We’re anti-Zionist Jews and we see genocide unfolding in Gaza
It is now impossible for US politicians to ignore the slaughter in Gaza: more than 3,500 Palestinians have been killed in the 12-day barrage, including the 500 reportedly killed Tuesday at Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital. Some 50 entire families have been wiped out — every living relative, including children and babies, gone. And Israel has issued a directive to those remaining that amounts to an ultimatum: leave northern Gaza, all 1.1 million of you, “for your own safety” — in other words, evacuate or risk death in the impending blitz and ground invasion.
The United Nations says such a mass evacuation is “impossible” and has potentially “devastating humanitarian consequences,” pleading with Israel to rescind the order. A UN special rapporteur was clear, calling the order “a crime against humanity and a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”
We call it something else: unfolding genocide.
There is no other word to describe the pageantry of death embraced by Israel’s politicians. Under international law, genocide requires two things: an “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” and then the attempted destruction of that group. Without intent, these actions amount to ethnic cleansing. If deliberate, they are considered genocide.
Israel seems to be laying the groundwork for destroying Gaza and its residents: President Isaac Herzog on Friday said Gazans are not innocent civilians: “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true.” This contradicts international law that prohibits collective punishment and the targeting of civilians, both of which amount to war crimes. It also suggests that Israel will show no restraint in its attacks on Gaza.
Forced displacement, which Israel has begun, is an established precursor to extermination — the last step, in fact, in the 10 stages of genocide cited internationally by genocide scholars and institutions, including by Holocaust museums acrosstheworld. These steps, which can occur simultaneously, include “dehumanization,” acts that deprive groups of water and food, and the false labeling of military operations as “counter-terrorism.”
We are there. Israeli officials are invoking terrorism to justify their indiscriminate bombing campaign, while the Israeli defense minister said that they are fighting “human animals” — dehumanising language that is always used in the lead-up to genocide. And an unnamed Israeli defense official was quoted as saying: “Gaza will eventually turn into a city of tents. There will be no buildings.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeated his promise that the mass death inflicted thus far is “only the beginning.” The Gaza strip is under “complete siege,” the defense minister said, and cut off from electricity, fuel, food and water. A Knesset member openly called for a second Nakba, referring to the mass displacement of Palestinians in 1948. Again, to deliberately create another Nakba would amount to genocide in Gaza.
The rhetoric has made it down to the rank-and-file, too: an Israeli soldier said on national television that this war is not just with Hamas, but “with all the civilians.” This indiscriminate erasure of Palestinians in Gaza would, without doubt, be genocide — as an Israeli genocide scholar has himself stated. The precursors to genocide are actively unfolding before our eyes.
As Jews, we wholly condemn this. We condemn our representatives’ unconditional support for Israeli policy, which has facilitated a decades-long occupation recognized by the majority of the world as a violation of international law. We condemn any action that will involve our people in another genocide — whether as perpetrators or oppressed.
We call on our lawmakers to do the same. Funding a potential genocide in our name is not an antidote to antisemitism: they are betraying the Jews they claim to support.
More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed last week in brutal surprise attacks by Hamas — in addition to 150 held hostage. This is a terrible, devastating toll, and we mourn the taking of civilian life without reservation. Preventing further loss of life — including of the hostages — is an urgent priority.
We also reject the hyperfixation on Hamas that has swallowed American politics, and understand this recent attack as the result of decades-long Israeli crimes and besiegement. This fact has been affirmed by Israeli opposition leaders, veterans groups, and newspapers.
We ask our Jewish community: where is the mourning and grief on the days when the civilian lives lost are Palestinian? When the children are seized by Israeli soldiers?
Between 2000 and the recent wave of violence, more than 10,600 Palestinians were killed by Israelis, according to human rights group B’Tselem, compared to 1,329 Israelis by Palestinians — an eight-fold difference.
The decades between 1948 and 2000 are filled with tens of thousands more dead — largely Palestinians. The story of this conflict, the numbers clearly show, has been the story of overwhelming Palestinian death and displacement.
The vast majority of American politicians, now and then, have acquiesced.
