(JNS) When it comes to understanding the war in Gaza, why would anyone give deference to a twisted ivory tower academic claiming to be a “genocide scholar?”
Here’s a newsflash: You don’t need to be a “scholar” to define genocide. All you need is a dictionary, which defines genocide as the deliberate killing of a large number of members of an ethnic group with the intention of eliminating that group. That’s the definition, and Israel’s conduct plainly does not meet it.
First, Israel is responding to an unprovoked, barbaric attack within its borders on Oct. 7, 2023, and fighting terrorists who embed themselves within civilian assets. The terrorists’ whole strategy is to falsely advertise civilian deaths and openly claim a desire to repeat their attack as often as they can.
Second, Israel has shown no intention of eliminating the Palestinians in Gaza, as evidenced by the exceedingly small percentage of civilians relative to militants who have been killed, the smallest percentage in any urban war.
Third, Israel clearly has the military power to destroy the Gaza Strip and all who live in it. If it wanted to, Israel could have done that at almost any time in its history, but it never would because genocide decidedly is against the Israeli ethos and values.
Fourth, Palestinian communities under Israeli control have grown nearly 10-fold since Israel took over.
Fifth, some 20% of Israeli citizens are Palestinian Arabs and, under Israeli rule, they have ascended to the highest echelons of business, law, medicine and academia.
If you don’t believe that Israel has the right to destroy Hamas in order to prevent another Oct. 7, then you just hate Jews, and there’s nothing more to discuss. If you believe that Israel has such a right but believe that Israel is killing too many people, then you have an obligation to identify a less lethal way to destroy Hamas. I have yet to hear a single critic of Israel offer such a method.
The worst thing you can say about Israel is that it is winning an existential war that it did not start with exceptional care to minimize civilian casualties. To that, I say, thank God!
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