The Genocide Libel

By Dennis Prager

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

In order to justify killing Jews, Jew-haters throughout history made up libels about the Jews that were so awful that they justified, at least for the Jew-hater, the mass murder of Jews. The charge that the Jews of every age -- not just some Jews at one time -- killed God Himself was used by medieval Christians to justify mass murdering of Jews.

Then came another grotesque libel -- what is known as the blood libel. Also prevalent in the Middle Ages, this charged Jews with kidnapping Christian children, sacrificing them and using their blood to bake matzo (the unleavened Passover bread).

Later libels against the Jews included the forgery known as "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," which purported to prove that Jews plotted to rule the world.

At this very moment, we are living through as enormous a libel -- directed not against all Jews, but against the Jewish state: Israel is committing genocide of Palestinians and is, therefore, morally identical to the Nazi regime.

This libel is spread by left-wing radicals and by Muslims, especially in the Middle East. Some examples:

On a popular radio show in Italy, that country's most famous philosopher, Gianni Vattimo, was asked whether he would like to see more Israelis killed. Vattimo responded: "Of course." He then added that Israel is "a bit worse than the Nazis ... I'd like to shoot those bastard Zionists ... and [Europeans should raise money] to buy Hamas some more rockets."

The prime minister of Turkey, Recep Erdogan, told CNN International, "What Israel does to Palestine and to Gaza right now has surpassed what Hitler did to them. ... We do not accept this genocide by Israel."

The foreign minister of Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif announced: "These [Israeli] actions cannot be considered anything other than genocide and crimes against humanity."

Ilan Pappe, an Israeli leftist who is director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter, wrote an article titled "Israel's incremental genocide in the Gaza ghetto" on the Electronic Intifada website.

On July 9, when a total of 63 Gaza Palestinians had been killed, Al-Arabiya reported that "Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas told a crisis meeting in Ramallah ... that Israel is committing 'genocide' in Gaza during its military offensive which has so far killed at least 50 Palestinians. 'It's genocide by Israel against our Palestinian people.'"

In a column published by Al-Jazeera, Abukar Arman, former Somali ambassador to the United States, wrote that "Israel has defeated North Korea for the rogue state par excellence award."

Nicolas Maduro, president of Venezuela, and Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, labeled Israel's invasion of Gaza "genocide" and Maduro added that it was "extermination."

For the record: Israel attacked Gaza solely in response to hundreds of rockets sent by Hamas to kill as many Israelis as possible. When Israel gave Gaza over to the Palestinians, it did not embargo essentials such as cement. But none of the millions of tons of cement allowed, or later smuggled, into Gaza were used to building schools or hospitals. They were used to build tunnels to smuggle terrorists into Israel and to hide rockets. The charter of Hamas calls for the annihilation of Israel. Israel is the only country in the world targeted for annihilation.

Though Israel is charged with engaged in genocide against Palestinians, in the last 20 years, the number of Palestinians has doubled; and since Israel's founding in 1948, the Palestinian population has grown five-fold. It must surely rank as the least effective genocide in world history. While not all Muslims or all leftists seek, or support those who seek, Israel's destruction, virtually all those who do are either Muslim or on the left.

One left-wing exception is Bill Maher, who told the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles (full disclosure: I am a columnist for that newspaper): "What I find so ironic is that after World War II, everybody said, 'I don't understand the Jews. How could they have just gone to their slaughter like that?' OK, and then when they fight back: 'I don't understand the Jews. Why can't they just go to their slaughter?' It's like, 'You know what? We did that once. It's not gonna happen again. You're just gonna have to get used to the fact that Jews now defend themselves."