The use of the word “genocide” to describe the situation in Gaza is not remotely accurate and should not require a rebuttal, but here is one anyway.

At no time before or during WWII were the Jews an existential threat to Germany. They had been living peaceably with no weapons of war at their disposal. But the Nazis targeted the Jews for extermination for their Middle Eastern heritage and their failure to be blond and blue-eyed. So, 6 million of them died, a number that represented nearly two-thirds of European Jewry.

Today, 2 million Palestinians are actually living in Israel. Two million more live in the West Bank and as many as 2 million more live in Gaza, with an estimated 84,000 having died since October 2023 after Hamas instigated a massacre of 1,200 Israelis, taking 250 hostages. These numbers and Israel’s nonchalance toward the Palestinians’ broader existence defy the label of genocide toward them as a people.

Moreover, the Palestinians and their Hamas leadership, with help from other enemies of Israel, remain committed to the destruction of Israel as a nation, declaring that the Jews have no right to exist in Palestine. That Israel is taking the fight to them cannot indict it for genocide when Hamas can surrender at any time, which would end the suffering in Gaza.

But Hamas cannot surrender because that would mean its stubborn ideology of hatred has no legitimacy, and condemnation from the Arab world would be worse than the conditions in Gaza.

Mark Wood
Poland