Fashionable opinion on the Gaza War is all-too obviously driven by an extraordinary level of passionate ignorance. As George Orwell warned, in 1943, much of leftist dialogue on war is “sheer humbug, based on the fact that the average human being never bothers to examine catchwords”. As in 1943, so today, the catchwords are humbugs such as killing civilians and massacre of women and children.
But few more catchwords are more egregiously abused, and less genuinely understood, than genocide. This is the overriding catchphrase of the anti-Israel left.
And it’s an utter lie.
I am not a lawyer or a political activist. I am a war expert. I have led soldiers in combat. I have trained military units in urban warfare for decades and studied and taught military history, strategy, and the laws of war for years. Since October 7, I have been to Gaza four times embedded with the Israel Defense Forces. I have interviewed the prime minister of Israel, the defense minister, the IDF chief of staff, Southern Command leadership, and dozens of commanders and soldiers on the front lines. I have reviewed their orders, watched their targeting process, and seen soldiers take real risks to avoid harming civilians. Nothing I have seen or studied resembles genocide or genocidal intent.
This, it must always be borne in mind, yet is consistently ignored (or, more likely, simply not even understood) by the left, is the keystone of any genocide: intent.
Despite furiously repeated claims to the contrary, there was never anything remotely approaching a ‘genocide’ in Australia or New Zealand. Which is not to say that a great many Aborigines or Māori didn’t die (often from introduced diseases rather than violence), but there was never been anything remotely like a government policy of intent. Indeed, quite the opposite: the Crown’s orders to the leaders of the First Fleet strongly emphasised their duty to “endeavour by every possible means to open an intercourse with the natives and to conciliate their affections, enjoining all our subjects to live in amity and kindness with them. And if any of our subjects shall wantonly destroy them, or give them any unnecessary interruption in the exercise of their several occupations, it is our will and pleasure that you do cause such offenders to be brought to punishment.”
What evidence do the pro-Hamas left have, for supposed genocidal intent by the Israeli government?
[Omer Bartov] begins with Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu’s] comment on October 7 that Hamas would “pay a huge price.” That is not a call for genocide. It is what any leader would say after the worst terrorist attack in the nation’s history. He also cites Netanyahu’s statements that Hamas would be destroyed and that civilians should evacuate combat zones. That is not evidence of a desire to destroy a people. It is what professional militaries do when fighting an enemy that hides among civilians.
The latter is in fact a clear indication of the opposite of genocidal intent. Anyone who actually wanted to wipe out the civilians of Gaza would not warn them to leave the combat zone.
Bartov presents Netanyahu’s reference to “remember Amalek” as a smoking gun. But this is a phrase from Jewish history and tradition. It is engraved at Israel’s Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, and also appears on the Holocaust memorial in The Hague. In both places, it serves as a warning to remain vigilant against threats, not as a call for mass killing.
He also highlights Defense Minister [Yoav Gallant’s] use of the term “human animals” to describe Hamas fighters. That is not a war crime. After the slaughter, rape, and kidnapping of civilians on October 7, many would understand or even share that reaction.
Indeed the literal opposite of genocidal intent characterises the Israeli response to October 7, over and over.
I have studied the actual [battlefield] orders. They focus on destroying Hamas, rescuing hostages, and protecting civilians whenever possible […]
Israel has taken extraordinary steps to limit civilian harm. It warns before attacks using text messages, phone calls, leaflets, and broadcasts. It opens safe corridors and pauses operations so civilians can leave combat areas. It tracks civilian presence down to the building level. I have seen missions delayed or canceled because children were nearby. I have seen Israeli troops come under fire and still be ordered not to shoot back because civilians might be harmed.
Then there is the utter, clueless, lunacy of those who demand that Israel supply Gaza with food, water, and electricity. As I’ve written before, when, ever in history, has an attacked nation been asked to supply its attackers? Yet, with extraordinary generosity, Israel has done so.
Israel has delivered more humanitarian aid to Gaza than any military in history has provided to an enemy population during wartime. More than 94,000 trucks carrying over 1.8 million tons of aid have entered the territory. Israel has supported hospitals, repaired water pipelines, increased access to clean water, and enabled over 36,000 patients to leave Gaza for treatment abroad.
The IDF has coordinated millions of vaccine doses, supplied fuel for hospitals and infrastructure, and facilitated the flow of food and medicine through the UN, aid groups, and private partners. The US–Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation alone has delivered more than 82 million meal – one to two million a day – while weakening Hamas’s control over aid. This is not genocide. It is responsible and historic mid-war humanitarian policy.
Next, we come to the idiocy of citing ‘death tolls’ (almost always based on the lies of Hamas propaganda) as some sort of ‘proof’ of ‘genocide’. As if no other war in history has ever resulted in people being killed. To call this argument moronic is to insult morons.
If we used Bartov’s logic, every major war would be called genocide. Two million civilians died in the Korean War, an average of 54,000 per month. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars killed hundreds of thousands. The fight against ISIS leveled multiple cities and killed tens of thousands. None of those wars were considered genocidal. Gaza is not either. War is evaluated based on the actions of commanders, the goals set by leaders, and how well the military follows the laws of war, not by statistics taken out of context.
Astonishing as it may seem, the pro-Hamas left’s arguments get even more moronic than that, when they babble inane nonsense about the laws of war. Laws they clearly do not understand and have probably never even read.
The laws of war do not prohibit war itself. They require that military operations distinguish between combatants and noncombatants, that force be proportional to the objective, and that commanders take all feasible precautions to protect civilian life. I have watched the IDF do exactly that. I have seen restraint, humanitarian aid, and deliberate compliance with legal standards, often at tactical cost.
It is not a ‘war crime’ to bomb a hospital if it is being used as a military base. In fact, the actual war crime is using a hospital as a base. It is not automatically a war crime to kill civilians, either, if that happens as part of a legitimate military operation against a military target. It is a war crime to swarm entire villages and murder men, women and children and take civilians as hostages. It is a war crime to attack a peace festival and murder, rape and torture hundreds of civilians. It is a war crime to loot the homes of murdered civilians.
Every single one of those things, the left’s beloved ‘Palestinians’ did.
Meanwhile, the ‘Palestinian’ population has increased – at an accelerated rate – since 2023. Worst. Genocide. Ever.
