What We've Learned In A Year

The Die Has Been Cast

Airstrikes in Beirut (Photo: CommonSpace Images)

The origin of cultural idioms is an interesting study. Take, for instance, the phrase, “The elephant in the room.” The phrase is of American origin, possibly as recently as the 1950s. It has come to refer to any subject that requires a conversation but one that is being avoided by all parties.

Likewise, is the idiom, “The die has been cast.” According to one researcher, this phrase was first spoken by Julius Caesar when crossing the Rubicon. The first known usage of the phrase in print goes back to 1626 and Sir Thomas Herbert. The “die” in this phrase is not referring to the modern-day process of die-casting metal. Instead, the “die” is the singular of dice and therefore, the phrase means “the dice have been rolled.” In other words, once the dice have been rolled there is no turning back.

I thought of this latter phrase in relation to the first anniversary of the barbaric, murderous, depraved actions of the Islamic terror group Hamas toward the nation of Israel and the Jewish people on October 7, 2023. No amount of obfuscation, misdirection, political double-speak, or demonic moralizing, can excuse what took place on that day. This is not how civilized people conduct their affairs. Sometimes war is inevitable, but in those instances, there is a formal declaration after efforts have been made to avoid it. Americans especially should be sensitive to this after December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001.

Yet, without warning Iran’s terrorist proxy Hamas, in a well-planned surprise attack murdered, raped, and assaulted civilians, taking captive hundreds of innocent people. This was not a declaration of war, this was a declaration that when uncivilized people are propagandized long enough, they become the willing tools of demonic barbarian slaughter.

There was great celebration throughout the Shia Muslim world at the devastation rendered to what Shia Muslims refer to as the “little Satan,” Israel. The atrocity inflicted upon the Jewish people on October 7, 2023, was seen by a jubilant Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthi Shia Muslims as a blessing from Allah and surely a sign of Allah’s granting a forthcoming victory over all Jews. At long last, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” was within grasp.

No one knows except the ayatollah’s themselves, what the desired outcome of their barbaric invasion was. One thing is for certain though, neither Iran nor any its aforementioned proxies understood that pushing Israel to the degree that they did would result in an all-out war. We can be certain about this because for all of their bluster and saber-rattling, Iran has been exposed as a “paper tiger,” with neither the means nor the will to enter into a direct military conflict with Israel.

Along the way, the “elephant in the room” conversations are now taking place. Terrorist sympathizers are being exposed at the highest levels of government in the US, UK, France, and elsewhere. Their repeated calls for restraint on Israel’s part and a continual call upon Israel to accept a cease-fire exposes them as cowards in the least, and radical Islamist mouthpieces that are not worthy of office. This kind of behavior and moral blindness by elected representatives is not a mere disagreement over policy. Their support of Iran terrorism through Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and every other group around the world, shows a fundamental lack of understanding about what makes us all human beings. There is no scenario where rape as part of an ideology, murdering babies, infants, and toddlers in their cribs, defenseless old men and women in the streets, and taking captive hundreds of people and subjecting them to the worse imaginable treatment for over a year is acceptable. And yet, that is the argument being advanced by Islamists and their sympathizers.

International organizations have attempted to stop Israel’s response through lawfare (The International Criminal Court of Justice comes to mind), or through the United Nations. Why would any nation ever support the United Nations after is has been proven that the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) was riddled with Islamic terrorists who participated in the October 7 massacre?

The latest blindness and abject lunacy come from the Nobel Peace Prize Forum who declared their complete moral bankruptcy just days ago by nominating for their highest honor the same terrorist UNRWA mentioned above, the International Criminal Court of Justice mentioned above, and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who has been so openly biased against Israel that Israel’s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, recently banned him from entering Israel. It was Guterres who demonstrated his own inability to comprehend basic morality by declaring soon after October 7, 2023, that the Hamas barbarity “did not happen in a vacuum.”

Days ago, Iran appears to have conducted what they hope will become a deterrent to Israel destroying their oil processing capabilities by targeting their refineries. What was first reported as an earthquake is now being reported as a potential underground nuclear test. If that is what occurred, Iran likely hopes Israel will not attack its infrastructure for fear of a nuclear response. What Iran does not understand is that they rolled the dice on October 7, 2023, thereby casting the die for what will soon come upon them. They cannot walk back what has already been set in motion. In their obsession to destroy Israel, the ayatollahs started the process of their own demise.

My prayer is that Israel will not hesitate to strike Iran. Israel must cut off the head of the snake. What governments in the US, UK, and France did not count on was the support for Israel’s right to exist and defend itself among their citizenries. These kinds of conversations are out in the open now. The elephant has run out of the room. There is no returning to business as usual regardless of the number of high-ranking government officials beholden to filthy Islamic lucre given to them.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently taken to citing verses from the Tanakh. I remind him and all born-again believers in Christ and supporters of Israel, that Psalm 22:8-11foretells the fate of all the enemies of God and His chosen people.

⁸ Your hand will find out all your enemies;
Your right hand will find out those who hate you.
⁹ You will make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger;
The Lord will swallow them up in His wrath,
And fire will devour them.
¹⁰ Their offspring You will destroy from the earth,
And their descendants from among the sons of men.
¹¹ Though they intended evil against You
And devised a plot,
They will not succeed.

Indeed, the Islamists will not succeed. Glory to God for His unwavering faithfulness toward all believers in Christ Jesus and to His people Israel, whose own redemption draws nigh.

Dr. Mike Spaulding