There is a difference between the heartbreaking fact of too many civilian deaths and the extermination of a category of people for no other reason than that they belong to that category.
It may seem harsh to say, but there is a glaring dissonance to the charge that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. To wit: If the Israeli government’s intentions and actions are truly genocidal – if it is so malevolent that it is committed to the annihilation of Palestinians – why hasn’t it been more methodical and vastly more deadly?
Why not, say, hundreds of thousands of deaths, as opposed to the nearly 60,000 that Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatant and civilian deaths, has cited so far in nearly two years of war?
Loading...
Bret Stephens is a columnist for The New York Times.
