Yes, the situation in Gaza is tragic. Thousands of innocents are dead, and many more displaced—but let’s not lose sight of what created this situation. Hamas, with its leadership living in Qatar, launched a horrific unprovoked attack against Israel, slaughtering 1200 civilians and kidnapping 240 more.
Anti-Zionists claim this was a reaction to Israel running an apartheid state and colonizing Palestinian land. Setting aside that Jews have lived in Israel, including the West Bank, since biblical times 3000 years ago, their modern-day claim to the land lies with the passing of UN resolution 181 (II), which was overwhelmingly accepted by the UN General Assembly in 1947 and came into effect in 1948.
Since that time, Israel has tried to make peace with Palestinians numerous times, including accepting the UN partition of 1948, which called for the creation of Israeli and Palestinian states, and peace accords like the Camp David talks. Israel has successfully negotiated peace with multiple other Arab nations, like Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco.
In contrast, Palestinian leadership has rejected paths to co-existence with Israel and opposes peaceful relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, often responding to these agreements by launching murderous attacks against Israelis. They timed their Oct. 7, 2023 attack in an attempt to derail peace between Israel and other Arab states.
Israelis want to live in peace with their neighbors, yet Israel is the only country in the world whose right to exist is under constant assault.
Claims that Israel is committing genocide of Palestinians are lies. Since Oct. 7, Hamas has intentionally put Palestinian civilians’ lives at risk by using hospitals and schools as rocket launching and command sites. Hamas has built an extensive network of terror tunnels, rather than a functioning society, in the 18 years they’ve ruled Gaza.
Although the death toll of Palestinians is grievous, the ratio of civilian to military fatalities is half what the USA inflicted in Iraq and Afghanistan. Where was your outrage then? Or when 600,000 Syrians, including Palestinians, were and are still being slaughtered by their government?
Israel is fighting to eliminate Hamas and free the hostages; they are not fighting to eliminate Palestinians. Accusations of genocide when Israel fights to defend itself, while remaining silent when other countries inflict even greater numbers of casualties, can only plausibly be seen as antisemitism. Israel wants peace, not genocide. When Hamas ends their terrorist ways and returns the hostages—proposals for which they continually reject—Israel will come to the peace table again. Perhaps next time, Palestinians will sincerely show up.