“It was genocide, it was a massacre” said Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah after the targeted attacks on the terrorist group’s pagers. The communication devices which had a tiny amount of explosives in them were detonated by Israel remotely, causing small scale explosions wherever the Hezbollah terrorists happened to be. In the surgical strike, some 35 Hezbollah terrorists were killed and over 3,250 injured in the operation. Nasrallah accused Israel of violating ‘all red lines’ because the devices exploded in “hospitals, markets, shops, houses, cars, streets.”1 Was it really a genocide? Or a targeted terrorist elimination strategy designed to only hurt those with devices carried by members of Hezbollah? Because the truth really matters.
What constitutes an actual genocide?
The word “genocide” is flung around a lot lately, mostly in Israel’s direction. There have been attempts to prosecute the Jewish nation for the crime of genocide against Gaza in the International Court of Justice, but South Africa’s request for more time to gather evidence has been denied.
The accusers have not been able to produce the evidence that Israel is committing genocide.
Because it isn’t.
Israel is trying as hard as it can simply to survive as the fierce attacks come from every direction, and also to protect the lives of innocent civilians. The world seems to have overlooked the fact that Hezbollah has been constantly attacking the north for the last year, to the degree that it’s too dangerous for over 100,000 Israelis to live in their own homes. So Israel, fighting a war of self-defense, tries to stop the relentless attacks. However, terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah deliberately embed themselves within the civilian population in order to create outrage when Israel’s attacks on the terrorist groups inevitably lead to civilian deaths. Is Israel “deliberately intending” to wipe out Palestinian or Lebanese people? Absolutely not! Are Iranian proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah doing their best to make it look like they are? Yes.
Urban warfare expert and scholar John Spencer is certain about this, saying: “I’ve written—with evidence—that Israel is doing more to prevent civilian casualties than any other military has done in the history of war.”3
As an award-winning scholar, professor, author, combat veteran, national security and military analyst, John Spencer has become an internationally recognized expert and advisor on urban warfare, military strategy, tactics, and other related topics. In a recent interview he has expressed amazement about how well Israel is handling a virtually impossible situation.
“There’s not a single military building in Gaza. Not one,” he told Jordan Peterson. Hamas military bases are all in hospitals, schools, and under homes and public spaces. Considered one of the world’s leading experts on urban warfare, he served as an advisor to the top four-star general and other senior leaders in the U.S. Army as part of strategic research groups from the Pentagon to the United States Military Academy, and he is convinced that in time to come other nations will be asking Israel how they managed to keep civilian deaths so low. But around the world Israel is constantly accused of wanton killing of women and children, even with suggestions that this is their plan and intent. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Conflict, whether it’s between individuals or nations, usually happens when people start making guesses about the intention of the other. Thinking evil of the other, and then reacting accordingly. You’ve probably done it, and I know I have. We imagine we know why someone did something, forgetting that we cannot read minds. It leads to trouble. Proving that a genocide is taking place requires proving the intention to wipe out a whole people group. But how do you prove intention? How can we know with any certainty what someone is thinking and planning? Was Israel, for example, trying to wipe out the Lebanese people en masse? Or just Hezbollah terrorists? It seems quite evident that the acts point to the intention to target terrorists. There was only one civilian casualty as a result of the exploding beepers. One.
According to the Genocide Convention of 1948, established in the wake of the Holocaust, a genocide involves both “intent to destroy” a group and also acts committed to carry out that intent.
It’s hard to prove what someone else “intends” since we cannot know what’s really happening inside anyone else’s head and heart, but we can look at facts and behavior. From that empirical data we can try to gauge intent. Anti-Israel activists constantly point to the numbers of deaths that Hamas is giving, but the Times of Israel says that on closer inspection, “The numbers swiftly refute the possibility of genocide – indeed, they attest to the exact opposite.”2
The facts tell a different story
After the vicious attack on October 7, Israel has been gradually destroying the Hamas tunnel network and taking down battalion after battalion. The IDF has almost finished taking apart the infrastructure of Hamas entirely. Hamas gives the number as more than 40,000 killed so far in this war, but fails to mention that almost half of them were terrorists. According to official figures on the Israel War Database 4, there have been 23,140 civilian casualties and 16,755 terrorists killed in combat. That’s a ratio of 1.5 civilians to one combatant, the lowest in modern warfare.
