last 70 years or so was an interregnum of peace in the West, created by violence against barbarians and facilitated by people willfully looking away from the butchery still continuing at the fringes of the map. The West managed to build a civilization that was – for the first time in history since perhaps the Pax Romana – generally internally peaceful. And the West convinced itself that this was normal.
     But it was not normal. It was an anomaly, a glorious one, but an anomaly nonetheless. The world is not a peaceful place, and it never was, and it never will be. Despite the best efforts of the arrogant left, human nature has not changed. Human nature is vicious and cruel. Rousseau’s noble savage nonsense, which we are still dealing with today in the form of eager sophomores in Che t-shirts slobbering over Hamas psychopaths – is a giant fraud. Savages are not distinguished by their nobility. Their savagery distinguishes them. And we need to find the moral strength to do what is necessary to defeat them.

     The stark truth of the above is now being acted out in the Middle East. The Israelis want only to live in peace in their historic homeland. Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Islamic states of the region want Israel to be destroyed. Anyone who has a problem distinguishing the good guys from the bad guys in this matter is either a moral imbecile or a conscious supporter of evil. The good guys must do exactly as they are doing.

     Yes, this is a moral contest. It has never been anything else. Feel free to call it a religious war; that’s amply supported by the Hamas Charter:

     The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. Neither a single Arab country nor all Arab countries, neither any king or president, nor all the kings and presidents, neither any organization nor all of them, be they Palestinian or Arab, possess the right to do that. Palestine is an Islamic Waqf land consecrated for Moslem generations until Judgement Day. This being so, who could claim to have the right to represent Moslem generations till Judgement Day? (Article 11)

     […]

     Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Abusing any part of Palestine is abuse directed against part of religion. Nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its religion. Its members have been fed on that. For the sake of hoisting the banner of Allah over their homeland they fight. “Allah will be prominent, but most people do not know.”

     Now and then the call goes out for the convening of an international conference to look for ways of solving the (Palestinian) question. Some accept, others reject the idea, for this or other reason, with one stipulation or more for consent to convening the conference and participating in it. Knowing the parties constituting the conference, their past and present attitudes towards Moslem problems, the Islamic Resistance Movement does not consider these conferences capable of realising the demands, restoring the rights or doing justice to the oppressed. These conferences are only ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Moslems as arbitraters. When did the infidels do justice to the believers? (Article 13)

     […]

     The day that enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised. To do this requires the diffusion of Islamic consciousness among the masses, both on the regional, Arab and Islamic levels. It is necessary to instill the spirit of Jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters. (Article 15)

     […]

     The Islamic Resistance Movement, being based on the common coordinated and interdependent conceptions of the laws of the universe, and flowing in the stream of destiny in confronting and fighting the enemies in defence of the Moslems and Islamic civilization and sacred sites, the first among which is the Aqsa Mosque, urges the Arab and Islamic peoples, their governments, popular and official groupings, to fear Allah where their view of the Islamic Resistance Movement and their dealings with it are concerned. They should back and support it, as Allah wants them to, extending to it more and more funds till Allah’s purpose is achieved when ranks will close up, fighters join other fighters and masses everywhere in the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty while loudly proclaiming: Hail to Jihad. Their cry will reach the heavens and will go on being resounded until liberation is achieved, the invaders vanquished and Allah’s victory comes about. (Article 33)

     Questions, anyone?

***

     When a large group of people are animated by a religious conviction to seek the extermination of another large group of people, war becomes inevitable. That war may have terrible, world-girdling consequences. But Israel is only doing what it must…what it ought to have done decades ago. It’s what we would do were we attacked by a similarly animated enemy.

     Pray.

     Never go to a religious war without your religion. – Tom Kratman

8 comments

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    • Steve on November 3, 2023 at 9:17 AM

    You mentioned the fact that the left tipped it’s hand and let everyone know what their priority is. It’s not just the left, DC has made it clear, that the average American is definitely NOT a priority.

