I refuse to defend the indefensible

Israel's and the US' attack against Iran's nuclear installations and the still-unfolding repercussions of these attacks, following the ceasefire brokered by Trump, should not distract us from Israel's continuing campaign of death and destruction in Gaza. Since June 1 alone, nearly 300 Palestinians were killed (adding to the more than 55,000 that have already been killed), and scores of buildings were leveled to the ground. The Netanyahu government keeps insisting that the fighting will continue until Israel achieves "a total victory," which remains an elusive goal, as the carnage continues 20 months later.

In my June 28 article, "If This Isn't Genocide, What Is?" I explained that while Israel has every right to defend itself and retaliate against Hamas for its savage attack that slaughtered 1,200 innocent Israeli civilians, its quest to punish Hamas was quickly transformed into a war of revenge and retribution. Regardless of their innocence, tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children were indiscriminately killed, which, along with destroying or damaging 84 percent of Gaza's healthcare facilities, "inflicting…conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction" as the Convention on Genocide indicates, causing serious bodily and mental harm, and more, amounts to genocide by definition. Yet, I was condemned by many individuals for daring to label the Israeli war a genocide, calling my article a "blood libel."

Over the last year and a half, I have spoken with dozens of reserve soldiers who fought in Gaza and came back. It is heart-wrenching to listen to what they have described as eyewitnesses. They confessed that orders are frequently arbitrarily given to shoot first, and not even ask questions later. This policy led directly to the deaths of three Israeli hostages, who were waving white flags and shouting for help in Hebrew when Israeli soldiers killed them. Bombing many buildings full of civilians only to kill a single Hamas operative, while killing hundreds of innocent people, is tantamount to genocide.

Several government ministers have been making statements advocating the INTENT TO DESTROY the Palestinians in Gaza, in whole or in part. Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu advocated for the completely wild idea of dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza, confirming the intent to eliminate everyone there. He also stated that anyone waving a Palestinian flag "shouldn't continue to live on the face of the earth." This constitutes incitement, as the message to the soldiers is clear: kill, because no Palestinian deserves to live. Yet, Eliyahu continues to hold power, an implicit approval of his statements.

Among the many heinous things National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has said, one of the most egregious is advocating for killing women and children in Gaza to prevent another attack like October 7. Promoting the murder of women and children without question is undoubtedly broadcasting the intent to kill Palestinians without reservation-a clear sign of genocide.

Former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, while serving in that position, made countless dehumanizing statements, including calling ordinary Palestinian civilians "human beasts." This rhetoric of dehumanization echoes the genocide in Rwanda, when leaders repeatedly called Tutsis "cockroaches," inciting Hutus to see their countrymen as less-than-human, actively promoting what became the horrific genocide there.

Nissim Vaturi, an MK from Netanyahu's own Likud party and deputy speaker of the Knesset, has called for executing every single man in Gaza, calling them "scum" and "subhuman." He said every child in Gaza is "already a terrorist, from the moment of his birth"-and we know precisely that Israeli politicians prefer that terrorists be put to death. Why quibble about the age if such views predetermine their fate?

The Israeli police have decided that remarks from Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, who runs a yeshiva that combines religious studies with military service, training those who may very well end up in Gaza, do not count as incitement. Jewish law, he said, requires the killing of everyone in Gaza, including children and the elderly. "Whoever comes to kill you, kill him first. Whoever comes to kill you with this concept does not only include the young man aged 16, 18, 20, or 30 who is now pointing a weapon at you. But also, the future generation (the children of Gaza), and those who produce the future generation (women of Gaza), because there is no difference."

Is there any way to describe these despicable remarks other than incitement to genocide? Yet again, if the implicit approval of his call for the wholesale slaughter of every last living person in Gaza is not a call to genocide, nothing is. How else could the deaths of more than 55,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom were women and children, have happened in the absence of these incitements?

I could go on and on and on providing evidence, not just in statements from government officials but in statements of soldiers executing orders from their superiors. Anyone who reads this and persists in calling it false and a blood libel apparently enjoys the illusion in which a majority of Israelis and many other deniers of the Israeli government's crimes against humanity bury their heads.

The wholesale death and destruction in Gaza is sending shockwaves around the world, especially to Israel's friends and allies, who are at a loss to grasp how the Jews in Israel, the children of those Jews who have been the victims of history, have now become the victimizer.

Committing such crimes against humanity, which by extension is being done in the name of world Jewry, inflicts the greatest damage on Jewish communities everywhere. On many occasions, Netanyahu explicitly stated that he speaks on behalf of the Jewish people. The unprecedented rise of antisemitism and now the frequent attacks on Jews outside Israel are a direct result of Netanyahu and his criminal gangs' acts against the Palestinians, and any Jew who denies that is willfully naïve, or feeling shameful for admitting the unthinkable.