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| Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International (AP) |
Amnesty International accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip during its war with Hamas, saying it has sought to deliberately destroy Palestinians by mounting deadly attacks, demolishing vital infrastructure, and preventing the delivery of food, medicine and other aid.
The human rights group released a report Thursday in the Middle East that said such actions could not be justified by Hamas’ October 2023 attack on Israel, which ignited the war, or the presence of militants in civilian areas. Amnesty said the United States and other allies of Israel could be complicit in genocide, and called on them to halt arms shipments.
“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now,” Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, said in the report.
The only word I can think of to describe the people that run this organization and make statements like this is slime. Even if every word that they said were true (which clearly it is not - more about that later), it cannot be classified as genocide.
Genocide is the deliberate extermination of an entire people. Even the most ardent critic of Israel has to know that Israel is not exterminating an entire people. That is even implied in Amnesty’s own condemning words:
...such actions could not be justified by Hamas’ October 2023 attack on Israel, which ignited the war
In other words, they basically admit that what Israel is doing is in reaction to the Hamas attack. Not because they want to exterminate anyone. But why should that stop this slimy organization from a good opportunity to yet again bash Israel?
If anyone is guilty of genocide it is a people sworn to free Palestine from the river to the sea and to rid of all the Jews living there. And to do so by any means necessary as demonstrated in October of 2023.
In all the over 76 years of its existence, Israel has never suggested exterminating Palestinians. Not once in its entire history. Not even the most extremist radical right wing member of the Knesset, Itamar Ben-Gvir has ever suggested that. Israel was even willing to give Palestinians everything they wanted as part of a two state solution when Bill Clinton was president. All for the sake of peace. Does that sound like a nation interested in? (They rejected the deal.)
As to the substance of the accusations themselves, that too is pure unadulterated hogwash. Which can only be attributed to a latent antisemitism that turns a blind eye the context of the war and what is actually going on in Gaza.
First the idea that Israel is targeting even a singe innocent Palestinian is refuted by the undisputed fact that Israel has gone to great lengths to move entire population segments of Gaza out of their targeted areas in order to minimize civilian casualties. I defy Amnesty to show me one nation in the history of modern warfare that ever did that before they attacked an enemy military target. That there were ‘innocent’ Palestinians that were killed in such attacks in Gaza is only because some Palestinians refused to listen to warnings about an impending strike and got killed along with the targeted Hamas terrorists that were imbedded among them.
Any starvation going on in Gaza is not Israel’s fault. The primary reason there is a food shortage is that there is a distribution issue. Not because Israel is deliberately not allowing food trucks in. When food comes in, the trucks are attacked by mobs who grab all the food and then sell it to their Palestinian brothers at exorbitant prices. Often at ten times their actual value.
Additionally the UN ‘peacekeepers’ that are supposed to distribute that food are afraid they will get killed by the armed looting mobs so they aren’t doing it.
It is of course not pleasant to live in Gaza right now. But if Israel is going to protect its people from a future ‘October 7th they are going to have to make sure that they completely disable the Hamas capability from even thinking about it. That is why they are still blowing up Hamas strongholds. And why there are innocent Palestinians still being killed along with them.
It should also not be forgotten that the over 40,000 Palestinians claimed by Hamas to have been killed by Israel (a number that is surely inflated) includes about 20,000 Hamas terrorists. A fact that the media rarely mentions. And when they do, they say ‘claimed by Israel’.
And yet Amnesty International is
one of the most respected ‘humanitarian’ organizations in the world. When the
media reports about their latest findings, you can almost hear the sense of awe
in their voices. And of course almost all of
Europe now feels their claims about Israeli genocide has been justified by an organization that has examined the facts and has come to
that determination.
Rubbish! Here is Israel’s response to Amnesty International:
“The deplorable and fanatical organization Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Israel accused Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate Israel, of carrying out a genocidal massacre in the attack that triggered the war, and said it is defending itself in accordance with international law.
Thankfully there is still one country (besides Israel itself) that rejects Amnesty’s claim. A country that happens to be the leader of the free world: The United Sates of America – who said that Amnesty’s allegations are unfounded.
I began by saying the mask is off. Well, yes if one cares about the truth, Amnesty’s declaration is an obvious lie. But if one honors an institution more than the truth later, their lie becomes the truth. So amnesty will remain the darling of the media while Israel. Amnesty’s favorite whipping boy gets increasingly delegitimized.
The current administration seems to otherwise still value Amnesty’s contribution. My hope is that incoming administration will once and for all expose them for the deep seated antisemites they actually are. And there are few people that can expose that kind of antisemitism better than the incoming US representative to the UN. I’m sure Elise Stefanik will do her best to expose it there - just like she did with Harvard, MIT, and Penn.
One more thing. Please let us not get hung up on the belief that the war is being prolonged because of any personal benefit to Israel’s prime minister. You can believe that if you want. It might even be true that he benefits from that. But I do not believe that is why he is still fighting the war. And in any case it is beside the point of the post.