search
Clifford Rieders

War As Propaganda

War as propaganda is nothing new. The Nazi party which ruled Germany in World War II utilized the new medium of film as a way to spread its message of hate and fear.

An army of 40,000 invaded a longstanding democracy and 50 or 60 of the terrorist soldiers were killed.  Why do we feel sorry for the terrorists?  Propaganda!

Gaza has been around for a long time, some say 4,000 years.  Alexander the Great conquered Gaza City in 332 before the Common Era.  The Greeks killed most of those living in the City. Various Greek dynasties ruled Gaza City until the Hasmoneans, who were Jews, took over in 96 before the Common Era. In modern times the British captured Gaza which eventually became under the domination of Egypt.  In 1967, when the Arabs once again tried to drive the Jews of Israel into the sea, Gaza came under the rule of the Israelis.

The Israelis were the only nation that ever gave Gaza independent rule.  Thereafter, there was an election in Gaza, the only election that ever occurred. The Palestinian Authority was thrown out, and the terrorist organization Hamas was elected.

Hamas has embarked on a public, indisputable program to turn Gaza into a terrorist enclave bursting with missiles and terrorist tunnels from which attacks upon Israel may be launched.  Hamas has no pretense to seeking peace, but rather is dedicated to driving the last Christian and Jew from the Holy Land.

The enemies of logic say that Hamas rules with such ferociousness and hate because Gaza is blockaded and people are frustrated.  The truth is that Egypt, which shares a common border with Gaza together with Israel, has sought to keep arms and weapons out of the hands of the terrorists.  Egypt has only come lately to sanity on this point. Previous dictators in Egypt cooperated with Hamas in Gaza.

Using a population of mixed civilians and soldiers to fight a propaganda war is nothing new.  The Christians had the children’s Crusade in the Middle Ages, and the United States was unrepentant in attacking civilian populations in places such as Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.  Hamas knows that no matter what Israel does, the Jewish State will be condemned by the world.  In such a scenario, it makes perfect sense for the despots in the Gaza Strip to send 40,000 or more people to rush the Israeli border with bombs, Molotov cocktails, tire burnings and other instruments of discord in order to evoke sympathy.  All of this is coordinated and paid for by the leaders of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.  Sympathy?  Gaza has been one of the most richly endowed places on earth by the largess of other nations.  What did Gaza do with all of the concrete that it imported for the construction of schools, hospitals and apartments?  Hamas built sophisticated terror attack tunnels so that soldiers could move into Israel undetected and prey upon farmers and villagers in southern Israel.  Hamas has placed missile attack centers, in schools, on private property, and in settings where “civilians” are sure to be killed.

What the world misses about the war between Hamas and Israel is that Hamas wants its people killed.  This is nothing less than human sacrifice, which was banned by the Bible for the first time in history well over 3,500 years ago when Abraham was told not to sacrifice his son, Isaac.  However, human sacrifice has continued unabated in many cruel, savage and undeveloped societies.  The death of Gazans while forcibly trying to cross the Israeli border is a major propaganda “victory” for the Arab world.

What nation on earth would tolerate tens of thousands of people rushing its borders when the leaders of those people have made clear that their purpose is the destruction of the invaded country?  In any other scenario or any other place in the world, there would not be 40 or 50 casualties but rather 10,000.  In Syria, for example, President Asaad, together with his Russian and Iranian allies, have probably butchered half a million people.

In reality, the Israelis have used extreme restraint, but that does not matter.  What matters is that Hamas be able to tell its supporters in the United Nations and around the world that they are peacefully protesting while Israelis are gunning down innocent civilians.  In recent days, a Hamas official has bragged that most of the Gazans killed in the attacks against Israel “were our members.”

The backbone of all terrorist organizations in the modern world is money.  So long as the West continues to enable Hamas through aid projects, that money will be diverted for violent purposes.  We in the Western World are in fact paying for Hamas to send a mix rabble of people to the Israeli border for the sole purpose of creating mayhem.

The moving of the United States Embassy to Israel’s capitol, Jerusalem, is yet another brick in the wall of resistance to the ancient Jewish presence in the land of Israel.  While most of the world knows and recognizes that Hamas is a terrorist organization bent on the destruction of Israel and using its own people as propaganda weapons in that war, the press constantly talks of the “blockade” of Gaza.  The attempt to keep weapons of destruction from a regime bent on murder and destruction is only good common sense.  Gaza, in fact, can be and should be a beautiful and prosperous place.  The money from the West and the native industry of those who live in Gaza could make the seaside enclave a paradise in the desert sun.  Instead, Gaza has become a pit of vipers ruled by Hamas who, in close cooperation with terrorist groups in the Sinai Peninsula, do what they can to destabilize Egypt and cause terror in Israel.  Once the world takes a firm stand against rogue regimes which undermine world stability and U.S. interests, the situation in the Middle East will settle down.

To blame the long overdue U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capitol for the troubles in the Middle East is like saying there is crime in U.S. cities because we put locks on homes and businesses.  Israel has the right to declare Jerusalem as its capitol, and likewise is entitled to protect its citizens from those who seek destruction of the nation.

Cliff Rieders is a Board-Certified Trial Advocate in Williamsport, is Past President of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association and a past member of the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority.  None of the opinions expressed necessarily represent the views of these organizations.

About the Author
Cliff Rieders is a Board Certified Trial Advocate in Williamsport, is Past President of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association and a past member of the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority.