The Blogs: The Accusation of Genocide against Israel

A friend asked me to respond to the following question which she had received:

“Thank you for sharing all this important information. I haven’t been able to invest as much time as I’d like researching… However, as you are aware, there is a deep divide, especially within the conservative community, as to the proper attitude regarding Ukraine and Russia. Similarly, conservatives seem to clash about how much we should be supporting Israel in light of accusations of genocide. If you have any quick observations about these things, I’d appreciate hearing them. Thanks!”

I believe that this question of how much “conservatives”, whether Conservative Jews or Conservative Christians, should be supporting Israel in light of “accusations of genocide” against her must be considered from four aspects:

The Definition of Genocide
Actual Facts vs Revisionist Facts
Judaism and Genocide
Islam and Genocide

There are two prevalent definitions of the word genocide.
Colloquial Usage of Genocide

In everyday conversation, the term “genocide” is often used colloquially to describe situations where there is widespread violence, oppression, or destruction, targeting a specific group of people.

Legal Definition of Genocide

Genocide is legally defined as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

Killing members of the group.
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Source: 1948 Article 2, UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

*** These two definitions neither define nor describe Israel’s just military response against Hamas, following the terrorist organization’s barbaric jihadi assault on Israel on October 7th, 2023. Israel’s military response followed Hamas’s invasion of her territory, the destruction of homes and property, the murder, horrific rape, sexual and psychological torture, mutilation and kidnapping of her population. Hamas, its leadership, its jihadis, its weapons, its tunnels, and its collaborators were targeted carefully and with precise intelligence.

Actual Facts vs Revisionist Facts

The media, the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic academics, and the leaders and followers of the Democrat Party have introduced the accusation, vocabulary and mantra of genocide into the public domain. The actual facts and figures of the war waged by Israel against the Hamas leadership, terrorist fighters, and civilian adherents have been eliminated, denied and/or falsified. The figures of those killed are constructed and/or manufactured by the Hamas-controlled Gazan Department of Health.

If Israel wanted to commit genocide against the “Palestinians” in Gaza, she has had many such opportunities since she first found herself inside Gaza after “winning” the defensive Six Day War of 1967 and again the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Both times Israel tried to return Gaza to Egypt in return for peace and safe borders. Both times Egypt refused to take Gaza back.

In 2005, Israel was forced to withdraw from Gaza. Since that time, Hamas has bombarded Israel with rockets, missiles, and incendiary balloons, killing her People and destroying much property. Israel’s military response was fast and forceful and when she came close to defeating Hamas, ceasefires were forced on her and “Israel ceased and Hamas fired.” Israel could have carpet-bombed Gaza and leveled it completely. Instead, she followed international laws and accepted the cease-fires. Israel was still under such a cease-fire on October 6^th,when Hamas broke it on October 7^th and committed the horrific massacre and abductions. Every effort was taken militarily to hit only Hamas and to destroy it. Finding “innocent” civilians is a non-sequitur. Hamas was and is supported by the Gazans and the so-called Palestinians. Genocide? Then, please explain how more than 1 million “Palestinians” were accompanied to protection by Israeli soldiers and shielded by Israeli tanks as they crossed the land. The IDF is now committed to removing 1.4 million “Palestinians” from Rafah to safety, setting up tent cities for them, arranging food and medications, etc. It is important to acknowledge the fact that the Jewish State must do this because every neighboring Muslim state refuses to accept the Gazans/Palestinians. In addition, Israel drops fliers and makes phone calls to alert “innocent” citizens so that they can leave. None of this was done by any other country in any other war. These are not the actions of countries executing genocide.

Hamas does not fit the description of those who are the victims of Genocide: it is a jihadi Islamist militant movement and one of the Palestinian territories’ two major political parties. Hamas governs more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, most of whom are vowed to the annihilation of all Jews and the destruction of Israel. Hamas uses its Palestinian “citizens” as human shields, kills them for dissenting, steals their food and humanitarian aid. Dozens of countries have designated Hamas a terrorist organization. Iran provides it with material and financial support, and Turkey reportedly harbors some of its top leaders. Israel is not killing Gazans and Palestinians indiscriminately. Israel is at war with a terrorist organization, whose “sacred war” or “holy war” or jihad is the genocide of the Jewish People and not just in Israel but world-wide.

Judaism and Genocide

That American Jews and American Christians can believe the lies and accusations against Israel and the Israel Defense Forces is a result of the media and its “fake news” and historic revisionism. More than anything, it is the strength of the tremendous Jew Hatred or anti-Semitism which permeates all of our society today and has permeated it for decades. Where is the role which Jewish Education is supposed to play in teaching accurate Jewish History and loving loyalty to Judaism and to the Jewish State? Where is the role which Christian Education is supposed to play in fighting anti-Semitism and teaching the chronology of the development of Christianity? What has happened to destroy this?

The Centrality of Israel to the Jewish People is no longer taught or important to many Jews. This has been lost from our Jewish education and upbringing and with it, allegiance to Israel has waned and, in some cases, disappeared.

The importance of the Judeo-Christian Foundation of America has been weakened by Wokism, Marxism and certainly by Islamism. Therefore, the tenets of Judaism and the importance of Israel have diminished in the Christian communities as well as in Jewish communities.

The Ten Commandments:

If the Ten Commandments were taught correctly and in their full meaning, then we would see that Genocide is forbidden by Mosaic Law. We would also see how this same Mosaic Law enables self-preservation.

The Sixth Commandment is: You shall not murder.

This is the shortest of all the Commandments. God forbids murder, the unlawful taking of human life in private vengeance or otherwise. That means unequivocally that GENOCIDE is forbidden.

This Commandment is found in Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17. It is part of a series of six Commandments, which determine a person’s responsibility to his neighbor. It protects a person’s life from being taken by another human being. However, the Commandment does not forbid killing in self-defense or in war, but rather murder, which is the intentional and unjust taking of a life.

However, our Sages wrote, “He who comes to kill you, kill him first” (*Midrash Rabbah, 21:4), and “If one comes to kill you, kill him first” (Midrash Tanchum, Pinhas, Chapter 3).

*Midrash (/ˈmɪdrɑːʃ/; Hebrew: מִדְרָשׁ; pl. מִדְרָשִׁים midrashim or מִדְרָשׁוֹת‎ midrashot) is expansive Jewish Biblical exegesis ^[2] using a rabbinic mode of interpretation prominent in the Talmud. The word itself means “textual interpretation”, “study”, or “exegesis“, derived from the root verb darash (דָּרַשׁ‎), which means “resort to, seek, seek with care, enquire, require”, forms of which appear frequently in the Hebrew Bible. “What Is Midrash?” My Jewish Learning

On October 7^th, 2023, Hamas’s Genocidal Islamic barbarians invaded Israel to kill, and they butchered over 1400 Israelis. Israel went into Gaza to destroy Hamas, its leaders, fighters, collaborators, tunnels, ammunition, etc. Israel did not come in to commit Genocide. It came to retaliate and to destroy the enemy.

Islam and Genocide

If the1988 Hamas Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement were to be given a subtitle, it would be “The Genocide of Israel and the Jewish People”. The quotations which follow illustrate that the Koran ordains Genocide, that Hamas commits Genocide, that its collaborators help perpetrate the Genocide and that Israel and the Jewish People are the victims of the Genocide.

The Avalon Project: Hamas Covenant 1988 (yale.edu)

**Are my comments

In The Name Of The Most Merciful Allah

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).

This Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS), clarifies its picture, reveals its identity, outlines its stand, explains its aims, speaks about its hopes, and calls for its support, adoption and joining its ranks. Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. It needs all sincere efforts. It is a step that inevitably should be followed by other steps. The Movement is but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished, and Allah’s victory is realised.

Time extent of the Islamic Resistance Movement: By adopting Islam as its way of life, the Movement goes back to the time of the birth of the Islamic message, of the righteous ancestor, for Allah is its target, the Prophet is its example and the Koran is its constitution. Its extent in place is anywhere that there are Moslems who embrace Islam as their way of life everywhere in the globe. This being so, it extends to the depth of the earth and reaches out to the heaven.

**This indeed is the “Covenant between Hamas and Allah”, which runs parallel to the Covenant between Hashem (God) and Abraham.

The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine, for under the wing of Islam followers of all religions can coexist in security and safety where their lives, possessions and rights are concerned. In the absence of Islam, strife will be rife, oppression spreads, evil prevails and schisms and wars will break out.

The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the links in the chain of the struggle against the Zionist invaders. It goes back to 1939, to the emergence of the martyr Izz al-Din al Kissam and his brethren the fighters, members of Moslem Brotherhood. It goes on to reach out and become one with another chain that includes the struggle of the Palestinians and Moslem Brotherhood in the 1948 war and the Jihad operations of the Moslem Brotherhood in 1968 and after.

Moreover, if the links have been distant from each other and if obstacles, placed by those who are the lackeys of Zionism in the way of the fighters obstructed the continuation of the struggle, the Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realization of Allah’s promise, no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said:

“The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.” (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).

Article Eleven Land conquered by Islam belongs until the end of the World to Islam.

**This changes the Covenant into a Charter… a legal binding contract between Allah and Moslems until Eternity with the Jews the eternal victims of Genocide.

The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. Neither a single Arab country nor all Arab countries, neither any king or president, nor all the kings and presidents, neither any organization nor all of them, be they Palestinian or Arab, possess the right to do that. Palestine is an Islamic Waqf land consecrated for Moslem generations until Judgement Day. This being so, who could claim to have the right to represent Moslem generations till Judgement Day?

This is the law governing the land of Palestine in the Islamic Sharia (law) and the same goes for any land the Moslems have conquered by force, because during the times of (Islamic) conquests, the Moslems consecrated these lands to Moslem generations till the Day of Judgement.

There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with. As in said in the honourable Hadith:

Article Fourteen: Conquest through Jihad, control of education and media

The question of the liberation of Palestine is bound to three circles: the Palestinian circle, the Arab circle and the Islamic circle. Each of these circles has its role in the struggle against Zionism. Each has its duties, and it is a horrible mistake and a sign of deep ignorance to overlook any of these circles. Palestine is an Islamic land which has the first of the two kiblahs (direction to which Moslems turn in praying), the third of the holy (Islamic) sanctuaries, and the point of departure for Mohamed’s midnight journey to the seven heavens (i.e. Jerusalem).

** The following is a critical quote because it details how Islamic Revisionism rewrites Jewish History and Israel’s History while creating the “Palestinian Narrative”. It illustrates the Islamic Hatred of the Crusades and the Crusaders.

It is necessary that scientists, educators and teachers, information and media people, as well as the educated masses, especially the youth and sheikhs of the Islamic movements, should take part in the operation of awakening (the masses). It is important that basic changes be made in the school curriculum, to cleanse it of the traces of ideological invasion that affected it as a result of the orientalists and missionaries who infiltrated the region following the defeat of the Crusaders at the hands of Salah el-Din (Saladin). The Crusaders realised that it was impossible to defeat the Moslems without first having ideological invasion pave the way by upsetting their thoughts, disfiguring their heritage and violating their ideals. Only then could they invade with soldiers. This, in its turn, paved the way for the imperialistic invasion that made Allenby declare on entering Jerusalem: “Only now have the Crusades ended.” General Guru stood at Salah el-Din’s grave and said: “We have returned, O Salah el-Din.” Imperialism has helped towards the strengthening of ideological invasion, deepening, and still does, its roots. All this has paved the way towards the loss of Palestine.

** That the Palestinian problem is a “religious problem” shows that at the base is the absolute hatred of Judaism and of its adherents the Jewish People.

It is necessary to instill in the minds of the Moslem generations that the Palestinian problem is a religious problem, and should be dealt with on this basis. Palestine contains Islamic holy sites. In it there is al- Aqsa Mosque which is bound to the great Mosque in Mecca in an inseparable bond as long as heaven and earth speak of Isra` (Mohammed’s midnight journey to the seven heavens) and Mi’raj (Mohammed’s ascension to the seven heavens from Jerusalem).

**This is an excellent example of the creation of Revisionist Palestinian Narrative.

My Conclusion:

No, Israel has never committed Genocide. Israel is not committing genocide. Hamas promises more October 7ths in Israel and across the Jewish communities world-wide. Israel is locked in an existential death-hold by an enemy whose religious duty is the genocide of the Jews worldwide and not just in “Palestine”. Hamas and the Koran mandate “From the river to the sea Palestine shall be free”. The **Mishnah mandates “He who comes to kill you, kill him first” (Midrash Rabbah, 21:4), and “If one comes to kill you, kill him first” (Midrash Tanchum, Pinhas, Chapter 3). Israel has created the model for excellence in Urban Fighting. It is fighting a war devoid of any traces of Genocide.

