Boston.com posted an Associated Press article today about vandalism at a United Nations summer camp children’s camp in Gaza.  The camp was vandalized yesterday for the second time in a month.  The vandals burned and slashed tents, toys, and a plastic swimming pool. 

According to the article:

“Islamic extremists have accused the main UN aid agency here of corrupting Gaza’s youth with its summer program of games, sports, and human rights lessons for 250,000 children.”

“The United Nations’s main competitor in running summer camps is the ruling Islamic militant Hamas, which says it reaches 100,000 children. The Hamas camps teach Islam, military-style marching and swimming and horseback riding.”

In the search for Middle East peace, we are not dealing with two sides that want peaceful co-existence.  We need to remember that.  The Hamas camps are not idyllic places where children enjoy summer recreation–they are the equivalent of the Hitler Youth Camps.  To ignore this fact is to refuse to see one of the major roadblocks to peace in the Middle East.  Right now we have too many leaders who are willing to see the Middle East through the eyes of Neville Chamberlain rather than through the eyes of Winston Churchill.  That perspective will hinder the cause of peace rather than promote peace.