Tag: Israel

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Foundational Documents of Israel and Hamas

By Jim Spiegel

The recent violence in the Middle East has prompted me to take a close look at the founding documents of Israel and Hamas—the governing authority of Gaza.  Reading through the Hamas Charter it is clear that the principal aim of Hamas is the extermination of Jews.  As article seven Small_hamas_logostates, “Hamas has been looking forward to implement Allah’s promise whatever time it might take. The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!” Hamas is fundamentally committed to jihad and opposed to peaceful negotiation with Israel (see article 13).

As for Israel’s founding documents, it is interesting to note that they have no formal constitution.  Rather, the legal foundation of the country is a document called the Basic Laws of Israel.  See especially the basic laws on Human Dignity and Liberty.  These fundamental laws concern the protection of human rights to life, property, dignity and privacy, regardless of a person’s race, religion, or ethnicity.  It is striking to note the vast difference of content and tone between this document and the Hamas Charter.  In short, we see in these two documents Emblem_of_Israel.svgthe essential differences between founding principles that respect human rights and those which do not.  Or, to be more blunt: the difference between a rational political system and a terrorist state.

I would encourage anyone interested in Middle East relations—which should include all of us—to take a close look at these documents.  They go a long way in explaining the on-going events in that region.  As it is with individual people, so it is with nations and political systems:  Our basic values drive our conduct.

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Pre-emptive Strike on Iran?

By Jim Spiegel

Last week Israeli cabinet minister Moshe Yaalon reasserted the danger of the Iranian nuclear threat, noting that a pre-emptive military strike might be necessary.  Of course, such remarks have been made before, but given the steady advance of Iran’s nuclear program and the abiding menace of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the situation grows more urgent every day.  Ahmadinejad is a holocaust denier and has gone on record as desiring that Israel be wiped off the map (or “vanish from the pages of history,” as his statement is sometimes translated).

So at what point, if ever, will a pre-emptive strike against Iran justifiable?  One of the criteria for a just initiation of war is that of “just cause.”  There must be sufficient grounds for a military attack, the paradigm case being that of self-defense.  But, of course, just what counts as “self-defense” is disputable.  Should this be limited to instances where a nation has already suffered military attack?  What about other forms of “attack,” such as cyber-terrorism or economic attacks?  And what about imminent threats?  How likely must the coming attack be?  And how severe?  These latter questions are the salient ones when it comes to the Iran question.  It does appear the threat is imminent.  Moreover, the severity could hardly be greater, since we’re talking nuclear attack, the occurrence of which could result in the elimination of Israel envisioned by Ahmadinejad.  But just how likely this attack is, once Iran is nuclear-ready, well, that’s not at all clear.  Perhaps only Iran’s president himself knows.  Of course, the civilized world could take a wait-and-see approach.  But at what potential cost?

These are hard questions, as hard as they get when it comes to international affairs.  We now know that President Obama agonized over the decision to send a Navy Seal team in to Pakistan to take out Osama bin Laden.  As difficult as that decision was, it doesn’t compare to the agony Obama faces when it comes to the Iran question.

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Green Grass and Rocky Deserts

By Amy Spiegel

A few years back, I did a Bible study on the life of Moses. Throughout the study, I struggled with a bit of snobbery against the Israelites who seemed like the most pathetic band of “stiff-necked” people ever collected. God turns the Nile into blood, sends a variety of pests to plague the Israelites’ oppressors, and tops it off with the incredible deliverance of the firstborn sons of his people. Then He sends them off into the desert and at the first sign of trouble, they panic and say they wish they were back on the brick-making assembly line. Granted, the first sign of trouble was the entire Egyptian army herding them into the Red Sea.  Nevertheless…this event does not bode well for the Israelites’ journey to the Promised Land and what might have been a quick trip there turns into a disaster that makes National Lampoon’s Family Vacation look like a dream excursion and highlights the need to consult Mapquest before setting out on any journey. This pattern of miraculous works followed by tests of faith is repeated throughout all of their sad wanderings to the point where one considers taking Moses aside and saying “Maybe you should reconsider God’s offer to, shall we say, wipe the slate clean with this lot and start afresh.” Seriously, herding cats would have to be a more rewarding vocation. But eventually they arrive in Canaan, establish the nation of Israel and begin their whole dysfunctional pattern again:  miraculous deliverance, test of faith, scoring a big “F” on the test, divine discipline, repentance, miraculous deliverance, and so on. 1500 years later, enter Jesus. Sent as the ultimate Savior, foreshadowed by Moses, he collects a group of followers who seem to be direct descendants of the knuckleheads who gave Moses such a hard time. Obviously, Jesus had the whole “omniscience” thing going on, so at this point one has to begin to question God’s purpose rather than the knuckleheads’ capacity for understanding.

There is definitely a temptation to feel a sense of superiority in reading about the Israelites’ rebellion issues or the Gospels’ descriptions of the disciples’ lack of comprehension (I mean, really guys, I understand when Jesus says “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up” that there might be some room for interpretation, but when He says “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life,” did that really leave you scratching your heads and thinking “Hmmm, wonder what He means by that?) I have often wished to be among the few who traveled in the desert with Moses, waiting for that moment when he draws the line in the sand (literally) proclaiming “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me.” I am so ridiculously (and unrealistically) confident that I would be among the first to jump aboard the Moses Express to Godly Obedience. I have also fantasized, as perhaps many of you have, about being among Jesus’ disciples. Maybe not one of the twelve, but somewhere in the back row, waiting for a characteristically cryptic Jesus question, ready to raise my hand in fine Sunday School fashion and yell “Oh, oh! I know!”

Something has recently struck me though in regards to my desire to experience the stories of the Bible first hand. According to the Savior I so desire to see, I am in a better spot today. When speaking of His ascension, Jesus says He is going away so that the Holy Spirit can come. It doesn’t appear that He was giving us something second best, a sort of spiritual teddy bear to keep us company until He gets back. If we believe the doctrine of the Trinity, He is giving us something equally good. So why do I begrudgingly accept the indwelling of God as if this were a consolation prize? I suppose it has a great deal to do with the limitations of our physicality. We have a great deal of difficulty valuing the unseen over the material. And yet, perhaps the Israelites would lie in their tents at night whispering, peering over to our side of the fence, saying “If only we had God living inside our hearts rather than in the tabernacle. Then we could obey.” I suppose it is our nature to constantly suffer from the “grass is always greener” syndrome. Fortunately, however, we all will someday meet in the middle and bask in the eternal glory of God where all good things meet. In heaven, by God’s grace, I will kiss the feet of Jesus, and the Israelites, who, despite their bad sense of direction, have beaten me there by a few thousand years, will get their indwelling Spirit. Until then, I will try to be content with my allotted grass and look forward to greener pastures ahead rather than longing to be back in rocky deserts.