**The Mishnah, also known as the Oral Law is a significant Jewish legal code. It was systematically compiled by numerous scholars over a period of about two centuries. The Mishnah supplements the written, or scriptural, laws found in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible)

John Spencer Israel Has Created a New Standard for Urban Warfare. Why Will No One Admit It? | Opinion (newsweek.com)

“The Israel Defense Forces conducted an operation at al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip to root out Hamas terrorists recently, once again taking unique precautions as it entered the facility to protect the innocent; Israeli media reported that doctors accompanied the forces to help Palestinian patients if needed. They were also reported to be carrying food, water and medical supplies for the civilians inside.

None of this meant anything to Israel’s critics, of course, who immediately pounced. The critics, as usual, didn’t call out Hamas for using protected facilities like hospitals for its military activity. Nor did they mention the efforts of the IDF to minimize civilian casualties.

In their criticism, Israel’s opponents are erasing a remarkable, historic new standard Israel has set. In my long career studying and advising on urban warfare for the U.S. military, I’ve never known an army to take such measures to attend to the enemy’s civilian population, especially while simultaneously combating the enemy in the very same buildings. In fact, by my analysis, Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history—above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The international community, and increasingly the United States, barely acknowledges these measures while repeatedly excoriating the IDF for not doing enough to protect civilians—even as it confronts a ruthless terror organization holding its citizens hostage. Instead, the U.S. and its allies should be studying how they can apply the IDF’s tactics for protecting civilians, despite the fact that these militaries would almost certainly be extremely reluctant to employ these techniques because of how it would disadvantage them in any fight with an urban terrorist army like Hamas.

The predominant Western theory of executing wars, called maneuver warfare, seeks to shatter an enemy morally and physically with surprising, overwhelming force and speed, striking at the political and military centers of gravity so that the enemy is destroyed or surrenders quickly. This was the case in the invasions of Panama in 1989, Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003 and the failed illegal attempt by Russia to take Ukraine in 2022. In all these cases, no warning or time was given to evacuate cities.

In many ways, Israel has had to abandon this established playbook in order to prevent civilian harm. The IDF has telegraphed almost every move ahead of time so civilians can relocate, nearly always ceding the element of surprise. This has allowed Hamas to reposition its senior leaders (and the Israel hostages) as needed through the dense urban terrain of Gaza and the miles of underground tunnels it’s built.

Hamas fighters, who unlike the IDF don’t wear uniforms, have also taken the opportunity to blend into civilian populations as they evacuate. The net effect is that Hamas succeeds in its strategy of creating Palestinian suffering and images of destruction to build international pressure on Israel to stop its operations, therefore ensuring Hamas’ survival.

Israel gave warning, in some cases for weeks, for civilians to evacuate the major urban areas of northern Gaza before it launched its ground campaign in the fall. The IDF reported dropping over 7 million flyers, but it also deployed technologies never used anywhere in the world, as I witness firsthand on a recent trip to Gaza and southern Israel.

Israel has made over 70,000 direct phones calls, sent over 13 million text messages and left over 15 million pre-recorded voicemails to notify civilians that they should leave combat areas, where they should go, and what route they should take. They deployed drones with speakers and dropped giant speakers by parachute that began broadcasting for civilians to leave combat areas once they hit the ground. They announced and conducted daily pauses of all operations to allow any civilians left in combat areas to evacuate.

These measures were effective. Israel was able to evacuate upwards of 85 percent of the urban areas in northern Gaza before the heaviest fighting began. This is actually consistent with my research on urban warfare history that shows that no matter the effort, about 10 percent of populations stay.”

The Centrality of Israel to the Jewish People is the Torah, which came to us and the world from Zion. The Sixth Commandment teaches who shall not murder but shall kill when threatened and/or attacked first. The IDF knows the 6^th Commandment. But it also knows the Mishnah. It also knows Urban Warfare. Be proud and be secure. Israel is fighting for her People and for Humanity. She is not and will never commit Genocide.

This paper is dedicated to the Tzahal, the Israel Defense Forces and to our stellar Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Accusation of Genocide against Israel