Israel & the Blood Libel—Genocide |
The blood libel against Jews — that they used the blood of Christian children in Jewish rituals was promulgated in the 12th century.
We are in the midst of the emergence of a second blood libel: That Israel committed genocide in its war against Hamas.
And, as in the 12th century, the charge is taking hold — and quickly.
Numerous countries and international organizations have leveled the accusation and, in the U.S., primarily Democrats, are echoing the libel. It has become a major issue in campaigns.
And, what is almost impossible to comprehend or digest, some Jews have signed on.
Take, for instance, Scott Wiener, a leader of the Jewish caucus — and I stress Jewish — in the California legislature.
He is running for the congressional seat held by Nancy Pelosi, former U.S. Speaker of the House, who is retiring. Wiener is competing against two other Democrats, who believe Israel is guilty of genocide.
After being booed at a public meeting for refusing to join in the libel, Wiener had an epiphany.
“…I won’t support U.S. funding for the destruction of Palestinian communities. I’ve stopped short of calling it genocide, but I can’t anymore,” Wiener said.
If there ever was a shanda (Jewish for shame, disgrace, infamy), this is it. And that does not really capture the blasphemous of this slander.
Wiener’s defamation demonstrates what poor polling and political ambition in an election can do to one’s sense of decency and humanity.
Then, unbelievably, there is J Street, a liberal Jewish political organization which describes itself as “pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy.” Note “pro-Israel.”
Here is what Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street president, is quoted as stating in the Cleveland Jewish News:
“The personal pain of my family from a crime that I believe has no parallel — and my association of the word ‘genocide’ exclusively with that event— means I am unlikely to use the term myself. But I cannot and will not argue anymore against those using the term. I simply cannot defend the indefensible.”
He believes the crime has no parallel — until now. I don’t understand his distinction that he won’t use the term but refuses to repudiate it. I grieve for his family.
If that were not enough, J Street endorsed Analilia Mejia, a Democrat who won New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District seat in a special election. She has accused Israel of genocide and also did not raise her hand at a forum when candidates were asked if Jews had a right to self-determination in Israel.
Now, to some background: The word “genocide” was coined in the midst of the Holocaust by a Polish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin who, in the mid-1940s, developed the concept when writing about the
extermination policies of Germany. His definition of the crime has generally been accepted internationally by legal and humanitarian organizations. Briefly, genocide involves the intent to eliminate a group in whole or in part.
Crimes against humanity, however, are inhumane acts, committed against a civilian population before or during a war, as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population. This concept was developed by Hersch Lauterpacht, a British International lawyer.
As to genocide, here is one “minor” example: The Nazis machine-gunned 33,771 Jews over one weekend in Babi Yar, a ravine in Kyiv, Ukraine. When the machine guns could not keep up or failed, the Nazis brought in portable gas chambers. Twenty-nine survived.
It is a shame that after all these years, all the Holocaust museums, all the literature on the subject, that one even needs to illustrate and explain the inhumanity of genocide. The mind still has trouble contemplating that this actually happened.
It is psychologically unsettling to even have to address the issue — to have to explain the ultimate inhumanity of genocide.
Question for J Street, Wiener and their cohorts: Why have you targeted Israel while ignoring other humanitarian crises, many much more devastating?
—There are no charges of genocide for Sudan where millions are suffering what has been described by some humanitarian organizations as the worst human disaster in history.
—-There are no charges of genocide for Yemen which is suffering similarly.
—There are no charges of genocide for the Democratic Republic of the Congo where thousands are dying.
—There are no charges of genocide for about 20 others wars raging as I write this.
—There are no charges of genocide against Russia and its brutal war against the Ukraine, now in its fifth year. Hardly mentioned at all is Russian’s abduction of some 20,000 Ukrainian children when such kidnapping is one specific criterion in Lemkin’s definition of genocide.
—There are no genocide charges against China. Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International secretary, said the following about China: “The Chinese authorities have created a dystopian hellscape on a staggering scale in Xinjiang. Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities face crimes against humanity and other serious human rights violations that threaten to erase their religious and cultural identities.”
Let’s examine some other conflicts which escaped the charge of genocide.
—The U.S. firebombed more than 60 Japanese cities in WW II, killing an estimated 100,000 civilians. Many were burned alive. And we can’t forget about “Fat Man” and “Little Boy,” the two A-bombs which killed about 200,000 people. Some estimates put the Japanese civilian death toll between 1942-45 at 240,000 and one million.
