By James E. Jennings*
ATLANTA | 24 August 2024 (IDN) — There’s an ongoing dispute about the meaning of Genocide, which is important because the case against Israel’s war in Gaza is scheduled to be decided soon by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It’s actually not that complicated.
Confucius allegedly said, “The naming of things is the rectification of things.” Why not call the litany of war crimes in Gaza just what it is—a Genocide, constituting a gigantic crime against humanity?
The term Genocide was invented by Jewish WW II survivor Raphael Lemkin and unanimously endorsed by the UN General Assembly in 1948. Genocide is defined, among other things, as killing members of a group simply because they are members of that group. That scenario is being played out daily before the apparently uncaring eyes of the entire world.
“Uncaring eyes” means that people would first have to see the unfolding horrors on multitudes of innocent civilians—especially on children—before they could be accused of not caring. But the frivolous program themes and endless commercial drumbeat of American media has almost totally obscured the carnage in Gaza from the nation’s eyes.
“Genocide Joe” Biden
Meanwhile, “Genocide Joe” Biden continues to enable the war criminals in Jerusalem—most recently with $20 billion for more bombs and ammunition, despite claiming to advocate peace. How can it be that most Americans are not infuriated by this one-sided, inhumane policy? Because they don’t see it.
There’s an even larger issue at stake. What if the mindless US policy of following Israel’s war planners leads our country into a wider war? Recent events suggest that a full-blown war with Hezbollah in Lebanon and perhaps with Iran is a possible outcome. In any case an escalation is likely coming.
On July 25 almost the entire united Democrat and Republican Congress gave heartfelt assent to Netanyahu’s policy of Israel Uber Alles. The President, Vice-President, and Secretary of State’s subsequent meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister took on an ominous tone. His two-decades long campaign to persuade the US to attack Iran seems closer than ever to realization.
The US has previously been lured into fighting Israel’s wars in the case of Iraq—now Iran is in Netanyahu’s sights. For the US to attack that country in a full-fledged war once seemed unlikely; but now it is much less so. Iran looms as an even bigger challenge to defeat and occupy than Iraq.
We don’t know exactly what Biden and Netanyahu said in secret, but one clue is that it was only a matter of days after the July 24 White House meeting—in fact on July 31—that Israel struck Tehran with a either short range missile or a sleeper bomb planted in the HQ of HAMAS in Tehran, killing Ismail Haniyeh, the group’s senior political leader.
That made no sense, because he was HAMAS’ chief negotiator for release of the hostages, so his death will prolong the war. Iran has vowed revenge. If they attack Israel in force the Islamic Republic will be accused of initiating hostilities, an open invitation to Israel and its chief ally the United States to respond in kind.
The only thing worse than genocide, if that is even possible, is to lead the nations of the world into a conflict that historians will inevitably label WW III.
No matter how many national interests are at stake in today’s world—in Ukraine and Eastern Europe generally, in the Taiwan straits and East Asia, in the troubled conflicts throughout Africa and the Middle East—still no tinderbox compares with the hundred years’ war between tiny Israel and the even tinier Palestinian enclaves in the West Bank and Gaza.
Let’s call this genocide what it is—massive, intentional slaughter of members a people group just because they happen to be citizens of Gaza. On that count, Israel’s Likud government has already been convicted by global opinion.
The most chilling thing is that no one will ever know how many have died. The number of dead women and children in Gaza is beyond counting. Those buried under the ruins, plus people who have died in excess of normally expected deaths, as the British medical journal The Lancet recently maintained, can be estimated but not counted. Meanwhile, our negligence in practicing virtue as citizens is enabling the war makers. In the name of humanity, let’s all pledge to stop this madness.
*James E. Jennings, PhD is President of Conscience International and Executive Director of US Academics for Peace. Jennings has delivered humanitarian aid to Gaza’s hospitals since 1987, including during the first intifada, the al-Aqsa intifada, and Israel’s “Cast Lead” bombing attacks in 2009 and 2014. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Photo: Anadolu Ajansi
