Comparing Israel with the Nazis, Holocaust and genocide is outrageous

Brazil’s President Lula has likened Israel’s war in Gaza to the Holocaust:

“What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has no parallel in other historical moments. In fact, it did exist when Hitler decided to kill the Jews,” Lula told reporters during the 37th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem said it would summon the Brazilian ambassador for a reprimand over the remarks, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as “disgraceful and grave”.

Outrageous. 

Lula is just an idiot – a complete ignoramus. 

But, in other contexts, I would argue that this jibe would be a nasty antisemitic slur. It seeks to align the Jewish state – as the successors of the Holocaust’s victims – into the perpetrators of a second Holocaust. This is not only ahistorical and ignorant – it is also very disrespectful to Israeli’s legacy and Jews. In fact, I think it is venomously antisemitic. It amounts to accusing the Jews & Israelis of serving as Hitler’s willing executioners!

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Part 1 – Why is the comparison wrong?

Because what matters is both the scale and especially the intent, and reserving the term ‘genocide’ for genuine genocidal acts. 

The Nazis killed around 65% of European Jewry, and about 40% of all Jews in the world. During a two-day period at Babi Yar, approximately the same number of Jews – compared to the number of Gazans killed over 4 months in a given combat zone – were corralled, stripped naked, laid down in rows along a 500ft ravine, and shot in the neck. Survivors were buried alive. The Nazis deliberately sought to kill as many civilians as possible such that they built dedicated murder camps to make it more efficient and effective. 

With respect to Israel and the IDF – and any comparisons to Nazis, Holocaust or genocide etc. – the critical and obvious difference is that the Hamas attack (Oct 7) was trying to intentionally kill civilians. Israel is retaliating against this barbaric enemy, who uses human shields. They are not even remotely the same. There is an obvious and gigantic consequential moral difference between Israel and her enemies. Israel is surrounded by religious fanatics who have explicitly genocidal intentions towards Israelis. The charter of Hamas makes genocide – against the Jews – explicit.

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Part 2 – A brief note in defence of Israel

People will look at this conflict and say: “my gosh … the IDF are hitting civilian targets …”.

Hamas have been using human shields with the object of mixing legitimate targets with civilian ones – as they always have. But, the Geneva conventions have always forbidden deploying military (defensive or aggressive) installations under civilian areas. It is against the historic rules of war for any government to build bunkers under any civilian areas – with the calculated understanding that any attempts to target their military forces will engender huge civilian casualties. They even used a hospital (the Al-Shifa hospital) as their base of command. That is sick.

What is Israel to do under the circumstances? 

Some 134 Israeli citizens – who were kidnapped as hostages and dragged back, like a Viking raid – remain captive by these maniacs. Hamas could have released them, if they were concerned about the Gaza death-toll. But they obviously are not concerned. In fact, the civilian deaths are the desired military object of Hamas. Hamas makes it necessary for Israel to kill Gaza non-combatants to destroy their enemy. In so doing, they can – through international pressure – seek to compel Israel to ‘negotiate’ (presumably) on Hamas’s own terms. After all, Hamas are holding they key bargaining chips, namely the hostages. 

The calculus is that if the human cost becomes so high, international pressure will be increased on Israel. So, the only way Hamas can “win” is if Israel becomes isolated diplomatically and internationally from materials and weapons purchases, and aid. But, if Israel were to accede to that, it would establish a precedent that if you want to change Israeli policy, then go and invade their country: behead, murder and rape their civilians, uploading these videos online, and kidnap as many innocent people as possible. 

The IDF cannot put boots on ground in any area of civilian population. This would be urban warfare. The key personnel with any serious power in all organisations in Gaza have been vetted by Hamas. They do what Hamas orders - including stealing food & diverting medical aid to prioritise Hamas operatives over the civilian population. In many ways, it reminds me of Stalin. He was able to use the vast populations of Russia to act as fodder against the Nazis. And, of course, Hamas doesn’t wear military insignia and uniforms – as required under the Geneva conventions. They blend in with the civilian population to make it impossible to tell who is Hamas. 

Hamas cannot take on the might of the IDF in any open battlefield. They have to rely on the moral calculus of people around the world getting outraged at the death-toll. War involves the breakdown of values. But we shouldn’t lose perspective here. Israel is a liberal democracy. They engage in warfare according to the rules of war. Israel could completely obliterate the Gaza strip at any moment, if they want – but they clearly don’t want to do that. But, if Hamas could; we all know they would (as is literally carved in their Hamas charter).

And, more importantly, release the Israeli hostages.

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Update: this came in the post recently:

The irony of a war between a people with the means to commit genocide but not the desire; versus people with the desire to commit genocide but not the means.