Saturday, April 27, 2024

Why Palestinian Children Are Dying and How to Stop It

 

I would like to begin by saying that as a follower of Yeshua (Jesus), I am opposed to violence on both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I see every life as a gift of God and precious, especially the innocent lives of children. Yeshua taught us that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the children and that it is better for those who hurt children in any way to never have been born as their judgment by God will be very severe.

I also believe that both peoples have the right to live in the land between "The River and the Sea" in peace and that both need to accept the right of the other to existence and self-determination, but that cannot happen as long as one calls for the destruction of the other.

That is why I see groups such as Hamas and their violent ideology as the root of the problem. No one knows Hamas and what they truly stand for better than the one who was raised among them, who is in fact the son of one of its founders and leaders. In his book, "Son of Hamas" and in multiple interviews he has given over the years, Mosab Hassan Yousef, reveals in horrifying details how he was treated by Hamas as a child (including rape at the age of 5 for which he would be sentenced to death if he revealed it to his father and multiple beatings) and how Hamas uses Palestinian children and their deaths as a strategy of war against Israel and their plan to kill all Jews and then claim all the land "From The River To The Sea", which is what the slogan "From The River To The Sea Palestine Will Be Free" truly means.

He also reveals how Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other radical Islamist groups supported by Islamic Republic of Iran, are instigating acts of violence against not just Israeli soldiers, but also civilians including children, as was seen on the October 7th Massacre, in hopes of provoking Israel to violent response in which they know that many of their own civilians, including children, will die. In their minds, it is a necessary sacrifice they have to make for their goal of delegitimizing and destroying Israel to come to pass, so they purposely put them in danger and then photograph their dead bodies using them for political and personal financial gain.

To stop this cycle of violence, we must press our political leaders to stop sending money to and stop all dealings with the Islamic Republic of Iran and all terrorist groups such as Hamas. If anyone really cares about the Palestinian children, they have to call Hamas to account for abusing them and using them as human shields for their ideological purposes.

We also must call upon the leaders of the Palestinian people to stop instigating the violence and accept the right of Israel to exist, as without it, peace will never be possible. That so-called "armed Palestinian resistance" did nothing for the Palestinian people except to bring upon them more misery, suffering, and death for the past 70 + years.  Palestinian people, and especially their children, deserve to live in peace, security, and prosperity and their leaders have not provided it for them, for which they need to be held to account both by the Palestinian people and the International Community.