Let me first state that the attack perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 was wrong. It was heinous and itself a war crime. I express zero sympathy for an organization that openly calls for the slaughter of innocent people because of their ethnicity and religion. As many have said before, this attack has no justification. Anyone who would seek to justify these acts should sit with themselves and have a moment of deep introspection.
This being said, I caution all to not view this attack in a vacuum. Like every other uptick in war between Israel and Hamas, it must be viewed in the appropriate context — 75 years of shared history. In the aftermath of the attack, American and Israeli public officials have been seen calling for what amounts to genocide of the Palestinian people. Throughout this article, I will focus on American politicians. Normally I would give no credence to these comments, but as the bodies of Palestinian children continue to pile up, their pictures flooding my X and Instagram timelines, I believe these statements might be becoming reality. As reported by numerous news organizations, Senator Lindsey Graham was quoted as saying “We’re in a religious war here. I am with Israel. Do whatever the hell you have to do to defend yourself. Level the place.” If you thought that was bad, wait for this: earlier in that interview, Graham said “Gaza is going to look like Tokyo and Berlin at the end of World War II when this is over, and if it doesn’t look that way, Israel made a mistake. I expect Gaza to be occupied by the Israelis for years to come.” Under the United Nations Convention, genocide is characterized both physically and mentally. For the mental element, there must be an “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” followed by the physical element of which there are five, but the first two are clear and present: killing members of the group and causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group. While this is true for any war, when paired with the language of Senator Graham, a member of the Appropriation Committee that oversees defense spending, it raises genuine concerns. On Oct. 13, 2023, Graham did try to walk back his previous comment, but he spoke his truth the first time.
On a similar note, Representative Max Miller of Ohio said in an Oct. 13
Fox News
interview that “Israel needs to take the gloves off, murder is murder and terrorism is terrorism, turn the place into a parking lot. I believe Israel will get a lot bigger, not smaller.” This falls in line with what was said in another
Fox News
interview a few days prior. Representative Brian Mast of Florida said, “in a couple of days or even in a couple of weeks, you’re going to have Palestinians put up pictures of what they will say are civilians even though they targeted civilians…We need to support Israel until the body count is 5,000, 10,000, 15,000, whatever it is until they kill every last terrorist.” With this, we see a common right-wing conflation between being Palestinian and supporting Hamas terrorism. Back when Hamas gained power in 2006, 50 percent of Palestinians were children. Just like we do not hold Americans responsible for the actions of our national government and the Israeli people responsible for their own government’s actions, we must do the same with Palestinians. Furthermore, Palestinians have not had an election since 2006, so a change in government is out of the picture. In other words, the current government in power, who is a main target of Israeli airstrikes, is illegitimate.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in yet another
Fox News
interview that “it [Gaza] all has to end up looking like Hamburg or Dresden or Tokyo at the end of World War II. What they have to do is allow everybody who is a civilian to leave and basically build places in the desert as refugee centers long enough to clean out Gaza, track down every single Hamas member, and not allow powerful people back in. But, if people refuse to leave, they’re in effect siding with Hamas, and then they are going to suffer the consequences of siding with Hamas.” Upon closer inspection of the war, this seems to be what is happening as Israel continues to launch air strikes that have killed over 6,000 Palestinian civilians so far. If these comments made by Republican politicians are taken seriously by Israeli officials, it will amount to genocide.
Wrong is wrong. When I was a child, my mother and countless adults instilled in me that two wrongs do not make a right. In most cases, I still had to learn that the hard way. It is easy to condemn Hamas when it calls for the total annihilation of Jews, but can we all do the same with American officials who call for the extermination of Palestinians?
