“Genocide” and the Mass Slaughter of Truth
We often speak of disinformation as a creature of the internet, but it has for centuries been a potent weapon of antisemites. Anti-Jewish libels have been devoured by the masses throughout history, triggering outrage and violence:
- “The Jews caused the Black Plague.” When millions of Europeans perished in the “Black Death,” Jews were falsely accused of causing the outbreak by poisoning water wells. Broad public acceptance of this myth triggered waves of anti-Jewish pogroms and massacres in the fourteenth century.
- “The Jews murder Gentile children to consume their blood in religious rituals….” These “blood libels” were among the most destructive antisemitic tools in medieval and early modern Europe, leading to torture, expulsions, and persecution.
- “The Jews are masterminds of a global conspiracy to control the world.” This claim originated from a fabricated document called the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” in the early 20th The hoax was amplified by none other than the London Times in a 1920 article. The document was subsequently acknowledged as a Russian forgery, but it is still cited by neo-Nazis in the West and in some Middle Eastern countries. The debunked document was cited in the founding charter of Hamas, the terrorist group that has long controlled the Gaza Strip.
- “The Jews are plotting to conquer the Al-Aqsa Mosque.” In 1929 Palestinian leaders including Grand Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini circulated this false claim, fomenting widespread massacres in Hebron and throughout the region, with 133 Jews killed and 400 wounded. The same false claim sparked the second Palestinian Intifada in 2000, and Hamas again recycled the lie to stoke fury in the October 7, 2023 murders, rapes and kidnappings of Israeli civilians. (Side note: the 1929 Hebron massacre defies the argument that Arab violence against Jews is due to the “occupation” or the formation of the modern State of Israel, for it long preceded both. Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t yet born but the Muslim Brotherhood was, having been established by the radical preacher Hassan al Banna in 1928.)
- “The Jews are to blame for the collapse of the German economy.” Hitler targeted the Jews as scapegoats in his climb to power. Countless Germans devoured the lie. (Side note: Hitler and Hajj Amin al Husseini of Hebron massacre fame became close allies.)
- “Jews have no historical connection to Israel.” Palestinian leaders have long peddled this myth, which pretends away oceans of historical and archeological evidence, is repeated in the Palestinian Liberation Organization Charter, and serves as the foundation for the absurd claim that Jews are “colonizers” of Israel. The Jews have no homeland other than Israel and if they are “colonizers” they have done a pitiful job, for Israel is no bigger than New Jersey and only about nine miles wide at the waist. (Side note: compare to the Ottoman Empire, which expanded dramatically from a small principality in northwestern Anatolia, ultimately controlling vast territory across multiple continents.)
These lies are effective. Why?
The smaller a minority, the more vulnerable it is to libel. Less than a quarter of one percent of the world’s population is Jewish; the ratio is about 400 to 1. Those lopsided numbers play out exactly as one would expect in social media forums and street rallies. When the overwhelming majority constantly repeats incendiary accusations against the tiny minority, the noise suffocates the facts. Some argue that Israel needs a better PR department, but the reality is that you cannot bail out a tsunami with hand buckets. The numerical problem dovetails with Jew hatred’s ancient obstinacy. Author Sarah Hurwitz gives expression to this in her book As a Jew, characterizing antisemitism as a centuries-old “neural groove worn deep into the world’s psyche.”
The libels mutate, and continue to thrive. The libel du jour is a smorgasbord: that the world’s one and only Jewish state is guilty of genocide… and ethnic cleansing… and apartheid… and settler colonialism. These inflammatory words fit easily on placards and bite-sized social media posts; the facts matter no more now than ever. If yesterday’s jaundiced masses took to violence over loony claims that Jews caused the plague by poisoning the water supplies of Europe, today’s jaundiced masses are no less inclined to embrace false claims of “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing” and the like. Protest mobs chanting these smears make a pretense of promoting peace even as they incite violence with calls to “globalize the intifada.” We know what that means: jihadist suicide bombers. Just look up how many Israelis were killed on buses, and in restaurants and hotels, during the Second Intifada.
In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, author Joel Engel noted that centuries before Israel’s modern founding in 1948, antisemites concocted myriad justifications for mistreating Jews. And today, most reasons cited to rationalize Jew hate center on how vigorously Israel should be allowed to defend itself against enemies sworn to its destruction, and whether it has a right to exist at all.
The greatest (and worst) irony of all is that Hamas openly calls for genocide and the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the region, yet many in the west embrace the twisted notion that it is not Hamas but rather its Israeli targets who perpetrate these misdeeds. Hamas’ very organizing document is a veritable mission statement for such atrocities, including the declaration that “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it…”, “[i]nitiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions…are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement,” and “[t]here is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad.”
We cannot take comfort in the assumption that such attitudes are regionally isolated. A 2026 Pew Research poll found that 44% of Muslim Americans expressed a favorable opinion of Hamas. This alone is grave cause for concern, but antisemitism is alive and well in many forms and among various groups, nationalities, ages and education levels. Before the sun had set on October 7, 2023—the worst day of Jewish massacres since the Holocaust—more than thirty Harvard student groups issued a declaration that the Israeli regime was “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” Notably, this was before Israel had even commenced ground operations in Gaza. Mass anti-Israel protests soon surged in cities and towns across the US. Similar public unrest surged across Europe–including Brussels, Berlin, London, Paris and Rome.
