Is killing your enemy genocide?

by Steve Kramer

Genocide doesn’t occur in the normal course of a war, when civilians are being killed. Genocide is different, It is the systematic killing of a racial or cultural group. The perfect example is the Nazi genocide of Jews during WW2, when 6 million Jews were purposely slaughtered.

Last October, Presidential candidate Kamela Harris was asked if Israel committed genocide against the Palestinian Arabs during an interview on MSNBC’s  “The Weekend.” She came close to definitively accusing Israel of genocide – a question that has increasingly become a litmus test in Democratic circles.

At that time, Harris responded, “Listen, it [genocide] is a term of law that a court will decide. But I will tell you that when you look at the number of children that have been killed, the number of innocent civilians that have been killed, the refusal to give aid and support, we should all step back and ask this question and be honest about it.” https://www.timesofisrael.com/bidens-deputy-secretary-of-state-netanyahu-helped-create-a-genocide-in-gaza/

None of the accusations she averred against Israel would constitute genocide, even if true. If genocide of the Palestinian Arabs had been Israel’s purpose, they wouldn’t have called them in advance of shelling their neighborhoods, messaged them ahead of bombing buildings, or dropped leaflets telling them to flee.

Have Israel’s accusers forgotten that in Israel’s defensive war (remember the unprovoked sneak attack on October 7, 2023?) it was the Palestinian terrorists – and even “regular” Palestinian Gazans – who stormed across the border killing or kidnapping 1,200 Israelis: men, women, children, soldiers, Arabs, and even some Thai agricultural workers. If genocide is to be applied to this violence, it’s the Palestinian Arabs who have earned it by trying mightily to kill every Jew they could find. Luckily they were stopped near Israel’s southern border though the plan had been to encroach much further north into Israel.

The truth is that the IDF uses restraint in its warfare against its enemies. It doesn’t aim at civilians. True, there are civilians killed inadvertently, which is the case in every war. It is unclear how many Palestinian Arabs were killed in the war and under what circumstances. There are estimates and evidence that many thousands of terrorists were among the casualties. Also included in the sum are deaths caused by illness and old age. The number of those “killed” in Gaza is totally unreliable because it is circulated by the Gaza Health Ministry, which is under the control of Hamas.

Clearly, Hamas’ strategy is the prime reason that civilians were killed by Israelis. What is that strategy? To put Gazan civilians in front of the terrorists as human shields and in that way  to gain the world’s sympathy for every death. Hamas and other terror organizations care nothing for the wellbeing of the civilians.

You might say that Israel should not  have retaliated at all because civilians might be killed. If you think that, you’re very misguided. That would allow any terrorist regime to win every battle by putting citizens in front of its soldiers. It would also signal the end of civilization.

On the morning of the October 7 massacre, Mahmoud Afana, a teen-aged Gazan terrorist, used a mobile phone to boast of murdering ten Israelis. In the chilling conversation, Afana, a member of Hamas’s Nukhba forces, repeatedly bragged to his parents about the murders. “I’m talking to you from a Jewish woman’s phone. I killed her and her husband. I killed ten with my own hands!” he told his father. (https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-866559)

The Gazans and other Arabs have long boasted that they would annihilate all of the Jews by “throwing them into the sea” and “wiping them off the face of the earth”. It was the war cry during Israel’s War of Independence, the Six Day War of 1967, and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. In fact, the October 7 sneak attack mirrored the Yom Kippur War sneak attack in intent, if not in size. It was also perpetrated on a Jewish holiday, Simchat Torah, exactly 50 years and a day after the 1973 war.

There is genocide occurring in the world today, especially in Africa. But the Israelis are not guilty of that war crime, despite the United Nations claiming it is. The UN is one of the worst opponents of Israel, spending more time on vilifying Israel than on all other countries combined! Example: there were 17 Israel-focused UN General Assembly resolutions vs. 6 for the rest of the world in 2024. (https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/why-un-condemns-israel-more-than-other-countries-b93484).

The UN leads the onslaught against Israel with its false narrative. Presenting the UN Commission of Inquiry’s latest report (8/14/25) Navi Pillay, a former UN human rights chief, said the “findings” were based on a legal analysis conducted under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.“We concluded that the State of Israel is responsible for the commission of four genocidal acts in Gaza with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, as such,” she said.“The Commission also found that the Israeli President, Prime Minister and former Defence Minister have incited the commission of genocide.”

For more than 100 years since 1920, the Arabs in the Land of Israel have tried to annihilate us Jews and our State of Israel.  Many countries in the UN foment and agitate against Israel, or attack it. Hopefully, at some point the democracies will leave the worst than useless UN and recognize Israel’s utility in the modern world. Countries in the Abraham Accords have already done so.

Far from being a perpetrator of genocide, Israel acts to defeat its genocidal enemies, who proudly pursue their war to eliminate the Jewish people, “from the river to the sea.” That is the attempted genocide that the UN really supports.