By John Dunkelgrün
The daily news about the devastation and the unimaginable suffering of the Gazans is unbearable. The cries for an immediate ceasefire everywhere are getting ever louder. All decent people want this hell to stop, and many call it genocide.
It is important to realize that, however terrible, the current situation does not meet the definition of genocide. The ICJ did not call it that; it didn’t even say that genocide is plausible. What it said is that it is plausable that some of the rights of the Gazans are harmed. I submit that the rights to a peaceful human existence have been harmed in a terrible and premeditated way. They have been harmed by Hamas, which has ruled Gaza the way gangs rule their turfs. They have tortured and murdered opponents, used charity funds to build their tunnel fortress, and provoked war with Israel five times. They do not care how many tens of thousands of Gazans perish, the daily newscasts of the wars harm Israel more than Hamas, the perpetrator. The inhuman attacks on October 7th with the intention to kill as many Israelis as possible, clearly come within the definition of genocide, but since Hamas is not a state, it cannot be brought before the ICJ.
Israel is accused by many of a disproportionate reaction to the horrors of October 7th. Certainly sitting in an easy chair watching the news and seeing the casualty numbers, even after discounting the obvious exaggerations by Hamas, the numbers look lopsided. But don’t forget, this is not a normal war. For Israel, this is an existential conflict. Hamas has declared officially that its goal is to destroy the State of Israel and kill Jews, an overt intention to commit genocide. It has acted on that intention continuously since it forced the Palestinian Authority out in 2005. It has fired thousands of rockets indiscriminately at Israel, only failing to inflict heavy damage on Israeli civilians because of the relatively primitive nature of its hardware and the efficacy of Israel’s ‘Iron Dome.’
Israel is in a fight for its survival, in a fight to keep its population safe from the pogroms and persecutions the Jewish people have suffered for two millennia. The memory of this is deeply ingrained in the Jewish consciousness.
When your life is at stake, you don’t play by Queensberry rules.
War is hell, and the people of Gaza are experiencing the hell Hamas has brought onto them. If Hamas continues as the de-facto power in Gaza, whatever cease-fire is agreed upon, it is only a matter of time until the next war. Hamas has promised as much. For the people of Gaza, as much or even more for the security of Israel, it is absolutely crucial that Hamas is defanged and replaced by a government that actually cares for the wellbeing of its population.
