Genocide canard is a smokescreen for antisemitism | Opinion
Laurence Gardner, Esq., a retired attorney, lives in Portland.
Last month, Jews around the world observed Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av, which is the saddest day in the Jewish calendar. That day marks the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BCE and the destruction of the Second Temple, in 70 CE, by the Romans. As a result of the Roman destruction, we were expelled from the land of Israel, the land we had lived in for more than 1,000 years.
There’s more. In 1099, during the First Crusade, the Crusaders cut a wide swath of murder, rape and destruction through the heart of the Jewish communities in the Rhineland, on their way to fight the infidels in the Holy Land.
In 1290, we were expelled from England. In 1492, we were expelled from Spain. In the 1650s, the Chmielnicki Massacres in Ukraine resulted in as many as 100,00 Jewish deaths. Another 100,000 were murdered during the chaos of the Russian Civil War, when both sides found they had something in common: killing Jews. Not to be outdone, the murderous Nazis killed us by the millions and destroyed a 1,000-year-old Jewish civilization in Europe. There’s plenty more. Pogroms, murders, rapes, hatred and discrimination.
I think it’s fair to say that Jew hatred is the oldest, most pernicious hatred in the history of the world.
Which brings me to the charge of “genocide” that Maine Democrats are recklessly throwing around. The Armenians know what genocide is; the Tutsis know what genocide is; the Rohingya in Myanmar know what genocide is and we Jews know what genocide is in our bones.
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But apparently, Troy Jackson, Democratic candidate for U.S. senator in Maine, and many others don’t.
I’m a pretty liberal guy. In a normal year, Democrats would be able to count on my vote. I’ve voted Democratic since 1968 and I’ve never voted for a Republican. I was an outspoken anti-Vietnam war advocate. I went to hundreds of anti-war demonstrations. I got tear-gassed in Chicago and pepper-gassed at Dupont Circle. I got thrown out of college for protesting the war and they took me to a grand jury and tried to indict me.
What am I supposed to do now? President Trump is beneath contempt and I want him stopped. I want a Democratic Congress. But how can I vote for someone who swallows the Jew-hating propaganda machine that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza? I am so disappointed that Troy Jackson and others blithely throw around a label that is hurtful, mean and demonstrates that they have no idea what they are talking about.
Jackson has every right to be an anti-Zionist. Although some are of the belief, I don’t believe that makes a person an antisemite. The Satmar movement is the largest Hasidic sect in the world and it is anti-Zionist. Does anyone actually believe that these Torah-observant Jews are antisemites?
Jackson has every right to protest Israeli policies, every right to believe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, every right to believe Israel committed war crimes, every right to oppose AIPAC funding and every right to oppose U.S. dollars going to Israel.
But he does not have the right to accuse Israel of genocide against the Palestinians when he should know that this accusation is no more than Hamas propaganda, the worst form of Jew hatred.
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Israel was attacked on October 7, 2023, by a murderous terrorist organization, Hamas, which killed more than 1,200 Israelis, primarily civilians in their homes. Many of these were the Israelis who lived near Gaza because they promoted equality, peace and a two-state solution. They had Palestinian friends. They had joint dinners with Palestinians. They had a free exchange of ideas with Palestinians. A lot of good it did them.
Many of the people murdered were young adults who were dancing at a rave. There were women who were raped and slaughtered. There were babies shot and strangled. People hiding, pleading for their lives to no avail, and 251 people kidnapped and dragged to the tunnels of Hamas where they were kept hostage and starved, beaten, raped and murdered for two years.
What does Troy Jackson have to say about that?
When we Jews found out about these heinous crimes, every Jew in the world felt solidarity with the victims. And we wanted justice, just like America wanted justice after 9/11. Who wouldn’t want justice for the victims? Who wouldn’t want Hamas to pay for their crimes?
Where is the revulsion toward Hamas? Hamas, which, in its charter, calls for the destruction of the Jewish people — not just Israelis, but the entire Jewish people. That includes me and my family. Now that’s a genocidal policy.
Israel, to no one’s surprise, reacted very forcibly and went after Hamas in Gaza hoping to destroy it. But Hamas had built a vast tunnel system. How do you find hostages in these underground tunnels? Hamas booby-trapped buildings. How do you clear those buildings of terrorists while protecting your own soldiers? Hamas hid among the population. How do you deal with cowards who are armed to the teeth and who hide behind women and children?
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The way that Israel dealt with Hamas was to blow up every booby trapped building and to blow up every tunnel. They had to clear out the terrorists foot by foot. That’s why Gaza looks like Germany in 1945.
Genocide is the willful, intentional destruction of a people for national, ethnic, religious or racial reasons. It is Hamas who seeks the destruction of the Jewish people. That is a genocidal policy. Why is that absent from Jackson’s campaign?
Israel is a multicultural society. There are Israelis whose ancestors came from Europe, all the Muslim countries, Ethiopia, even India and China. The majority of Israelis oppose Netanyahu and his policies. Israel, however, is a democracy and like Trump, Netanyahu is running the show for now.
If Netanyahu fails to win reelection later this year, Israeli policies will change for the better. When is Hamas holding its election? When is Hamas even going to disarm so Gaza can be rebuilt? When is Hamas going to stop killing homosexuals and women who don’t want to follow their religious dictates?
All of the destruction in Gaza was the result of Hamas’s invasion of Israel and Hamas’s disregard for the lives of their own people. Hamas knew how hard Israel’s response would be. Hamas welcomed the destruction.
Yes, it was messy. Yes, civilians were killed. Yes, children were killed. Yes, there may have been soldiers, even groups of soldiers, who committed war crimes. Those are individual acts, not intentional genocide. That is a distinction with a difference.
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The United States dropped more bombs on North Vietnam than we dropped on Nazi Germany and we killed over a million Vietnamese people in the process. Was that genocide or the horrible result of a disastrous policy? More than 100,000 Iraqis died as a result of our invasion in 2003. Was that genocide or the horrible result of a disastrous policy?
The reason why these cruel acts are not genocide is because there was not an intention to kill the Vietnamese or the Iraqis, as a people. This was war. Show me one piece of official paper that calls for the destruction of the Palestinian people. Show me one document that supports the so-called “genocide” position that Israel seeks the murder of Palestinian civilians. Show me any evidence whatsoever that genocide is or was the official policy of the Israeli government.
The “genocide” canard is Jew hatred in its ugliest form; anyone who promotes it stands with the Jew haters of history.
There are about 20,000 Jews in Maine. Most of us are Democrats. We vote in numbers much larger than the general population and we donate far more money per capita to political campaigns than the general population. If our candidates want our support, please stand up and denounce the “genocide” canard.
Investigate yourselves and stop mouthing the Hamas party line. Oppose Israeli policies all you want. To continue to promote such baseless hatred of Jewish people, however, speaks very poorly to your so-called commitment to the truth.
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