27 Aug 2018

Kicking the Can Down the Road

It’s astonishing to watch the accommodation of evil in our time. By that I mean things that are clearly evil are treated with kid gloves by the majority in society. In our country this week, that is news of the murder of an Iowa student by an illegal. Too many people, particularly on the Left, seem unmoved by the insanity of letting criminals roam free, stopping here and there to murder U.S. citizens.

In the Middle East, the same thing is playing out as a meeting between Hamas and various other Arab terror groups took place this week in Cairo. They are looking at ways to keep the peace—as it is defined in their bloody world—in Gaza. Notice these tidbits from a report by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center:

“The arrangement under discussion is minimalist and includes a cessation of the hostilities, the opening of the crossings, increasing the fishing range and the entrance of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. A Fatah delegation did not attend the Cairo talks because of Mahmoud Abbas’ objection, in principle, to any arrangement that is not reached through the Palestinian Authority (PA).

“While the arrangement is being discussed Hamas continues to implement its policy of controlled violence on the ground. On Friday, August 17, 2018, IEDs and Molotov cocktails were thrown at IDF forces. In addition, a number of Gazans broke into Israeli territory. In response Israel closed the Erez Crossing. Another ‘return march’ is expected to be held on this coming Friday, August 26, 2018. The continuing violence is intended to exert pressure on Israel which will help Hamas reach an arrangement with improved conditions, but may cause the situation on the ground to deteriorate, even if Hamas has no interest in having that happen.”

Reports are that Hamas and the Israelis are in talks to hammer-out a long-term (5-10 years) ceasefire.

My question is, why negotiate with an implacable enemy? We didn’t negotiate with the Nazis or Japanese. That led to 70 years-and-counting of peace in Europe and the Pacific.

Netanyahu has to deal with political pressures, no doubt. But here is an important point in the report above:

“On the afternoon of August 17, 2018, a Muslim who had come to pray in Jerusalem left the Temple Mount compound and went to Hagai Street, near the Nablus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. He met a squad of policemen stationed at the location, approached one of them and tried to stab him with a knife. The stabber was shot and killed. The police closed all the alleys in the area and conducted a search. All the Muslims who had been in the Temple Mount compound left the area. The terrorist was Ahmed Muhammad Mahamid, 30, an Israeli Arab from Umm al-Fahm.”

You see, Islam is the problem. Not negotiating points. Not concessions by the Israelis. Not diplomacy.

In the same way, our country is dealing with a lawlessness problem.

But not enough of us are dealing with it. Too many try to placate the enemy.

In Israel, not destroying Hamas completely kicks the problem down the road.

I’ve been near Nablus Gate man times. People come and go, busy with their lives. This young man with murder in his heart was killed not by Israelis, but by his own sick ideology.

Until the West gets serious about eradicating lethal problems, those problems will continue to crouch at the door, like the sin beast in Genesis.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com