GENOCIDE? DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH!
Yeah, yeah. Clutch the pearls, Daisy. Here comes the truthslap you so desperately need.
Every civilian death is a heartbreaking tragedy. I say this upfront because the very people who reward the killing of Palestinian civilians are going to respond to the following post with accusations that I am the one who doesn’t care about the dead.
This is a core conundrum of the current conflict. Hamas started this war and they maximize the number of dead Palestinians. Israel is engaged in a defensive war and they attempt to minimize civilian deaths. Despite these truths, the world inverts morality to accuse Israel of gross inhumanity and excuse Hamas and their enablers as near-blameless victims.
At root is a debate over the number of civilian casualties versus combatant deaths. By extension, it is a debate over the ridiculous use of the term “genocide” to describe a conflict by a democratic, moral army against an actually genocidal terrorist regime that recognizes no rules of engagement.
We don’t know how many people have died in Gaza. We do not know how many are civilians and how many are combatants.
Here is what we do know: Hamas maximizes the numbers of dead — by using human shields, placing military infrastructure in civilian areas and minimizing protections for civilians in the conflict zone. They ensure that Palestinians die so that overseas observers see the carnage and blame Israel. Given the deficiency of morality that drives them to literally put their own people in harm’s way, they would certainly have no scruples in inflating mere statistics.
The deliberate misrepresentation of the numbers of dead, the playing with stats, Hamas figures indicating that almost all the dead were women and children, the eliding of combatant deaths and the inflation of civilian casualties (in some cases so egregiously obviously that even Hamas was forced to backtrack!) are evidence that the numbers can’t be trusted (see here, here, here, here and here).
We also know this: Terrorists don’t wear uniforms. We have seen innumerable cases where known terrorists are mourned as civilians. We have seen dead terrorists depicted as members of the press in order to spark ever-more-lavish eruptions of moral outrage at Israel.
Truth is the first casualty of war. This is more true in a scenario in which one side seems congenitally incapable of honesty. So the efforts to get the facts are a challenge.
We know this: Based on best analyses of casualties, it is estimated that civilian-to-combatant casualties are somewhere between 1.1 civilian deaths to every combatant death, to as high as 2:1. Again: Every civilian death is a grievous tragedy. And again: We need to put the blame for every death where it belongs: On Hamas.
But, that stated, even at the top end (2:1) this is on par with most human conflicts of the past century, including the Second World War, Korea and Vietnam. Again, war is hell. But let’s not be Pollyanna here. The civilian casualties in this war are about average for war.
Moreover, in the dense, urban warfare that is taking place in the Gaza Strip — especially against an amoral enemy whose objective is maximum Palestinian deaths — this suggests extraordinary restraint, precision and humanity on Israel’s part.
And what do we hear from activists, diplomats and commentators? Israel is shooting fish in a barrel, killing indiscriminately, engaging in acts of gross inhumanity. Genocide!
Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a grisly accounting. Like I’m the inhuman one for drawing attention to the deliberate mass murder of Palestinians encouraged by their own leaders — the ones who started this war and so are guilty for every Palestinian, Israeli and other death. Stop the performative gasping and let go of the pearls, Daisy. We need to talk frankly.
There is no genocide. Not only do the numbers make the idea of genocide a disgraceful debasement of the term. Far, far more important is intent. Genocide is the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group. Let’s be ferociously clear: If Israel wanted to perpetrate genocide, this war would have ended on October 8.
What is happening here is a democratic country being accused of the worst conceivable crimes for executing a war with precision and care, while a terrorist regime perpetrating the worst war crimes imaginable is depicted as innocent victims.
And here, again, is evidence of one of my core premises: Many or most of the accusations hurled at Israel are sustainable only in a context where an entire civilization is predisposed to believe the most preposterous things about Jews.
To believe even a fraction of what Israel is accused of (“deliberate targeting of civilians,” “indiscriminate attacks,” “targeting of journalists”) would be implausible were one not predisposed to an extraordinary panoply of historic tropes about Jewish malevolence.
