Ghaza genocide?

The International Court of Justice said that what is happening in Ghaza might be genocide, and they are going to study the case further. Israel, backed up by the US, UK, and Western Europe, say what they are doing is 'self defence', allowed by the UN Charter, so they are in full compliance with International Law.

Genocide requires that one be killing members of a religious and ethnic group only because they are members of a religious and ethnic group. This is, pretty much, just the Jews. The Palestinians are a mixture of Christians and Muslims, so not a uniform religious and ethnic group as the Jews all are.

If one relaxes the definition from a religious and ethnic group to a religious or ethnic group, the Palestinians are all Arabs, and killing a group of Arabs only because they are Arabs is genocide. Maybe.

Israel say they are not killing everyone in Ghaza because they are Arabs, they are killing them because they are terrorists, and killing terrorists is allowed under International Law. Of course, many say one cannot be a terrorist if younger than 5 years old, but the Israelis say that's because one does not understand that Ghazan parents teach babies who can barely crawl to carry a knife instead of a baby rattle and be ready to kill every Jew they can crawl to. Also, if a terrorist surrounds himself with human shields, it is the terrorist who is responsible for the deaths of the human shields, not the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF). The charter of Hamas says that it is the duty of everyone in Ghaza to kill every last Jew everywhere in the world, so how can Israel allow such people to live where they can easily repeat the attack of 7 October?

Max Blumenthal writes a lot about what is happening in Israel in The Grayzone. First, the Hamas Charter has not one word about killing Jews, just the desire for a place to live that is not a Concentration Camp. Crops were limited, and Ghazans were often shot when farming or fishing, to limit the food in Ghaza. Hamas wanted to change their way of life, and managed to break out and take hostages, this much is uncontested. Israel released a 47 minute tape, said to be put together from videos on Hamas' phones, showing rapes and murders. Max Blumenthal says those rapes and murders are real, but were not filmed anywhere in Israel, the IOF downloaded the clips from YouTube, all uploaded before the end of 2022, so they could not have been of the 7 October 2023 Hamas raid. Max Blumenthal also says the Israeli claim of 1,200 killed by Hamas is another falsehood: many of the Israelis killed on 7 October were killed by the IOF to prevent their being taken hostage, and this is called the 'Hannibal Rule': never let anyone be taken hostage if there is any way to prevent it, and killing hostages and kidnappers with a Hellfire missile or machine gun fire is an acceptable way to prevent Israelis from being taken hostage.

Rick Sanchez has also been looking at Ghaza. He was particularly horrified by the attack last Sunday where the IOF shelled a place the Palestinians had been told to go since it was safe. The attack set many tents on fire and at least 45 Palestinians were burned to death. As Mr Sanches says, this will harm Jews since some people will have developed an anger and hatred of all Jews for what the IOF are doing, even anti-Zionist Jews. But the US, UK, France, Germany, and some other Western European countries still support Israel, but Ireland, Spain, and Norway say they now recognise the (non-existent) Palestinian State.

Netanyahu says the IOF will stay in Ghaza at least until the end of this year, so another 6 months, maybe longer. Unless the famine kills off all the Ghazans in less than 6 months, or some other country agrees to take them.

I must note that the Israeli version, that they have never committed genocide, is strongly supported by Fox News and those who view Fox News uncritically. Other US news channels say they just don't know. No US news channel say Israel is definitely guilty of genocide.

Antisemitism

I heard the name 'Candace Owens' and decided to look her up. She was on The Daily Wire, but was fired for antisemitism.

It started when Rabbi Barclay wrote several columns calling her an antisemite. Then she invited him to be on her show on The Daily Wire where she asked him to define antisemitism. He began by saying he could not define misogyny, since he was not a woman, only women can define misogyny. Then he said he could not define racism since he was not Black, and only Blacks can define the racism that affects Blacks. Finally, he said only a Jew can define antisemitism, and there is an agreement among Jews, and the term has been defined in print in many places.

Rabbi Barclay gave a brief history of antisemitism. First, he said, Christians hated Jews because they did not accept Jesus as the Messiah. This is, of course, historically verified. He called this religious antisemitism.

Next, he added, was the 'Blood Lie', that Jews drink the blood of Christian infants. Again, the fact that some Christians told this lie is historical record. It is also a fact that Jews, before they eat kosher meat, must cleanse if of all blood, so blood is treyf for Jews, including the blood of Christian infants. And, again, this was a verifiable part of what he called religious antisemitism.

Later, in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, he continued, Christianity no longer drove hatred of Jews, but just the fact that Jews were different. This he called racial antisemitism.

Note that in both cases, the underlying antisemitism was hatred of Jews.

But now, Rabbi Barclay says, antisemitism means criticism of Israel or Zionism. Everyone who dislikes  Israel or Zionism must hate Jews, and so is antisemitic.

I have many problems with Rabbi Barclay's logic, but the effectiveness of his presentation is indisputable: it get Candace Owens fired, which was the one goal of the articles he wrote about her and his appearance on her show.