A reader wrote me in response to my post last Thursday titled “To Solve the Israel-Palestine Conflict, End American Ignorance” to inquire how to respond to someone who presented a variation of the argument that Israel has no choice but to continue its US-supported military operation in the Gaza Strip.
This is an argument I have encountered frequently throughout Israel’s assault on the civilian population of Gaza ongoing since Hamas executed “Operation Al Aqsa Flood” on October 7, 2023, murdering Israelis and taking civilians as hostages back to Gaza.
The specific variation of the argument my reader encountered was basically that if the US was in Israel’s position, with American hostages needing rescued, it would be doing the same thing as Israel, refusing to accept a ceasefire and continuing its military operation until the goal is achieved.
My reader wanted to know my thoughts about how to respond to that argument, so here they are.
I don’t have time to provide as sufficient an answer as I’d like, but in brief, my suggestion is that, whenever you encounter some variation of the argument, point out to the person that, logically, they are essentially trying to maintain that Israel has no choice but to go on committing genocide.
They might scoff that “Israel has the most moral army in the world! Palestinian civilians are only dying because Hamas uses them all as human shields!” Which they’ll be mindlessly parroting because they heard the claim being made repeatedly by ostensibly serious commentators in the mainstream media, and they think that since these supposedly serious people seem to really believe it and make the claim without any hint of embarrassment, it must therefore be credible and at least arguable.
You can help free them from that delusion by sharing this post of mine in which I thoroughly demonstrate the total willful blindness of Zionists who cling to that preposterous talking point:
Then you can point out how Israel has been bombing indiscriminately, as reflected by the fact that about 70% of Palestinians killed have been women and children — exactly what we would expect, based on the proportion of the population who are women or children, if Israel were to just drop bombs randomly.
As I wrote in my post last week:
As of May 7, over 34,735 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s savage retaliatory military operation in Gaza, including over 9,500 women and 14,500 children. That is, about 70% of Palestinians killed have been women and children, which reflects the perfectly indiscriminate nature of Israel’s bombardment.
You can further free them from the delusion that Israel is “targeting Hamas” by pointing out how this indiscriminate bombing has been carried out with openly genocidal intent. I provided numerous examples — and there are many more I could have cited — in the following article, in the last section under the subheading “Civilians Are Being Massacred? Yes.”:
You can point out to the person that you can literally see Israel’s intent to render Gaza uninhabitable on the ground:
And then there is the fact that Israel from the start announced its intention to prevent Palestinians in Gaza from obtaining goods and services necessary for their survival, including food, water, fuel, and electricity.
UN agencies and international human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch and Oxfam have pointed out that Israel us using starvation as a method of warfare. Children have been literally starving to death in Gaza.
Israel’s genocidal intent is observable in its systematic unlawful targeting of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including Gaza’s health care system.
I explained how Israel’s assault on Gaza meets the definition of “genocide” under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in this article that I published a bit over a month into Israel’s “Operation Swords of Iron” (back in mid-November):
Subsequently, the highest authority in the world on questions relating to the interpretation and application of international law, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), issued a preliminary ruling in February, in a case brought against Israel in December by the government of South Africa, that Israel has been perpetrating what it deemed to be a plausible genocide.
As I summarized in my prior post (emphasis added):
It is a military assault on Gaza’s civilian population.
Israel has also been using starvation as a method of warfare, with children dying from hunger and malnutrition. The estimated death toll is conservative, with an estimated 10,000 additional Palestinians missing and presumed buried under the rubble.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued a preliminary ruling that Israel’s actions are a plausible genocide. But we can dispense with the “plausible”. We can see for ourselves that what is happening meets the definition of genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention, and how it has been conducted with openly genocidal intent among the Israeli leadership.
But a huge proportion of Americans are totally clueless that the government that claims to represent them is supporting a genocide. They don’t even know that far more Palestinians have been killed than Israelis.
Additional details about South Africa’s case can be found in the following article of mine from late December. Of note, South Africa’s application to the ICJ included somewhere around eight pages of documentation of the genocidal intent of Israeli leaders:
You can also remind the person attempting to defend this genocide how Israel since the very inception of Hamas had utilized the group effectively as a strategic ally to undermine the secular leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which had since the mid-1970s been waging a “peace offensive” by joining the international consensus in favor of the two-state solution to the conflict, which Israel has always rejected.
I documented all that in my book Obstacle to Peace: The US Role in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and expanded on it in this recent article:
You should also point out to the person, if they are an American, how the government that claims to represent them has been supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, as I documented thoroughly in the following article from March:
So, to review, when faced with this argument trying to defend Israel’s indefensible crimes against humanity, here is how the conversation could go (with your interlocutor’s arguments in bold):
“What would the US do if it was in the same situation and it was Americans taken hostage?! Israel is just doing what was necessary to eliminate the threat from Hamas and free its hostages!”
“You are essentially arguing that Israel has no choice but to go on committing genocide in Gaza.”
“‘Genocide’?! Don’t be ridiculous! That is absurd rhetoric. Israel does everything possible to avoid harming civilians! Israel has the most moral army in the world!”