Above all, only in a society (like Christian or Muslim civilization, so, half the world’s population) that has running through it ancient assumptions about Jews as the embodiment of evil with a particular bloodthirst, would any of these fantastical allegations be remotely sustainable. This is confirmed by the thoroughly uncritical swallowing of what are effectively modern blood libels against Israel.
Genocide? No, it is a combatant-to-civilian casualty rate probably in keeping with — quite possibly better than — most conflicts. In numbers, intent and outcome, it does not remotely approach the definition of genocide.
You know what does? The incessant, unconcealed call for the elimination of Israel and its people — we hear it on North American streets (“From the river to the sea …”) and we have heard it for decades in the bloodcurdling calls for annihilation from Palestinian political, religious and cultural leaders and successive wars of annihilation perpetrated against Israel.
What explains this seemingly total inversion? Is it projection? Sort of. But it’s inversion with a very specific objective.
The very people seeking to perpetrate genocide against the Jews of Israel accuse Israel of perpetrating genocide against Palestinians.
Strategically, the goal is both ludicrous and brilliant. If we don’t do it to them first, they’ll do it to us.
And huge swaths of self-defined peace-loving, reasonable people who demand evidence-based explanations for their decisions abandon all reason and restraint to accuse Israel of genocide while ignoring the genocidal intent of Israel’s enemies.
This is how antisemitism plays out in anti-Zionism. (If you’re a regular, I keep saying this!) It is not “I hate Jews so I hate Israel.” That’s not how any of this works.
It’s that people who are products of a civilization that, in its DNA, is steeped in the most hideous ideas of Jewish evil-doing are predisposed to believe the worst allegations against Israel because, given what our great-grandparents, Sunday school teachers, popular culture, inherent biases and even jokes (consciously or unconsciously) instilled in us, we hear Israel accused of deliberately targeting civilians and we conclude, Yeah, that’s about what I’d expect.
To accuse Israel of genocide is not, as activists, NGOs and far too many erstwhile respectable diplomats seem to think, to take a stand for justice and humanity.
It is to unmask oneself as an antisemitic bigot.
Retired Major John Spencer, the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, has studied this matter in detail. He knows that the ratio of civilian to combatant deaths this is no more than 1.5 to 1 and, given the propensity for Hamas to exaggerate civilian deaths, probably closer to 1 to 1. For the American forces attacking ISIS in Mosul in 2016-17, the ratio was more than two to one. According to the United Nations, the historical ratio in urban warfare is nine to one.
So one side of the coin is the lies about Israel being indiscriminate in its attacks. Even Joe Biden propagated this mistruth in comments he has made. In fact, every Israeli attack by air or drone has to be signed off on by an independent legal expert. And, unlike any other armed force in the world, Israel gives warnings by phone, by leaflets, by email to civilians telling them to get out of the combat zone. The liberal press characterizes this as “forced resettlement.” They try to make saving lives look like a war crime.
None of the above facts will interfere with the “truth” espoused by the anti-Zionists. However, it is sometimes important to remind the sane people of the truth that they are supporting, and give them the emotional strength to a withstand the political and social gaslighting.
The other side of the coin and the greatest irony is that Hamas has zero concern for their population. They have openly call victims of their war “necessary sacrifices.“ They do not let any of their civilians take shelter in the miles of tunnels that they have dug. Ismail Haniya said back in 2011 said “we will win because we yearn for death as our enemies yearn for life. We yearn to be martyrs .”
The Hamas charter itself says “our path is Jihad and our fondest wish is to die as martyrs for Allah.“ So from the Hamas/Hezbollah/Iran, viewpoint, their leadership wants them to be martyrs . And it just so happens, when Israelis defend themselves and attack enemies that have ensconced themselves within the civilian population, the Arabs in Gaza and elsewhere become martyrs.
From the anti-Zionist perspective, it’s a win–win all over.
Just amazing. All the media reports is that nine “Palestinians” were killed in the new operation in the West Bank. All nine were militants, a point which does not appear to be disputed. Still, the headlines make no effort to message this upfront. That is nothing other than rank, antisemitic bias.