All along Israel has created humanitarian zones and has been sending in over a million tons of aid. The IDF sent millions of leaflets and called thousands of cell phones warning the Gazan public about where they were going to hit, and where they could flee to safety. Is this the behavior of an army that wants to destroy the people group? No.
Similarly, the strategy to target devices belonging only to Hezbollah members is the most accurate way imaginable of only striking the actual combatants without harming anyone else. This is the truth about Israel’s conduct.
Israel is now fighting Iranian proxies in every direction: Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in the north, the Houthis in Yemen and now the uprisings in the West Bank. If anyone’s guilty of intending to commit genocide here, it’s Iran and its proxies. They have actually said as much. They use a “human sacrifice” strategy of using the blood of civilians to generate outrage in the west and create political pressure against Israel, and now the world accuses Israel of the crimes of its enemies.
The Hamas charter also lays out in black and white that the intention of genocide is part of their stated plan.
The document states,
“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
“Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. It needs all sincere efforts. It is a step that inevitably should be followed by other steps. The Movement is but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished and Allah’s victory is realised.
Thus we see them coming on the horizon “and you shall learn about it hereafter” “Allah hath written, Verily I will prevail, and my apostles: for Allah is strong and mighty.” (The Dispute – verse 21).5
There is no nuance to these comments from a Hamas official:
“We must attack every Jew on the face of the planet. We must slaughter and kill them.”
Maybe people can understand why Israel cannot have these people as their neighbor. pic.twitter.com/SQWmQi2D98
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) August 26, 2024
Iranian leaders have repeatedly promised to wipe Israel off the map, and Hezbollah have made no secret of their determination to destroy Israel. Controversially, Iran’s ambassador had one of the pagers on the Hezbollah network, but few news outlets are asking why. Lebanon’s government has stood up for the terror group living in their midst and complained to the UN about Israel committing “genocide” against them, when the opposite is true. Leaders, diplomats, and statesmen are conspiring to destroy Israel. Why? Because of all God’s promises that are yet to come in Israel.
“The reason that Satan rages as he does against Israel is because Israel remains chosen by God with a mission.” Dr Michael Brown
The words of Psalm 83 are very pertinent right now.
O God, do not keep silence;
do not hold your peace or be still, O God!
For behold, your enemies make an uproar;
those who hate you have raised their heads.
They lay crafty plans against your people;
they consult together against your treasured ones.
They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;
let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”
For they conspire with one accord;
against you they make a covenant—
the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
Asshur also has joined them;
they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Selah
(v.1-8)
The Psalmist pleads with God for help, asking Him to overcome their enemies. But look at the reason he gives: “That they may seek your name, O Lord”. This is our prayer. We ask God for victory again now, as enemy nations seek to destroy Israel once again, and we ask that their defeat may cause them to seek God for themselves and be saved.
Fill their faces with shame,
that they may seek your name, O Lord.
Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever;
let them perish in disgrace,
that they may know that you alone,
whose name is the Lord,
are the Most High over all the earth.
(Psalm 83:16-18)
Please pray this Psalm over the Middle East with us! For protection, victory, and salvation for Israel and those who seek our destruction.
- The Daily Telegraph, September 19, 2024
- Times of Israel, The genocide claim against Israel doesn’t add up, June 2, 2024
- Jordan Peterson Podcast, Urban Warfare, Civilian Casualty, & Human Shields | John Spencer | EP 454, recorded on June 4th, 2024
- www.warinisrael.org
- https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp
