Preaching to the converted

The original title of this piece was “Israel commits worst genocide ever” – rejected by the Times of Israel editor as being too inflammatory because of the play on the word “worst”, which of course was the point. I don’t need to convince the majority of the Times of Israel readers that Israel is not doing a very good job of wiping out the Palestinian people, they all already know that. I need to grab the attention of the majority of internet surfers who believe Israel is trying to commit genocide and encourage them to open up at least to the possibility that Israel is in fact, not committing anything close to a genocide of the Palestinian people.

Frustrated by the idea that we are all just looking for evidence to support what we already believe, and that journalism and news publications are no longer part of the process of bringing new ideas to people, I shelved the article. But in the end, I do believe that even if the facts manage to catch just one bright, young mind (even without a catchy title), it’s worth publishing…so here goes.

If you’re looking for tips on how to commit genocide, don’t look to Israel. The Jewish state has an appalling record. Even in biblical times when King Saul was commanded to “utterly destroy” Amalek, he failed to do so, taking mercy on King Agag and some of his livestock. It is believed that Amalek, (who attacked the Israelites during their exodus from Egypt), represents the ‘eternal enemy’ of the children of Israel, re-appearing throughout history in different incarnations. Haman, Hitler and Ahmadinejad are believed to be incarnations of Amalek.

In a recent speech to the United Nations, PA president Mahmuod Abbas accused Israel of committing a ‘war of genocide’ against the Palestinian people. This is not the first time these allegations have been made; they are written in the history books of every Palestinian student, woven into the fabric of their ‘truth’.

As high school students of Ancient History, we were encouraged to question the agenda of all written ‘historical’ records, taking into account possible personal, political, economic or social reasons for exaggeration or the spreading of misinformation. Then as Communications students at university we were challenged to question the very nature of ‘truth’ itself, analysing the impact of information presented as ‘truth’ through the media.Through almost all of the twentieth century the publishing industry in cohorts with academia, kept a close enough eye on ‘historical truth’ to keep most of us satisfied. Only those considered qualified by publishing standards, were selected to have their historical works commercially published.

But today, academia has lost much of its authority and indeed integrity as personal, political, economic and social agendas erode at the foundations of the institution. And as ‘history’ is tapped out by anyone with a google browser, and both published and spread on social networks at nano-speed across the globe, the publishing industry has lost its monopoly on setting the bar on that which is deemed worthy of publishing.

Unfortunately even I have to admit that numbers remain one of the only reliable source left. I say ‘unfortunately’ because I don’t really like numbers, I much prefer stories and anecdotes, relying on the simple intelligence of being human. But we are not living in very human times, and with the mass distortion of information and the blatant lies presented as ‘absolute truths’, that spread like wildfire across cyberspace each day, I am forced to revert to cold numerical facts.

The most obvious being the number of Palestinians who still remain after years and years of (so called) attempted genocide by Israel. I quote the somewhat reliable, (though ever changing) Wikkipaedia in saying that, ‘according to the Guardian using PCBS census figures the Palestinian territories have one of the fastest growing populations in the world, with numbers surging 30% in the past decade (2008). There were 3.76 million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, up from 2.89 million ten years earlier’. Today that number sits at 4.4 million.

Given Israel’s history of continuous brutal ‘occupation’, its genocidal intentions, its highly trained defence force, its unquestionable military intelligence and its use of disproportionate force against civilian populations, I wonder, how it is possible that the ever powerful Zionist regime has not yet succeeded in the genocide of the Palestinian people to date ? Did the Jews learn nothing from Hitler ?

A few weeks ago, Israel delivered screening technology to the Palestinian Authority to help detect and prevent the deadly Ebola virus from spreading through the territories at the risk of killing millions of Palestinians. By simply not collaborating with the Palestinians, without doing anything Israel could finally have secured her place in the genocidal hall of fame alongside Russia, Turkey, Bosnia, Pakistan, Herzegovina, Rwanda, Cambodia and Darfur, not to mention Germany and Syria, to name a few.

We continuously hear about Jewish intelligence, about the disproportionate numbers of Jewish Nobel prize winners and the Jews natural affiliation with development and technology so why are they doing such a terrible job at genocide? You would think more than one Palestinian student might have stumbled upon this question.

Forty years ago, Israeli statesman Abba Eban said, “the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss and opportunity.” When it comes to genocide, the same can be said about the Israelis; they are doing a terrible job.