“Now who’s being ridiculous by regurgitating absurd rhetoric? Israel has a long record of committing brazen war crimes. During ‘Operation Cast Lead’ from December 27, 2008, to January 18, 2009, Israel implemented its ‘Dahiya Doctrine’, a policy of using deliberately disproportionate force to punish and terrorize the civilian population of Gaza. Disproportionate use of force is a subcategory of ‘indiscriminate attacks’ under international humanitarian law. It’s a war crime.
“Read Jeremy Hammond’s book Obstacle to Peace. It’s all thoroughly documented.
“During its current operation, Israel has systematically targeted Gaza’s civilian infrastructure and engaged in bombing that even President Joe Biden — whose administration has been supporting Israel’s operation including by providing arms — has admitted to be ‘indiscriminate'”.
“Yes, it is tragic that so many Palestinian civilians have been killed, but they are only dying because Hamas is using them as human shields!”
“You sound like an IDF spokesperson. That claim depends on a use of the term ‘human shields’ that bears no resemblance to its definition under international humanitarian law and is instead a euphemism meaning any Palestinians killed in Gaza by virtue of their being in Gaza.”
“Well, maybe there have been a few violations of international law, but it’s absurd to claim that Israel is committing ‘genocide’!”
“Actually, the International Court of Justice, the highest legal authority in the world on matters of interpretation and application of international law, is currently examining that question and has issued a preliminary ruling that there is a plausible case to be made that Israel has been violating the 1948 Genocide Convention.
“And we don’t need to wait until the ICJ issues a final ruling to see that Israel’s actions easily meet the definition of ‘genocide’ under international law.
“In addition to the indiscriminate bombing, Israel has been blocking humanitarian aid, preventing Gazans access to goods and services necessary for their survival. Israel announced this policy at the start of its operation, and UN agencies and international human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch and Oxfam have been decrying how Israel has been using starvation as a method of warfare. Children in Gaza have literally been starving to death.”
“Israel has a right to defend itself and get its hostages back!”
“Genocide isn’t ‘self-defense’! It isn’t true that Israel has no choice but to go on committing genocide. War crimes and crimes against humanity are always wrong, and there is never any justification for it. Israel could choose not to commit genocide. It could have made freeing Israeli hostages the priority instead of prioritizing the destruction of Gaza and the people living there.”
“Well, you’re just an anti-Semite! You must hate Jews! You support Hamas!”
“Don’t be stupid. I oppose attacks on civilians regardless of the identities of the perpetrators or the victims. I’m not the one applying moral values selectively, you are, so spare me your hypocrisy!
“And let’s not forget how, when Hamas was first founded, Israel supported the group to divide the Palestinian leadership and undermine the PLO because of what was termed Yasser Arafat’s ‘peace offensive’, referring to the PLO’s acceptance of the two-state solution; and for his entire time in office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had maintained a policy of utilizing Hamas as a strategic ally to block any movement toward peace negotiations with the Palestinians. 10/7 was blowback for that policy.
“And it isn’t anti-Semitic to express legitimate criticisms of Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians and the US government’s support for those crimes. Equating criticism of Israel with ‘anti-Semitism’ is the height of intellectual dishonesty and moral cowardice. In fact, among the most outspoken critics of Israel throughout its existence have always been Jews.
“I mentioned earlier Jeremy Hammond’s book Obstacle to Peace: The US Role in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Well, the book’s Forward was written by a Jew, and the Introduction was written by another Jew. You really should read it because it systematically demolishes all the Zionist propaganda narratives that you seem to have been deceived into believing by the government and mainstream media .
“And even the Biden administration, which has been complicit in the genocide including by using its veto in the UN Security Council to block multiple ceasefire resolutions and has been providing Israel with the arms it needs to massacre Palestinian civilians and destroy Gaza’s infrastructure, has been warning Israel against doing to Rafah in southern Gaza what it did to Gaza City and Khan Younis.
“Why? For one, because Biden has come to realize how his complicity in Israel’s genocide could cost him the upcoming presidential election by eroding his support base among Democrats.
“Also, US officials understand perfectly well how Israel’s destruction of Rafah will make the case for genocide at the ICJ all the more incontrovertible. They understand that they could be prosecuted themselves for violating the 1948 Genocide Convention with their complicity in Israel’s genocide. And with public opinion turning against the Biden’s support for it, the US government has been forced to make a greater effort to distance itself from the crime.
Israel has been brazenly committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, with the whole world watching, and all it takes for you to see it is to open your eyes and look.
And at that point, they’ll stick their fingers in their ears and go “Na, na, na, na, na, I can’t hear you!” But you’ll have stood your ground and made your point, and your intellectual opponent will be the one who will have to wrestle with their conscience thereafter. You will have planted a seed. And there are always those who are actually capable of being reasoned with and might change their mind, if not now, then at some point in the future.
In case you missed my post from last Thursday commenting on the major problem of Americans’ ignorance about the Israel-Palestine conflict:
And here’s the book to recommend to people in urgent need of de-indoctrination, what Libertarian Institute director Scott Horton has recently called “the definitive scholarly account of the American role in the entire disaster”:
Obstacle to Peace
Obstacle to Peace shatters mainstream propaganda narratives about the conflict, revealing the true reasons for its persistence and illuminating the path forward to a just resolution. Exclusively when you buy from this website, get a copy of the book signed by the author!
