Stones Cry Out

One must wonder how many votes hamas managed to win without using intimidation and threats, they are referred to over here in England as 'militants' but in actual fact they are terrorists,. They may change tactics on the surface to deceive gullible western politicians but they will always seek the destruction of Israel because that is the spirit that operates within them.
They will never defeat Israel because the LORD restored Israel for a purpose.
Good blog mate, have bookmarked it.

http://journals.aol.co.uk/tommy3lions/Repairerofthebrokenwalls/

The thought of Hamas being in control is a prelude of things to come. It will be interesting to see if they follow the same tactics of the IRA and try to become a legitimate group.
I don't think so. This is a dream of a lifetime for these terrorists. They believe in the return of their "messiah" as much as we believe in the return of our King. This may very well be the prelude to those returns, as one must come before the other.

Yeah, you know— it's not like it's any big surprise that Hamas won the election. What's surprising is how little prepared for it the U.S. seems to be. The writing has been on the wall for years now.

The official response of the U.S. government isn't really any more coherent that Doug's response to it above. The conservatarian elite are basically saying this: Oh my God! The terrorists are in charge now! What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?

Gee, maybe it would have been a good idea to have a plan for that well before today and be ready to go with it on a moment's notice when the outcome was clear. Instead, here you are knocking over strawmen and pretending that nobody but you knows that Hamas harbors terrorists. Way to look tough-minded and resolute in the face of extremism...

Democracy sucks! Blow up the Democractically elected Palestinians. That'll teach 'em to respect our democracy...

umm...

S9, actually it was a surprise. Fatah was leading in the exit polling, but looks like exit polls in the Mideast are about as useful as they are here.

And it's not the US that is mostly surprised. It's the UN and the EU, which both supported resolutions condemning Israel everytime it defended itself against civilian-targeted terrorist attacks. It's the UN and EU that was dead set against the wall Israel built to protect itself. Our policy won't need to change much. The EU has got to be rethinking its whole agenda. The US government knew terrorists were in charge, even when it was Arafat and Fatah. The conservatives have been trying to support Israel against them. Hopefully, the liberal world will now take the wake-up call and treat terrorists as terrorists instead of blaming Israel, as has been their prior practice.

From what I've heard, Hamas itself is just as surprised. Instead of being able to do its dirty work in the background, now all of a sudden it has to govern as the official ruling party in the Palestinian areas, with all the international spotlight that comes with it. Now it's not just a case of a "peaceful" Palestinian government trying to reign in terrorists. Now the terrorists own the place and any further bus bombs can properly be blamed on the government itself.

Dan...are you always this reflexively contrarian?

Yes. I mean, NO!

You've certainly heard wrong. Hamas has been preparing for this victory for decades.

For a long time now, it's been clear to everyone but American conservatarians that Hamas is more than just a terrorist organization.

Doug, for all your talk about the importance of treating terrorists as terrorists, you seem curiously quiet about you think the appropriate U.S. response should be to the Hamas electoral victory in Palestinian territory. The U.S. has been talking up the liberating power of free elections in the Middle East for years. Now the right-wing militants are running the show in Palestine as a result of those elections.

Wouldn't it have been better if the more liberal elements among the Palestinians had gotten more support from the U.S. going into the election? No, of course not, your guys are all saying— that would have been appeasement of terrorists. Look where that strategy got you.

If I seem somewhat contrarian, it is because the church at large is so often totally backwards from Jesus' teachings on issues and it is a bit of my mission as a Christian to stand up and challenge unbiblical and unwise thinking on the part of the religious.

The church in the west generally has accepted the teachings of the west, including the myth of redemptive violence. And so, when something like this Hamas election comes along, the church right along with the militarists begin thinking, "Now it's time to use our military might, by God!" instead of repenting for not advocating for peace more strongly along the lines of what s9 has said.

Peacemaking is contrary to our nature sometimes and war-making is too often too quickly embraced as a solution (we forget that "victories" such as WWII come at a cost of millions and millions of lives, trillions of dollars and decades of spiraling violence, not to mention the embracing of the mass slaughter of civilians). Perhaps if we invested as much and were as pro-active and strident in our peacemaking as we are in our war-making, we could have a wiser, saner, healthier world.

Wow, I take a few weeks off and Dan still doesn't understand the threat of Hamas and would rather whine about what's wrong with the church today.

Can't say I'm not surprised.

I never made a comment about Hamas, pro or con (they, like the US, rely way too much on terrorism). I was just answering why I may come across as contrary on this site: I'm a missionary to the Religious Right! Surely you can appreciate this?

And if I were a Muslim, I'd be talking to/challenging Hamas, Al Qaeda, etc. But since I'm a Christian, I take my message to my brothers and sisters. Makes sense to me.

Hmmmm! Peacemakers, huh?

Where was the first war at? Wasn't it in heaven when Satan wanted to be equal with God? How come God didn't hold a peace conference with Satan?

How about this, Larry:

Our LAST WORD from God, in the form of Jesus, was to love our enemies. As soon as God tells you to wage war, then you can wage war. Until then, you have a direct command from Jesus to love your enemies, to do good to those who hate you. Nowhere in the Bible are you commanded to do otherwise.

Are you a follower of Jesus and believer of the Bible? Then until we hear otherwise from God, how about we take Jesus at his word?

Peace.

How about this Dan?

The LAST WORD from God is the Book of Revelation. And if you read Revelation 19 - guess what? He makes war and has a sharp sword in His mouth.

And where does Revelation command you to kill people?

Where does Revelation 19 command you to kill people?