This Ongoing War: A Blog: 21-Jul-14: War, civilians, children: what the terrorists of Hamas can teach us

Monday, July 21, 2014

21-Jul-14: War, civilians, children: what the terrorists of Hamas can teach us

A Gaza rooftop, yesterday. We added the word "Child" to the photo. [Image Source: IDF]

The image above was posted by the IDF overnight. The caption reads: "After we fired a warning shot at this target, Hamas ordered civilians to form a human shield on the roof." We assume every one of the men and boys in yesterday's snapshot is alive today. We also assume some of the injured and killed IDF servicemen owe their fate to the IDF's moral standpoint and unwillingness to unnecessarily endanger the lives of non-combatants.

Five minutes before posting this item, we saw a Haaretz report that says: "8:46 A.M. Palestinian militants infiltrate Kibbutz Nir-Am, a gunbattle is raging in the area". The war-front, for Israelis, is our homes. [UPDATE 9:10 am: INN reports that six of nine terrorists who penetrated the kibbutz have been eliminated.]

Unarmed civilians play a central role in the Hamas doctrine of war. The delicacy and political-correctness of mainstream foreign reporters will rarely tackle the issue, but it's a reality that has long played a role in the jihadist assault on those they perceive to be their enemies.

The overt use of civilian human shields by the Hamas forces is as eloquent a statement as any academic essay could be about the ethical values that underpin Islamist society and their views about others. The photo above is emblematic of the moral dilemmas confronting Israel as it seeks to stop the wave of Hamas rockets and infiltrations. Hamas, directed by men safely hidden away in luxury hotels in Cairo, Qatar and elsewhere, self-evidently views its own unarmed civilians as being as expendable and destroyable as the civilians on our side.

The Hamas view of children - theirs, ours and yours - also speaks for itself. The evil they embody is of Biblical proportions. So too is the deadly ignorance and confusion this sows among large segments of the onlooking and bewildered Western public.

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