"You forget can't forget October 7th . . . That was genocide at the highest level . . . " —President Donald Trump responding to questions regarding Israel committing genocide in Gaza…," — Forbes Breaking News, Spet. 20, 2025.
It's as if the world is caught up in a surreal time-warp that whisks one back to the early 1930s, when Jews were the perpetual culprit, responsible for every misfortune that befell humanity.
A Global Call to Antisemitism
Today, the latest call to antisemitic arms centers on Israel's campaign in Gaza, where it's being branded as committing "genocide" in its quest to eliminate the Nazi-like Islamo-fascist terror organization Hamas.
Across the academic world, Jewish students, faculty, and staff, identified as an extension of Israel, have been harassed, excluded, and physically threatened.
Moreover, protests against Israel's policies frequently find expression in antisemitic rhetoric and anti-Jewish tropes.
But the latest manifestation of Jew-hatred is particularly outrageous, not only because it's maliciously misleading, but because it's an utter inversion of truth.
The Antithesis of 'Genocide'
Since its inception, Israel's behavior has been the antithesis of that which is genocidal.
Not only have its groundbreaking achievements in science and technology served to enhance and save human lives globally, but it has a proud tradition of dispatching aid to disaster areas hit by earthquakes, floods, famine, and other calamities.
Moreover, in warfare, typically imposed on it by its adversaries' aggression, the IDF has exercised more care in avoiding/reducing civilian casualties than any other military — even putting its own soldiers at risk.
Thus, West Point urban warfare expert, John Spencer, asserted, "Israel has taken more measures to avoid needless civilian harm than virtually any other nation . . ."
However, apparently, even such unequivocal expert opinion cannot end fabricated accusations of Israeli "genocide."
The Missing Element of 'Intent'
Indeed, analysis of past legal proceedings regarding "genocide" underscores how ludicrous endeavors to ascribe such crime to Israel are. According to a recent article in The New York Times, "the only case in the court's [the ICJ] 79-year existence in which its judges have determined that genocide definitively occurred" was in its decision regarding the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Significantly, in other cases of mass killing — Darfur, Biafra, Yazidis — the ICJ refrained from designating the slaughter as genocide.
Moreover, whatever the legal niceties, they cannot mask the absurdity of the charges of "genocide" against Israel.
Central to establishing the charge of genocide is the matter of intent. Indeed, "genocidal intent" is the specific mental element required to classify an act as "genocide" under international law, stipulated in the 1948 Genocide Convention, which comprises the generally accepted definition of "genocide."
Perpetrators must be shown to have had the specific intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, in whole or in part.
"Genocidal intent" necessitates a deliberate aim to eliminate the targeted group, not "merely" displace/harm its members.
Debunking 'genocide': Benjamin Netanyahu at UN
In his recent address to the UN General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu robustly rebuffed the accusations of genocide/starvation against his country.
He demonstrated why it is impossible to equate genocide — and genocidal intent - with actual Israeli actions — like pleading with civilians to flee combat zones and facilitating copious supplies of food.
Caustically, he asked, "Would a country committing genocide plead with the civilian population it is supposedly targeting to get out of harm's way?"
Netanyahu scoffed at charges of purposeful starvation, "Israel is accused of . . . starving the people of Gaza, when Israel is deliberately feeding the people of Gaza. Since the beginning of the war, Israel has let into Gaza more than 2,000,000 tons of food and aid. . . 3,000 calories per person, per day. Some starvation policy!"
A Hijacked Legacy?
But perhaps the most grotesque illustration of abuse of the term "genocide" relates to the man credited with coining the term itself, Raphael Lemkin, and an institute, which, allegedly, has hijacked his name for the purposes of propagating anti-Israel slander in contradiction to the strong pro-Zionist views held by Lemkin himself.
The situation has become so grave that recently, members of the Lemkin family and the European Jewish Association engaged a firm of lawyers to petition Pennsylvania officials, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Pa., to review allegations of misappropriation of the late jurists name by the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention (LIGP).
The Institute presents itself as a genocide-prevention think-tank, publishing frequent papers accusing Israel of genocide, which are seized upon anti-Israeli figures such as UN Rapporteur Francesca Albanese. (For some anti-Israel LIGP works-see here.)
Lemkin's relatives and the EJA argue that the organization never sought permission to use Raphael Lemkin's name and that the choice creates the false impression that its positions reflect his legacy.
Indeed, Lemkin’s work — including coining the term "genocide" — focused on the archetypal instance of genocide — the Holocaust — while the Nazi genocide and the events in Gaza could be more different.
Truth Turned on Its Head
While the Nazis slaughtered their unarmed citizens who had no a-priori intention of destroying the German state, merely because of their ethno-religious identity, Israel, after decades of intermittent attacks by Hamas, was subjected to an unprovoked assault, in which 1200-1400 of its citizens were murdered/mutilated — and which was widely supported by a majority of Palestinians in Gaza and Judea-Samaria.
Netanyahu tersely conveyed the absurdity of the anti-Israeli recriminations, "The truth has been turned on its head. Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization whose charter calls for the murder of all Jews on the planet… is given a pass."
So true. So sad.
Dr. Martin Sherman spent seven years in operational capacities in the Israeli defense establishment. He's the founder of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a member of the Habithonistim-Israel Defense & Security Forum (IDSF) research team, and a participant in the Israel Victory Project. Read Dr. Sherman's Reports — More Here.
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