    1. You are absolutely correct.

    • OneGuy on November 3, 2023 at 9:58 AM

    The problem is that Islam is a death/hate religion AND that there are almost 2 billion Muslims in the world.  Their religion requires, forces them to kill or enslave all non-Muslims.  While not all Muslims actively pursue these goals all of them would support those Muslims that do actively follow their religious mandates.  They cannot openly deny these religious beliefs without incurring the rath of their fellow Muslims.  In the end, every country that allows a large minority of Muslims to immigrate will endure terrorism and insurrection until the Muslims dominate and the non-Muslims are subjugated or killed.  There is no middle ground.  What appears to be middle ground, i.e. the moderate Muslims is merely a delaying action until a sufficient Muslim population allows them to move to the active phase of Muslimification.   The only choice for the non-Muslim world is a major war to eliminate Muslims and Muslim countries.  Delay only works in their favor.  I don’t see that happening though.  The West is to civilized and pussified (sorry that is the correct word) and they will not act they will only react and even then ineffectively.  So I see a long slog of death and destruction likely ending in defeat for the West.

    • JDinPA on November 3, 2023 at 12:26 PM

    OK, Hamas is evil and avowedly dedicated to Israel’s annihilation, “Islam” is evil (and pretty much dedicated to the annihilation of everything that’s not “Islam”), and Israel’s interests would seem (I hedge only because it strikes me as presumptuous to make categorical pronouncements on the interests of nations or peoples not my own) to support a response of unrestrained violence to this latest attack.  All stipulated.  You seem to think there’s an American interest implicated here so strong as to require a government that is more broke than any entity in history has ever before been broke to borrow even further unfathomable sums that it has no conception of how it is ever going to repay and rush the sums thus borrowed off to Israel – an American interest so strong, in fact, that it justifies your engaging in the rhetorical masturbation of suggesting anyone who might stand in the way of the American government’s doing so is a “moral imbecile.”  Explain the American interest, would you, and – if it’s possible to do so from the heights you occupy – condescend to do so in non-hysterical terms someone by far your moral and intellectual inferior might have at least a small chance of understanding.

    1. I do believe that Mr. Porretto said anyone who couldn’t tell the good guys from the bad guys was a moral imbecile, and he’s correct on that. As for the rest of your statement, you’re putting words into his mouth that he didn’t say. Try reading the post again, without the filter of your sneering pretension.

    2. You appear to have taken the following paragraph:

      Let no one be ignorant of this: the Usurper Regime has no interest in supporting Israel. Its partisans in Congress will fight to the death to prevent American war materiel from being sent to Israel. As for money, the Democrats have already tipped their hand by insisting that such aid be legislatively tied to further funding for Ukraine. Can there be any doubt about their priorities?

      …as more than an observation of the facts as they stand and what I expect to follow from them. Yet that is all that it is. However, since you are a moral imbecile and my intellectual inferior, I suppose I should not have expected you to read the words without assigning your own prejudices to them. In point of fact, the Biden regime is siding, de facto, with Hamas by exerting pressure upon Israel to stand down. Should I attribute that desire to you, or are you merely frothing at the mouth because you’ve assumed I want American troops and funds embroiled in the conflict?

      This will probably fall on deaf ears — yours appear quite numb — but one should be careful to read the words as written, not to attribute extra import to them. But then, Liberty’s Torch is probably too great a test of your reading comprehension. You might find I Can Has Cheezburger more your speed.

    • Ilana on November 4, 2023 at 3:33 PM

    There is value in taking prisoners. Israel has around 1500 prisoners from the Oct. 7 massacre and is systematically extracting large amounts of valuable intelligence from them. This intelligence is helping the troops in and around Gaza to target the terrorists there. It saves the lives of our soldiers and increases the damage done to the other side.

    • George Mckay on November 5, 2023 at 10:29 AM

    Fran, sadly we already have tens of thousands of vermin infesting our country through the non-existant border – both north and south.  The Bidet regime in it’s perfidious actions have sealed our fate and for this alone his entire administration with ANY control of illegals or allowing them to invade our country must be brought up on treason charges and dealt with post haste.

    To do anything less is not only suicidal it is incredibly stupid.  Does Bidet actually think HE will be spared when the muslim horde descends on his sorry old sagging ass?  He will likely be the first hoisted on the hanging tree!  So much for being a humanitarian.

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