Palestinians Fear Genocide
Nearly 8 to 1 Gazan to Israeli death toll, and growing.
Palestinians and their allies are worried that the killings by Hamas militants of Israelis will be used to justify genocide in Gaza. Genocide is defined as “the deliberate (conscious and intentional) killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.”
Hundreds of thousands if not millions of Gazans remain trapped with only narrow passageways out, bombs blowing up around them, and the prospect of a long ground invasion by the Israeli Defense Force. Gazans rightly fear being caught in the crossfire.
Israeli media, particularly the highly respected and influential Haaratz.com, founded in 1918, generally offers more authoritative and diverse perspectives on the conflict, and to my mind, objectivity than does American media. Haaretz reports that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government contains supporters of Palestinian genocide and full apartheid. A correspondent for the award-winning Foreign Policy.com predicts “mass atrocities” from Israel’s incursion in Gaza, enabled by the U.S.
Palestinians complain that they are almost always portrayed as violent aggressors, when in fact far more innocent Palestinians are killed in conflicts with Israelis than vice versa.
And yet, given the grisly mass killings of 1,400 Israelis by Hamas terrorists, what choice does Israel have but to try to eliminate Hamas as an existential threat to Israel’s survival? The Israelis somewhat justifiably feel they are waging war against the equivalent of Nazis. Still, emotional revulsion is no substitute for a well-conceived and successful war strategy.
Part of the Hamas’ strategy in planning mass killings in Israel was clearly to incite an overreaction by Israel that would garner the world’s condemnation. Hamas supporters do not wear uniforms and plant their weapons and even hostages in civilian areas to protect themselves from the violence they incite.
In the first two weeks of the latest conflict, more than two Palestinians were killed for every Israeli killed. Half were under the age of 18. The numbers may grow to eight to one, 10 to one, or worse. Gaza’s Health Ministry is reporting that more than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed in the first three weeks, and Al Jazeera is reporting that “the death toll rises almost every hour.” Here are the earlier grim statistics:
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