David and Goliath: Palestine and Israel

Other documented US weapons in the IDF arsenal include: 385 fighter planes, 162 helicopters, and an unidentified amount of varied missiles.

The flagrant hypocrisy of this continued military and economic aid is articulated under section 4 of the US Arms Export Control Act, in which it categorically states that the use of US military equipment in the possession of “friendly countries” is solely for “legitimate self defence … and internal security” and should not be used in any offensives or aggressions towards other countries or states.

Israel is now, and continues to be, in clear violation of this act.

A US Department of State document reported Israel as having “used excessive force in contravention of their own rules of engagement”.

Hamas was predominantly set up as a resistance movement to fight for the rights of the Palestinian People in the face of an opposing Israeli force. The academic director of the International Institute for Counter Terrorism, Reuven Paz, said that "approximately 90 per cent of the organisation's work is in social, welfare, cultural, and educational activities”.

The director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought, Dr Azzam Tamimi, writes in his critically acclaimed book Hamas: A history from within that the leaders of Hamas were recognised by the Palestinians for their “ascetism, altruism, dedication, and honesty”.

“No one joins Hamas to make money or has become rich by virtue of their position within it … Finally, donors were aware that only a small fraction of the money raised by Hamas would be used for military purposes,” said Dr Tamimi.

So Hamas continues to smuggle arms into Gaza from neighbouring allies and Israel continues to openly receive them for free from the US. The problems in the region continue and increase in a vicious cycle of tit for tat over what seems, to outsiders, to be nothing more than a pile of old dusty rocks.

But in one epic tale of biblical proportions, it was an old dusty rock that defeated a giant.