—The Allies’ naval blockades of food, fuel, medicine and other essentials killed tens of thousands of German civilians in WW I & II.
—The Allies deliberately leveled Berlin, Dresden, Cologne and other German cities in WW II in order to pressure civilians to pressure their government to surrender.
—The Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan wars saw hundreds of thousands of civilians killed. U.S.’s existence wasn’t at stake nor were the wars fought on American soil.
Also glossed over is the fact that Hamas fought from schools, mosques, hospitals, apartment buildings, etc. This practice, incidentally, is a war crime and that has not troubled the conscience of J Street Wiener, et al. Hamas even held hostages in the homes of Gazans.
Nor do we read or hear about Hamas’s strategy of deliberately promoting a high civilian death toll for PR purposes. The Wall Street Journal published emails from Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader killed by Israel, expounding this strategy. As of last August, a Hamas leader said it is committed to sacrificing “martyrs” (read civilians) and will commit October 7 “again and again.” Israel must be destroyed, he vowed.
When “genocidal” Israel warned Gazans to move to safer ground, Hamas, in keeping with its strategy to promote civilian deaths, fired on its own people to prevent Palestinians from seeking refuge. As it has done in other conflicts, to give civilians time to seek safe shelter, Israel issued warnings with leaflets and direct calls of upcoming attacks, probably the first time in the history of warfare that an army alerted its enemy of upcoming strikes. Israel risked the lives of its own soldiers in doing so. Genocide?
Also worthy of note: Before the war, an Israeli volunteer organization frequently transported serious ill Palestinians to Israeli hospitals. Six were killed by Hamas on October 7, but the volunteers continue their mission. Genocide?
Let’s not forget that Israel, after occupying Gaza for the 38 years following the 1967 Six-Day War, it withdrew voluntarily in 2005. It moved some 8,000 Israelis out of the strip, some forcibly, that had established homes and communities. Israel wanted peace, it got war. Genocide?
Before October 7, some 18,000 Gazans crossed the border daily to work in Israel.
A word about the death toll in the Hamas-Israeli war. I have written several columns on the gross distortions.
According to Hamas — and the numbers come from Hamas — about 72,000 Gazans have died. The media, in reporting these numbers, never indicated that these figures could not be independently corroborated. Of course, Hamas, which on October 7 beheaded Israelis, gang raped women, set some on fire, etc. would not lie. Nor did the media separate combatants from civilians.
One more point: Civilians always suffer more in wars than combatants. While figures vary widely, some of the most common numbers put the death toll of combatants at 15 million in WW II, but civilians at 30-45 million.
(None of the above is intended to imply that Israel should not be held accountable when, and if, it violates the rules of war or commits abuses.
(Nor is this intended to imply that the suffering of Palestinians is not heart-wrenching. All Hamas had to do, as Antony Blinken, secretary of state in the Biden administration continually said, was to lay down its arms. It still refuses to disarm.
I want to suggest Israel’s libelers visit a Holocaust museum and/or read the works of Lemkin and Lauterpacht.
But given the Wieners political opportunism, lack of conscience and their obvious animus toward the Jewish state, I doubt a visit to a Holocaust museum or reading Lemkin/Lauterpacht would make any difference, especially when an election is at stake.
We might also note that history is repeating itself. When Israel won the 1967 Six-Day War, it was hailed for its victory.
But that did not last long. Soon, it became a pariah as it has after October 7. I wrote a column only 23 days after massacre that “Hamas won.” I meant, of course, politically not militarily. I saw the world wasting no time turning against Israel.
Final point: Is the charge that Israel is guilty of the crime of all crimes antisemitism? If you spread the charge of genocide, which is an infamous lie, and if you hold Israel to a standard not applied to others, is that antisemitic?
I will let the reader decide. But here is what Norman Podhoretz, the late eminent former editor of Commentary, wrote about anti-Zionism.
“… it is perfectly true that anti-Zionism is not necessarily anti-Semitism. But it is also true, I fear, that the distinction between the two is often invisible to the naked Jewish eye, and that anti-Zionism has served to legitimate the open expression of a good deal of anti-Semitism which might otherwise have remained subject to the taboo…”
Antisemitism or not, did I say this is a shanda — an extraordinary and soulless shanda?
The late Pope Francis told us, “Humanity needs to weep, and this is the time to weep.”
(Berl Falbaum is a veteran journalist and author of 14 books.)