Robert Spencer  : Elder of Ziyon examines those who charge that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza. He has a. word for them — “antisemites.” More on his investigation of their spurious and sinister claims can be found here: “Why accusing Israel of “genocide” is inherently and purely antisemitic,” Elder of Ziyon, November 17, 2024:

The Genocide Convention defines genocide as “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” “Intent” is a high bar. No one can read minds; unless the accused party specifically says that they intend to wipe out another people, all we have are actions that must be interpreted.

The only way for anyone to determine that Israel’s intent in the current war is genocidal is if they already hate Jews. By definition, if there are  a preponderance of actions and statements that contradict the thesis that Israel intends to destroy all Palestinians or all Gazans, then the charge of genocide is false.

I will not get into all the counter-evidence – anyone can research that Israeli leaders have consistently said that their targets are Hamas and not Gaza civilians, that Israel has facilitated tens of thousands of truckloads of aid, that Israel has been careful to avoid civilian casualties, that Hamas deliberately places its military targets within and underneath apartments, schools, mosques and hospitals making avoiding all civilian casualties literally impossible and that  many military experts have praised Israel for its efforts to avoid civilian casualties despite the unique challenges of fighting an enemy that depends on civilians to limit attacks.

However,  the people tossing the word “genocide” around discount and ignore all the counterevidence that refutes the charge. They grab onto isolated, out of context statements and incidents and try to build them into an edifice of proof. I’ll give just one example.

A recently released UN report accuses Israel of using methods “consistent with genocide.” The very first quote they use from an Israeli official as evidence is:

On 9 October, the Minister of Defence of Israel announced a “complete siege” of the Strip with no electricity, no food, no fuel and removed every restriction on Israeli forces so they could “eliminate everything.”

The implication is that Gallant ordered troops to eliminate everything in Gaza and starvation was one of the methods. These were two different statements. Israel has been facilitating aid into Gaza since October 21, 2023 – the entire war except for two weeks.  Statements made within hours or days after the horrific attacks on October 7 demanding a siege were never meant to be long term policy, and those who pretend that they are are knowingly lying.

The second statement to “eliminate everything” refers only to Hamas and other terrorists. It comes from a  YouTube video of Yoav Gallant speaking to troops on October 9. His full statement is,

Take off the gloves kill everyone who fights us, even if it is one terrorist. From the air from the land, with tanks and bulldozers all means. There are no compromises. It won’t be the same again.  And Hamas will not be. Eliminate everything, it will take time, it won’t take a day, it won’t take a week, it will take weeks and maybe months.

Gallant is specifically talking about terrorists, not Gaza….

If the IDF is hellbent on committing “genocide” in Gaza, why has it gone to so much trouble to save the lives of Gazan civilians by warning them about sites about to be targeted by the IDF? Why did the IDF drop nine million leaflets, send fifteen million text messages, and make sixteen million robocalls, just in the first six months of the war, to warn Gazan civilians away from danger? Why has Israel facilitated the entry of tens of thousands of trucks full of humanitarian aid into Gaza, if it is determined to commit “genocide”? 

If Israel is intent on committing a “genocide” of Palestinian Arabs, then what explains the fact that when Israel took over Gaza in 1967, its Arab population was 400,000, and when Israel pulled out in 2005, that population had risen to 1.3 million, that is, more than tripled? And why, when Israel took over the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) in 1967, its population was 900,000, and now three million Arabs live there, would anyone call that “genocide”? Finally, in 1949 the Arab population of Israel was 160,000, and today is two million. Does that qualify as “genocide”?

And what about that key metric for judging wars, the civilian-to-combatant ratio? The UN has said that in all the wars fought since 1945, the average ration was 9:1, or nine civilians killed for every combatant. In Afghanistan, the Americans did much better, attaining a 4:1 ratio, and in Iraq better still, with a 3:1 ratio. In Gaza, according to Hamas, 43,000 people have died. Of that number, the IDF estimates that 19,000 were Hamas operatives. In Gaza before the war, an average of 800 people died each month from diseases and accidents. 

Assuming that number has held steady in the 13 months of war, 9,600 people in Gaza died for non-combat related reasons. Therefore, we can calculate that 13,400 civilians — the figure arrived at by subtracting 19,000 and 9600 from 43,000 in Gaza — were killed in the war. The civilian-to-combat ratio for the Gaza war is thus 13,400:19,000, which is far less than 1:1. No other army in the world has ever achieved such a result. No wonder British Colonel Richard Kemp, who fought in a half-dozen wars and commanded the British forces in Afghanistan, has said that the IDF is “the most moral army in the world.” 

And West Point Professor John Spencer has written that “Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history.” Yet, we are told, despite all of the measures the IDF takes to warn people away from places about to be targeted, despite the fact that Israeli pilots abort half of their missions, whenever they detect too many civilians near the target, we are still told that Israel is committing “genocide.”

Given all that evidence to the contrary, who in his right mind would accuse Israel of “genocide”? No one. But are antisemites in their right minds? You know the answer to that.