No, Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza

So who's killing all these people? I understand that Hamas started it all but to what end is Israel killing innocent people? Innocent lives are being lost every single minute. Why couldn't Hamas be isolated and taken out by Israeli intelligence? People are dead and dying 💔

By Jack Goldstein

Unfortunately, Western civilization has turned upside down. A couple of weeks ago, I got the above absurd message from somebody who should know better, and who should have reached out a long time ago, if not out of sympathy, at least with questions. But like so many, she chose to keep quiet with me and rather go all out on social media. These people are friends no more. I continue to do my part every day as I have for the past two years and will do so going forward, but I have also resigned myself to engage with the likes.

Many people are lost in today´s world of social media´s pictures, tik-toks and bizarre arguments. An overwhelming majority of muslims and an equal number or post-modernist / neo-communists / woke people represent half of the world´s population. The numbers war is lost, so we must do much better at explaining and arguing our case. The word "genocide" has been trivialized and appropriated by people with hasty judgements and naive perspectives. Hamas´ strategy continues to work at the expense of Palestinian lives and Israel´s reputation.

Since october 8th, 2023, we lost many personal friends. Sympathy lasted but a day and our true allies are becoming exhausted trying to defend our case two years into this hell. Even some within our ranks have also fallen to peer presure in hopes of remaining valid within their social networks, or simply fail to understand the complexities of this war and lack the courage to defend themselves.

Weeks before Israel even went into Gaza, hordes of people were already marching in the streets of major cities and famed universities thirsty with the blood of Jews. Uniformed flags and billboards invaded public spaces, all too well synchronized to have been spontaneous. Many people who were not involved in the staged antisemitic protests simply fell for the oppressed/oppressor narrative. Many friends who would talk to us every week, month or so, simply kept quiet. Many never bothered to ask a question, show concern, and simply joined the masses of Jew haters and Israel bashers. They feel cool wearing fashionable kefiyehs while chanting libelious slogans and genocidal rhymes. They forgot about the videos from october 7th, the hostages, the tunnels and location of launching sites, Hamas´ constitution, Iran´s genocidal mission or the attacks on 7 fronts. Again, we are expected to carry out a war with standards that have not been demanded from any other nation. And we do carry out a war with higher standards, yet they put a blind eye to what is actually happening and the circumstances around it. Is it a perfect war? No. Have mistakes been made? Sure. Crimes? Yes, and they will be tried like no other army has. Meanwhile, Yemen, Sudan, the DRC, Nigeria, Ukraine or Syria seem but a chapter in a distant past with no relevance. A pathologic and suicidal precedende is being served on a silver platter, one that will rot western society even more.

I know I wrote before that I have decided not to engage with certain people and answer the many comments I get, but for the sake of sanity, here goes my reply to her message:

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Unfortunately, wars are fought in real battle fields and not in La-La-Land. In war, by nature, all parties involved do the killing. Quantitative ties are unrealistic expectations to have, plus usually one side takes the upper hand defeating its enemy.

To my knowledge, no party that willfully invites to engage in urban warfare has had the decency to then move away from civilian population for the sake of honor and justice with its own civilians. That is precisely Hamas´ cowardly strategy, taking advantage of the West´s weak, woke standards. Hamas built close to a thousand kilometers of tunnels, not to keep their population safe, like any decent and responsible nation would do, but just the opposite: to hide themselves underneath hundreds schools, mosques, hospitals and even UN agencies from where they launch rockets into israeli civilian population. They love martyrdom just as much as Israel upholds the value of life. This makes this particular war the hardest urban war ever, and one that will certainly go down in history as the best faught urban war ever. In places like Aleppo, Afghanistan or Iraq the ratio of civilian casualties to fighters was 5:1 and even 20:1 at the hands of the US, NATO or Russian armies. In Gaza, even with this cowardly behavior, the ratio stands at close to 1:1 even if you blindly want to accept Hamas´ numbers. Israel is not in the business of killing innocent people. Innocent people get killed in all wars. What is remarkable about this war is how much Israel has done to minimize civilian casualties given the nature of Hamas´ warfare. Israel has also been trying to protect the lives of 250 hostages taken, 50 who still remain with Hamas, more than half alrady dead and whose bodies are also sacred and expected to be properly buried in Israel.

Genocide is what Hamas committed on october 7th, with its failed intention to go further inside Israel and finish the job that is literally enshrined in its constitution: The total annihilation of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. In the meantime, the populations in Gaza, West Bank and Israel proper has increased tenfold since the establishment of Israel. Furthermore, the population in Gaza over the past 23 months has basically remained the same (with births slightly higher than all deaths). Furthermore, had Israel wanted to wage a genocidal war, it could have done it easily from the air, without sacrificing the 900 lives of foot soldiers lost since the operations begun.

For the killing to stop, it is easy: Release all hostages dead and alive, and turn over management to a party whose constitution does not call for the genocidal extermination of Jews and the State of Israel.

It´s pathetic to witness how so many good people have simply forgotten the facts and turned their backs on reality and common sense. I could go on mentioning the many failed peace arrangements, Palestinian self-denial of it´s own state since 1936, its disregard for statehood while occupied by Egypt and Jordan, but I take it you get my drift.

To expect Israel to somehow be able to magically remove Hamas away from its civilian population so as to wage the only war where no civilians get killed is loonacy and borderlines on antisemitism. It is a sad state of affairs when the good people fall for such naive, woke ideas, and continue to judge Israel on a different light.