To the editor,
The news seems to get ever darker. The shout-outs against Israel seem to get louder. I’m not convinced Israel is completely innocent, but have they been left any real choice? They have warned repeatedly that civilians should leave the Gaza Strip. But the international community, Canada and the U.S. included, have found ways to make leaving Gaza almost impossible.
We want to claim we hold the high ground. Our two nations have talked out of both sides of our mouths. We have claimed Israel has the right to defend itself, but we have blamed them for the death of people Hamas has used as shields.
We’ve just come through Remembrance Day. We’ve talked about the freedoms won and the price paid. Yet in our own country and south of the border, we have been flushing those freedoms down the toilet. In the midst of our self-destruction we think we have the right to tell other nations how to act.
It’s no longer politically correct to quote from the Bible, but we should look at Joel Chapter 3. Written around 835 BC, that chapter could almost be the transcript many of the news reports are working from. So many other prophecies in the Bible have come true (to the letter) that even the most committed sceptic would do well to look at this one. Political correctness seems quick to point out the horror of the terrorist attack, but also quick to condemn Israel for taking the only stand possible while the world keeps borders closed. If there is an alternative for Israel that doesn’t simply drag this war on for years, I can’t see it. And because I believe every word of the Bible, including passages I’d rather weren’t there, the details of Joel Chapter 3 make it evident that most of the world is going to line up against Israel (now or in the near future).
There is much I don’t understand. I don’t consider myself a Bible scholar. But a simple reading of Joel 3 and many other passages doesn’t require a PhD. Just maybe, a few of us would do well to dust off our Bible, open it and actually read what it says.
Yours truly,
Brian Austin
Walkerton