Libel and hate create a vicious, self-sustaining cycle. Threats to Jews in the US tripled in the year period following the October 7 attacks, with the Anti-Defamation League recording more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents. This included more than 150 physical assaults, and more than 1,840 acts of vandalism. In late October 2023 FBI Director Christopher Wray reported to Congress that the Jewish community is “uniquely targeted by pretty much every terrorist organization across the spectrum,” adding that although Jews comprise only 2.4% of the American population they are the targets of some 60% of all religious-based crimes. Threats and attacks on American synagogues have become common, spawning a proliferation of classes on active-shooter defense training.
We might take cold comfort in knowing that false accusations of “genocide” against Israel are nothing new. In 1976 The Soviet Union charged in the UN Security Council that Israel had resorted to “racial genocide” in quelling unrest in West Bank. In a July 22, 1980 speech to the UN, a PLO leader claimed Israel engaged in “genocidal campaigns” against the Palestinians. Addressing the UN in 2014, PA President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of waging a “war of genocide” in Gaza. Ironically, Mr. Abbas has peddled lies downplaying the Holocaust, the number murdered, and the use of gas chambers. The most well-documented genocide in human history was committed against Jews less than a hundred years ago, but reality-deniers and libelers call the Jews genocidal Nazis. Populist politicians and pundits who amplify the “genocide” lie in the name of social justice seem undisturbed by the fact that Hamas attackers use Palestinian civilians as human shields in hospitals, schools, and neighborhoods. They downplay or deny the rape and mutilation of so many Israeli women on October 7th, but they parrot ridiculous claims that Israelis train dogs to rape Palestinians.
Understanding the truth requires more effort and time than reading a protest placard or a social media post. What are the facts?
Today about 20% of Israel’s citizenry—two million people–are Arabs. The vast majority are Muslim. I refer here not to Arabs living in Gaza or the West Bank, but to Israeli Arabs who live and work among Israeli Jews throughout the country–in places like Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem. These Israeli Arabs vote and serve in the Knesset. Two have served on Israel’s Supreme Court. Many Israeli Arabs attend and work at Israeli universities. (By the way…can you find one example of Jews enjoying these rights in any of the 50+ Muslim-majority countries?)
Arab citizens have the right to leave Israel…yet their number has doubled over the past 30 years and quadrupled over the past 50. If Israel is engaging in “genocide,” or “ethnic cleansing” it is not only failing but working in reverse, for the targeted “victim” group is multiplying, not being eliminated. And, if Israel is an apartheid and genocidal regime, why do its two million Arab citizens choose to stay rather than take up residence in a neighboring Arab-majority country, or Gaza or the West Bank?
The answer is obvious: Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy freedom, rights and opportunities that are not available in any Muslim-majority country or territory. This includes equality for women and gays, and the opportunity to partake in a thriving capitalist economy. Here, I refer to Arab Muslims who are citizens of Israel, but what about Arabs residing in Gaza or the West Bank, who do not enjoy the rights of Israeli citizenship? Are they victims of “apartheid,” “genocide,” or “ethnic cleansing”?
This too is a false premise that ignores history, for the status of Gaza and the West Bank–and the conditions in those territories–reflect choices made by Palestinian leaders who have unyieldingly chosen war over peaceful coexistence and state-building. They have built not a state but a culture of hate and violence. Do not look away from it: the “pay for slay” policies of the Palestinian Authority, the parks and buildings named in honor of terrorists. Neither can we ignore the fact that the people of Gaza chose Hamas to govern them in an election that was monitored by international observers including the EU Election Observation Mission, and the Carter Center.
Palestinian leaders have repeatedly rejected proposals for a peaceful two-state solution, including in 1937, 1947, 2000 and 2008. The only thing preventing Palestinian statehood is the intransigence of its leaders, whose concept of “peace” is based on eliminating Jews from the region (“from the river to the sea…”). Had they accepted the offers of a two-state solution, they would have a state that includes Gaza and the vast majority of the West Bank (including part of Jerusalem). Had Arab nations not attacked Israel in 1948, there would be no refugees from this tragedy now mournfully called the “Nakba.” War has consequences that cannot be reversed. Attackers must take this into account beforehand, for they cannot ask the civilized world to erase the consequences of their belligerence.
It is obviously necessary to ask whether a more effective security apparatus between Gaza and Israel might have prevented the tragedy of October 7. Some decry the walls and travel restrictions as “apartheid,” even as terror attacks render them essential. Indeed, Egypt walls off its border with Gaza and restricts the flow of Palestinians to maintain peace and security. So why don’t we hear global accusations of “apartheid” against Egypt? It is a smear reserved only for the Jewish state.
Self-defense is not “genocide.” Military operations to rescue abducted hostages hidden in dark tunnels are not “genocide.” And there is no rule of international law that protects barbaric attackers who run and hide beneath hospitals, schools, or houses of worship.
How easily Israel’s detractors forget—or ignore–its proven history of securing peace with its neighbors who will agree to peace. The Jewish State successfully negotiated a lasting peace with Egypt (1978) and Jordan (1994), and a normalization agreement with United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and others (2020). Those countries distinguish themselves from Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran by their choice of peace over violence, cooperation over hatred.
This is not to say that Israel or its leadership is exempt from criticism or scrutiny. Certainly the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is messy, miserable and complicated. Certainly Israel’s actions, and the actions of soldiers in the heat of battle, can fairly be questioned and at times criticized. This is a reality of any war. But Israel cannot be condemned for fighting back against attackers when the alternative is, to quote the Hamas charter, obliteration. The people of Israel have an absolute right—and their government has a duty–to prevent that from happening.
Golda Meir once said the world hates a Jew who hits back. Terror groups like Hamas repeatedly bet on the truth of this statement. Their formula is simple: ruthlessly attack Israeli civilians, run and hide behind Palestinian civilians, and decry the counterattack as “genocide.” Such madness is destined to continue for as long as the strategy works.
