Cycl-optic or Bi-optic? In my defence.

During a sensible and healthy discussion this week, I was ‘accused’ of being one-eyed. The person then went on to say that probably all of us are one-eyed, I think acknowledging that they were themselves. It got me to thinking about the issue. Where does sitting on the fence come into the argument? Sitting on the fence for too long gives one a severe pain in the area of pressure, particularly if the top strand is barbed wire! You must make decisions in life. But there are at least three varieties of one-eyedness. There are people who jump onto one side of the fence (or sometimes are born in that paddock) without ever seriously looking at what is on the other side of the fence – truly cycloptic. There are those who think hard and long, make a choice, get off the fence, and become almost hysterically committed not only to one side of the situation but are vitriolic against those in the other paddock – another form of cycloptic. Then there are those who get off the fence, standing on one side of it, but are honest enough to see the strengths of the other side of the argument – after all that is what we are really talking about! In other words, they know what side of the fence they want to be but seek to build a style over the fence so that there can be useful contact – bi-optic!

In the Israeli Gaza war there are many issues to cause disagreement but there are as far as I can root out several true facts. No doubt can you can list a few more.

1. Philistines lived in an area very similar to Gaza. Israel and the Philistines were frequently in war as Israel occupied the portion of Cana which the Bible indicates that God had promised Abraham. The Palestinians are not a continuation of the Philistine tribes, who are thought to be completely ended. As I understand it, Palestine (Syria Palestina) was named after the Philistines by the Romans (Hadrian) about 135AD. They changed it from Judea to rub it in the nose of the Jews who actually lived there and who were a thorn in the Romans’ side. The Philistines were already not in existence.
2. There has been continuing rumbling war between Israel and Gaza for years, but this war was started by, what is called by all honest people, a terrorist attack.
3. There is no doubt that billions of dollars given to Gaza, meant to help the people of Gaza, have been used to prepare for a war against Israel. Much of this money has been by the UN and Iran.
4. People are still called refugees whilst many are in their fourth generation in Gaza. The population of Gaza has grown from about half to seven and a half million in the past 70 years.
5. There is no doubt that Hamas has illegally involved both schools and medical facilities as a cover for war activities. As there is no doubt that Hamas has used, on a large-scale, humans as shields to stop Israel continuing its retaliatory war. This is a criminal act.
6. What country is ever expected to feed the country against which it is warring?
7. The war could stop in an instant if Hamas released the hostages (holding them is an illegal act) and surrendered.
8. There would still be many things to be sorted out.
9. The UN is horribly and in its daily acts anti-Israel. Look at UNWA’s history and the number of anti-Israel decisions which the UN makes compared to what it makes against the rest of the world! In 2023 the UN condemned Israel 14 times compared to the rest of the world 7 times. For instance, there was one against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine!
10. Organizations like Medicine without Frontiers have continued to work in government knowing that they are covering illegal Hamas activities.
11. The media is biased heavily against Israel.

You can see that in the fence between Hamas and Israel I have come down on the Israeli side. But note, and I don’t think that I am kidding myself, provided I didn’t have to work where Hamas were involved, I would be there helping the wounded Gazans. There is plenty of room for organizations like MSF to set up army style hospitals. Though I suspect that Hamas wouldn’t agree to it. I am not Jewish though I will confess that my wife has 12% DNA suggesting that she is; both of us are Christians by birth and by choice, and have worked amongst Muslim people medically.