Over the last week, President Joseph R Biden has said repeatedly that the US commitment to Israel is steadfast — “resolute and unwavering” — as 1,000 bombs are dropped each day. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken deleted statements, twice, calling for a ceasefire. As Biden visits Israel, it is critical that he immediately call for an end to hostilities. If he fails to use the enormous leverage he has to save lives in Gaza, those deaths will be partly his responsibility.
A US special envoy said that “no one has the right to tell Israel how to defend itself.” The State Department, in fact, has warned diplomats to stay away from the phrases “de-escalation/ ceasefire,” “end to violence/bloodshed,” and “restoring calm.”
Most of our congressional representatives — of both parties — are no better: leading Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said this was a “religious war” and called on Israel to “level the place” when speaking of Gaza.
Representative Nancy Pelosi, our California congresswoman, has affirmed that the United States stands “unwaveringly” by Israel as it conducts its defense — which is why seven of us chained ourselves to her San Francisco offices on Friday as more than 200 antiZionist Jews rallied, calling for an end to US military aid to Israel.
The few who have dissented are sidelined: Representative Rashida Tlaib, for instance, lamented losses on both sides but called for an end to occupation and apartheid; House Republicans are seeking to censure her. Representative Ilhan Omar also mourned both Israeli and Palestinian losses but was lambasted for daring to question “unconditional weapons sales and military aid to Israel.”
The White House labeled any legislators who push for restraint “disgraceful” and “repugnant.”
The most basic humanitarian impulse — to lay down arms — is now unthinkable in American politics. Questioning Israel’s right to “self-defense” is, in fact, equated with antisemitism.
Yet we see plainly the reality of that so-called defense: a terror campaign and developing plans for genocide from above. With Western support, Israel is plunging headfirst into slaughter.
And while the initial incursion by Hamas brought immediate condemnation from politicians across the country, the recent bombing has brought no reckoning whatsoever. There has been almost no reflection on the history that birthed Hamas, barricaded Gaza and created the occupation.
Israel has essentially told Gazans to get out or die, a choice between expulsion and extermination, between ethnic cleansing and genocide — and while doing so has obliterated exit routes and fired on escaping convoys, leaving Gazans trapped.
Instead of calling for an immediate halt to violence, American lawmakers have lit up our capitol buildings in blue and white and said they “stand with Israel.” They have the power to shift the calculus and compel Israel — the biggest beneficiary of US military aid — to follow international law, yet they choose not to.
Enough. We call on lawmakers to muster the courage to stop genocide from occurring in our name. They can support Israeli victims without enabling mass slaughter and forced displacement, actions that will claim thousands and thousands of lives.
Any subsequent deaths will be blood not only on Israel’s hands, but on Americans’ — particularly those who had the chance to urge international norms and rebuke occupation, but who chose to stand by instead.
Ellen Brotsky is a longtime Jewish activist and volunteer with Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area, a chapter of the world’s largest anti-Zionist Jewish organization in solidarity with Palestinian freedom.
Ariel Koren is an anti-Zionist Jew who quit Google in protest of the company’s military contract with Israel; she is the founder of Respond Crisis Translation, a rapid-response language justice collective
stands with Israel, but sending that signal also carries risks. At a time when anger is boiling over and casualties are mounting in Gaza, Biden is essentially giving the US seal of approval to what Israel is doing – and to whatever it will do next.
That’s one reason why Biden’s other goals on this trip are all connected with the need to use US influence to restrain and modulate Israel’s actions. Biden is betting that effusive public solidarity with Israel – a strategy the administration calls “hugging them close” – will give him the credibility to influence the calculations of Israel’s leaders in private. But Israeli leaders seem set on the basic contours of an approach – a war to eradicate Hamas, even at the cost of a regional conflict – that is not necessarily compatible with the goals of US policymakers.
