Watching the war unfold against Hamas, a terrorist subsidiary of Iran, an ideological clone of the Muslim Brotherhood, there are many questions. One that’s been burning for me is when in the context of this war, or ever, to actually believe Hamas and Islamic terrorists in general.
The short answer is believe them when they say they want to kill you. If they say that, as is in their charter and throughout their society, with a loaded gun (or missiles) pointed at you, you should believe them. If that was ever in doubt before, it cannot be doubted anymore.
When they make videos documenting and celebrating their heinous and inhuman crimes from burning people alive, raping women, killing children in front of their parents, burning, hacking and shooting to death entire families together, beheading and burning babies, and taking hundreds of civilians from babies to the elderly hostage yes, you can believe them.
When Islamic terrorists in Iran, the mother of Islamic terrorism, say they seek to annihilate Israel, and they continue to progress to create nuclear weapons, believe them. Do not coddle them. Do not think you can negotiate with them or that they are rational. Do not fund them in any way, not through commerce and not through $6 billion in ransom. And do not think a nuclear Islamist Iran can be coexisted with at all.
The longer and more complicated answer is: Never believe Islamic terrorists. But most of the world, and far too much of the media, simply does not understand or care.
The war in Israel has demonstrated tremendous paradoxes about what to believe and what not to believe, and who is a credible source. Immediately after reports and photos emerged that Hamas terrorists slaughtered 40 or more babies—shot, burned alive and beheaded—the world responded in disbelief.
The moral minority was in disbelief that anyone could ever commit such grotesque and evil crimes. The (larger) immoral part of the world doubted reports, accusing Israel of fake news. Even journalists who saw with their own eyes couldn’t resist the urge to draw a moral equivalency, to parrot the Hamas narrative. What will happen when the world starts calling for a proportional response? I don’t even own a machete.
Underreported are the unprecedented amounts of rockets that have been fired at Israeli communities for two weeks straight. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians have been evacuated from Gaza border communities, where they were living in fear and danger. At the same time, a parallel shift in population has occurred as hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been called up for battle.
What’s the point? As much as the world didn’t believe that Hamas massacred babies, that nobody could or would ever do such a thing, that Israel was lying, in no time when a rocket hit a Gaza hospital, before the terrorists finished chanting, “Allah Akbar,” the world was blaming Israel. Other than being obscene, even after that was debunked and it was proven that the hospital was attacked by a stray terrorist rocket, Israel continues to be blamed.
As the war heats up, possibly on multiple fronts, we can and should expect many more lies from Hamas.
Don’t believe them. Don’t believe them when they are reporting a death toll from a particular incident which may be staged. Don’t believe their inflated death counts. Don’t believe the reports of suffering, though there surely will be the suffering of noncombatants, regrettably, something they brought on themselves. Hamas celebrates the death of Israelis and scores of foreigners massacred and kidnapped in Israel, but also the death of Gazan Palestinian Arabs. Bloodshed anywhere is a win-win proposition.
And if you don’t believe me, just look at the unspeakable videos they made to document it all. Only an inhuman beast would do such a thing. If the shoe fits …
And if you still don’t believe me, there’s a funny little principle in Islamic theology. It’s called Taqiyya. Basically, it not only permits Muslims to lie to non-Muslims, aka infidels, but it is a religious mandate to do so.
Hamas and Iran probably have a whole platoon that sits around making up lies, as if writing the script for a sit-com. Just wait for it. They’ll come up with great one like, “How do we know that all the dead Israelis were not already dead, that Hamas freedom fighters didn’t hear all the shooting and burst into Israel to rescue as many of their Israeli neighbors as possible, hustling hundreds to safety in Gaza from the carnage inflicted by someone else. Maybe the Jamaican bobsled team did it.”
Absurd, right? Wait for it. Truth and Islamic terror do not go hand in hand. And the world will drink it up like a deadly Jim Jones’ Kool-Aid cocktail.
The Islamic terrorists also should not listen to themselves. Their wars against Israel which they inevitably lose are proof. Maybe that’s why many in the Arab world are coming around. Soon enough, they’ll realize there are no 72 virgins waiting for them when they die as “martyrs.” May many of them be “martyred.” Where they are going, they will be burning for eternity for the evil that they have perpetrated.
Oh, and about that hospital in Gaza that took a direct hit from the Islamic terrorists’ rocket? Not only did they lie about who fired the rocket, Arab leaders foolishly ate it up, denouncing Israel, even canceling an important meeting with President Biden for their own good. And the media promulgated the lie without any semblance of objectivity or integrity. So, it’s no surprise that it also seems that they lied about the number killed, not in the hundreds, but overexaggerated by 10 times or more.
“Allah Akbar,” they chant, as they celebrate death. “God is great.” No, not their god. The Creator is looking down, weeping over the carnage, over their lies and over how so many people around the world in His creation reflexively hate His beloved people.
Do not believe the Islamic terrorists. Ever. Unless they have a gun pointed at your head. {eoa}
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Jonathan Feldstein was born and educated in the United States and immigrated to Israel in 2004. He is married and the father of six. Throughout his life and career, he has become a respected bridge between Jews and Christians and serves as president of the Genesis 123 Foundation. He writes regularly on major Christian websites about Israel, shares experiences of living as an Orthodox Jew in Israel, and hosts the popular “Inspiration from Zion” podcast. On behalf of the Genesis 123 Foundation, the Israel Emergency Campaign gives a vehicle for millions of Christians around the world the opportunity to do so virtually as well.
Yael Eckstein 
Michael L. Brown 
