Recently, Israel endured weeks of increased rocket fire from Gaza, and anti-tank fire against a jeep routinely patrolling Israel’s side of the fence.  A Hamas rocket landed on a home in Kiryat Malachi, killing 3 Israelis. Israel suffered like this for weeks before responding with surgical attacks against Hamas launch sites and operatives in Gaza.  At no point has Israel responded by carpet bombing residential areas in Gaza.

Whenever this sort of thing occurs, Israel claims self defense, while Hamas and their sympathizers claim that Israel’s military actions are illegal.  Hamas and their sympathizers claim that it is moral for them to bomb Israeli civilians, but immoral for Israel to attack Hamas militants.

The argument normally goes like this:

PA/Hamas sympathizers: “Israel’s existence is illegal.”
Answer: “No.  The State of Israel was ratified by a legal vote of the United Nations in 1947.”

PA/Hamas sympathizers: “The UN vote was wrong, because the Holocaust never happened.”
Answer: “Everyone knows that the Holocaust happened.  The USA and Britain sacrificed their young men to fight against Hitler and end the Holocaust.  The German record books of death camps have been opened to the public.”

PA/Hamas sympathizers: “No! The Holocaust is a huge lie perpetrated by America, the Jews,  and the Zionist Entity!”
Answer: OK, now you sound like an idiot.  The Holocaust is undeniable.

PA/Hamas sympathizers: “End the occupation of Gaza!”
Answer: Israel ended the occupation in 2005 and relocated hundreds of Jewish families out of there.

PA/Hamas sympathizers: “End the occupation of Gaza!”
Answer: Even Hamas admitted that the Israeli occupation has ended.
“In 2012, the co-founder of Hamas, Rahul, stated that Gaza was no longer occupied.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip

“‘Against whom could we demonstrate in the Gaza Strip? When Gaza was occupied, that model was applicable,’ Zahar said.” Retrieved from Ma’an News Agency, January 5, 2012
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=449619

PA/Hamas sympathizers: “Well, then stop the blockade of Gaza.”
Answer: International Law permits a naval blockade when necessary to protect people from those trying to kill them.  The blockade began when Hamas took power in 2007.  Either vote Hamas out of office in Gaza, or change the Hamas Charter which says “destroy Israel.”

PA/Hamas sympathizers: “Israel deserves to be destroyed! They stole the land!”
Answer:  It was never your land.  It was under Ottoman rule from about 1500 until 1917, and then under British rule from 1917 to 1947.  Your people were allowed to live on the land, but the land did not belong to you. You had no sovereign government of your own.

PA/Hamas sympathizers: “But, my grandparents had land.”
Answer: Only by Turkish and British permission.  But they also allowed Jews to have land, so this is irrelevant.

PA/Hamas sympathizers: “The Turks and the British were obligated to allow Arabs to have land, because it is rightfully Arab land.”
Answer:  No one managed to convince the Turks or the British to forbid the Jews from living on the land.  These empires allowed it, and no one could say otherwise.  At any rate, the Ottoman Turks are gone now (WWI), same with the British as custodians of the Land (WWII); therefore what those empires allowed in their day has since bowed to the UN vote of 1947, a Jewish homeland.

PA/Hamas sympathizers:  “The land belongs to Mohammed and the Jews cannot have one inch of it.”
Answer: Sorry, but the majority of the world disagrees with you.  As was seen in the UN vote of 1947.

PA/Hamas sympathizers: “But Israel forces Gazans to live in that jail, suffering, with no food and water.”
Answer: Gaza also shares a border with Egypt; so it’s not Israel’s responsibility alone.  Israel transfers truckloads of food, supplies, toys, etc. every day.  Israel supplies electricity and gas to Gaza even though Gaza shows no appreciation.  There is actually no humanitarian crisis in Gaza despite statements to the contrary.

UN Vote:
It’s true that the Arab states voted against the establishment of a Jewish Homeland as a bloc, so therefore the Arab states do not like the results of the vote; this however, does not make the vote illegal, nor does it render the State of Israel illegal.  It’s time for the Arab states to cut their losses and stop being crybabies.  Arab states lost the vote in 1947.  It’s time you accept that fact instead of carrying on with this non-acceptance of the UN vote.

PA/Hamas sympathizers: “We will never accept the UN vote. Israel must die.”
Answer: Military actions taken against a member state of the UN are illegal.  It is the illegal existence of Hamas that must end, the UN member state known as Israel is quite legal according to International Law.

PA/Hamas sympathizers: “But the international community is wrong. The whole world needs to accept Sharia Law, which states that a Jewish state cannot exist.”
Answer: We think not.  That is the root of our disagreement right there.
And, you’ve just switched from a political argument to a religious argument.
To give a religious answer: Sura 5:21 of the Koran/Quran states that Israel is the land for the Jewish people.

“Prof. Khaleel Mohammed, Islamic Law scholar of the San Diego State University, noted that Sura 5 verse 21 of the Qur’an, and the medieval exegetes of the Qur’an, say that Israel belongs to the Jews.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_supporters_of_Israel#In_the_Qur.27an

For further reading:
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_independence_israel_legal.php

Teddy Chadwick,

JTOD.org & Yerubilee.com
“Messianic Roots Reggae from Jerusalem”

“Lifting up the Name of Yeshua
in Israel and in the Nations”