Once again, The New York Times, on July 15, gave a forum to yet another “authority” accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. This time none other than Dr. Omer Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
For the record, Bartov is also a native-born Israeli who spent half of his life here and served as an officer in the IDF as well. All this may give him agency but does not make him wise or insightful.
In his op-ed, he takes 3,622 words to accuse us of genocide in Gaza based on the accepted definition of the word coined at the end of World War II to specifically describe the Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of a third of world Jewry at the time.
However, based on an unbiased reading of the definition, all he really needed was 32 words to state, unequivocally, that “an honest interpretation of the definition of the word genocide would lead one to the conclusion that the actions of Israel in Gaza during these past 21 months are definitely not genocide.” Sadly, he took the opposing view.
Definitions of genocide
According to 1948’s Article II of the UN’s Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, “genocide means any acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.”
To be sure, in carrying out our retaliatory war against Hamas in response to their unprovoked massacre of over 1,200 of our citizens and the kidnapping of 251 hostages, 50 of whom are still held captive, of which just 20 are presumed to be alive, tens of thousands of Gazans have died and thousands more have been injured.
However, this war was launched in response to Hamas’s actions on October 7. The war was not preplanned by Israel, nor was there ever any “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.”
Our enemies often quote the remarks of specific members of our government speaking as individuals as proof that this was our intent as a country, but that is a specious argument. For example, yes, our prime minister, in an address to the citizens of Israel on October 28, 2023, publicly said: “Remember what Amalek did to you (Deuteronomy 25:17). We remember and we fight.” While that statement resonates with all of us given Jewish history, it was a call for unity in the face of existential threats as a result of Hamas’s invasion and not a call for genocide.
Truth be told, the war could have ended in one day if Hamas had agreed to stop the fighting and release the hostages. It was, and remains, their choice to continue the fighting, to continue using their own citizens as human shields, to continue to deprive Gazans of unfettered access to humanitarian aid, and to continue to make unreasonable new demands each time a truce agreement seems to be imminent.
Yes, I am aware that we play some of the same games with these agreements and that we need to take ownership of any negative effects of such actions. Yet, truth be told, there are no innocents in war.
Hamas's genocidal intentions
An unbiased assessment of what has transpired here would lead one to believe that the real perpetrators of genocide are those in the leadership of Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and Iran who, by their words and deeds, are intent on both the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people living here.
To confirm this, all one needs to do is read the 1988 Hamas Covenant or the revised charter that was issued in 2017. With 36 articles of only a few paragraphs’ length each in the former and 42 concise statements in the latter, the covenant clearly spells out Hamas’s genocidal intentions.
Accordingly, what happened on October 7 and continues until today is completely in keeping with Hamas’s explicit aims and stated objectives. It was, in fact, the inchoate realization of Hamas’s true ambitions.
The most relevant of the document’s 36 articles can be summarized as falling within four main themes:
1. The complete destruction of Israel as an essential condition for the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a theocratic state based on Islamic law (Sharia)
2. The need for both unrestrained and unceasing holy war (jihad) to attain the above objective
3. The deliberate disdain for, and dismissal of, any negotiated resolution or political settlement of Jewish and Muslim claims to the Holy Land
4. The reinforcement of historical antisemitic tropes and calumnies married to sinister conspiracy theories.
The covenant opens with a message that precisely encapsulates Hamas’s master plan. Quoting Hassan al-Banna, the Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is a constituent member (Article 2), the document proclaims, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
Hamas and its ilk in the region are the true practitioners of genocide. People in the academic community like Prof. Bartov and their political and diplomatic counterparts worldwide would do well to realize who are the real aggressors here.
Their myopic vision that permits them to turn Israel – the victim of the October 7 attack – into the perpetrator of genocide is both disappointing and shameful.
The writer is the founder and chair of Atid EDI Ltd., an international business development consultancy. He is also the founder and chair of the American State Offices Association, former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, and a past chairperson of the board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.