The first example of this is the difficulty of achieving an improvement in the humanitarian situation, which is one of the main aims of Biden’s trip. Civilians in Gaza face two main problems: lack of access to both humanitarian aid and the basic necessities of life, and the risk of being caught in the crossfire between Israel and armed Palestinian factions. The US secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, has been furiously at work in the region trying to broker an agreement on providing aid, and there are hints that one might be agreed to during Biden’s visit. But reaching an agreement is one thing – ensuring it is actually observed in the weeks to come is another.
Protecting Palestinian civilians from direct harm is even more difficult.
Biden will seek to persuade Israeli leaders to adopt rules of war that minimize civilian harm, but it’s unclear how far Israel’s government can or will go to protect civilian life for as long as it maintains its goal of destroying Hamas. Many US analysts are pointing to the US military’s experience of intense urban warfare in the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Falluja as a potential guide for action. But these battles had a crucial difference from the one in Gaza: civilians were, for the most part, able to leave. Hemmed in between Israel, Egypt and the sea, Gazans cannot – and as the explosion overnight at the al-Ahli alArabi hospital shows, nowhere within Gaza itself is safe.
Another purpose of Biden’s trip is to send a strong signal to Iran and groups such as Hezbollah that if they enter the conflict against Israel, they are likely to also find themselves fighting the United States. There are risks here, too. Anger against Israel is spiking in the region, and if Israel enters Gaza then the pressure on other actors to join the conflict will be immense. If deterrence fails, then the US could find itself fighting another war in the Middle East – one that the administration desperately wants to avoid, and which could poison attitudes towards the United States for a generation. A group of Arab leaders have already canceled a planned meeting with Biden in the wake of the hospital explosion, demonstrating how isolated the administration is becoming – even before the Israeli ground offensive has begun.
A third goal of Biden’s trip is to try to persuade Israel to avoid the mistakes that the United States made in the opening years of the war on terror. The administration is already pushing Israel to look beyond its desire for revenge and to think about the political end state that it wants to achieve. What comes after Hamas? And how can Hamas be removed from power without causing so much civilian harm that another similar movement simply rises in its place?
Unfortunately, as Washington knows all too well, such long-term considerations are rarely at the forefront of leaders’ minds when responding to an attack, particularly one as horrific as that suffered by Israel. Biden seems to want the United States to take on the role of the wiser older sibling of Israel, dispensing advice based on its own experience. But there is no guarantee that Israel will listen, particularly because its leaders seem set first and foremost on restoring their credibility through overwhelming violence.
More than anything else, it is this uncertainty about what will happen next which hangs so heavily over Biden’s trip. Whatever may come, Biden has signaled that he intends to tie the fortunes and reputation of the United States closely to those of Israel. What remains to be seen is whether that will translate into real influence for the better – or whether it will just suck the US deeper into a maelstrom over which it has little control.
Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States and the creator of America Explained, a podcast and newsletter
Biden seems to want the United States to take on the role of the wiser older sibling of Israel, dispensing advice based on its own experience
unwilling to impose discipline on its politicians.
In many ways, the Republican party brought this internal dysfunction on itself. In a project that spanned decades, Republicans and their allies built a vast conservative media infrastructure and developed an impressive skill for shaping and whetting the ideological appetites of their audience, creating a more and more conservative base.
At the same time, Republicans seized control of state legislatures and their congressional redistricting powers, creating safely Republican House seats that were insulated from democratic competition, and where the only meaningfully competitive elections were in Republican primaries – thereby insuring that dozens of Republican congressmen would view the greatest threat to their careers as a primary challenge from their right. And so a base of more and more conservative voters began demanding – and electing – more and more conservative politicians, a cycle that has given us Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene and no small number of other embarrassments.
It has also given us the rise of a new and sinister character: a Republican politician with no interest in public service and an ideological opposition to government functioning, whose incentives drive them not to govern or compromise, but to make constant demonstrations of their own conservatism – to offend and shock, throw sand in the gears, prevent the ordinary functioning of government bodies, and above all, to draw as much attention as possible to themselves.
Viewed from this angle, it is not hard to see why the Republicans have failed, over and over again, to elect a speaker or assure the functionality of their conference. Why would they? With the drama high and the cameras trained on them, the obstructionist Republicans are already getting everything they want.
Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist