Mayor Mamdani seems to be a good man trying to do good things for New York. But his recent pledge, since revoked for lack of enforcement power, to arrest Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, if he steps foot in New York, smacks of antisemitism — something many on the far left and far right are embracing.
Here’s what the Mayor said.
“Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large. While we cannot end the genocide on our own, we can decide whether our silence will become another weapon, and we can examine every tool we have to defend the humanity and dignity of all people.”
Maybe I’m missing something, but is the mayor of New York supposed to be determining US foreign policy? Does his job description include upholding foreign indictments by courts, in this case, the International Criminal Court, that the United States doesn’t recognize? Does he think an indictment is a conviction? If not, why is he proclaiming Netanyahu a “war criminal”. And why is he declaring that Israel is conducting genocide? Neither the International Criminal Court nor the International Court of Justice has done so?
His answer, surely, is that a purported, by the Gaza Health Ministry, 73,000 Palestinians have died as part of Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas — a war that Hamas started and a war that Hamas can instantly end by laying down its arms and vacating Gaza. From what I can tell, Mamdani has not threatened to arrest Hamas officials if they come to the Big Apple. Nor has he accused Hamas of committing war crimes, let alone genocide against Palestinians by, for example, fighting from hospitals.
The death of a single innocent Palestinian is a tragedy. Seventy-three thousand innocent deaths, if the count is correct and all the deceased were innocent, is 73,000 tragedies. But Israel claims to have killed 22,000 Hamas militants. If we put these two unsubstantiated numbers together, the war has claimed the lives of 51,000 innocent civilians of which 21,000 are purported to be children — all horrific tragedies.
Fifty-one thousand innocent civilians is close to the purported tens of thousands of civilians Russia has killed in its war on Ukraine. But it’s far less than the over 250,000 civilians killed by our country in our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the 250,000 civilian-death total is likely far less than the number of civilians we killed in Vietnam. Then there’s WWII, in which US bombing appears to have killed up to 1 million Japanese and German civilians and British bombing appears to have killed some 100,000 German civilians.
I don’t recall Roosevelt being accused of genocide after he ordered the firebombing of Tokyo and 59 other Japanese cities.
I don’t recall Churchill being accused of genocide after he approved firebombing of some 30 German cities including Dresden.
Is Russia committing genocide in Ukraine? The Mayor hasn’t said.
Did the US commit genocide in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Japan, and Germany? The mayor has yet to say.
I don’t recall Fiorello H. La Guardia, mayor of New York in August 1945, using a press briefing about city business to accuse President Harry Truman of being a war criminal and committing genocide the day, month, or year after the killing of over 200,000 innocent people in a matter of seconds in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Mayor Mamdani might want to weigh in to set the record straight. Was Truman a war criminal and did he commit genocide?
But to be fair, the mayor is not an expert on genocide?
Who is?
Omer Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University. His July 22nd NY Times op ed, “I’m a Scholar of Genocide. We’re Entering a Terrifying New Era.” includes this statement,
“… as a scholar of genocide, I believe this was a concerted attempt to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza, in whole or in part, and that the operation therefore reached the high bar of the 1948 Genocide Convention’s definition of this crime.”
To my knowledge, Professor Bartov has not accused the US of committing genocide in WWII. Three nights, two bombs, 200,000 plus people dead. One night’s firebombing of Dresden — upwards of 100,000 people dead. One night’s firebombing of Tokyo — upwards of 100,000 people dead.
But they weren’t, as far as I can tell, genocides according to the professor’s expert belief. Nor were our wars in Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan.
What about the Islamic Revolutionary Guard’s recent murder of perhaps 30,000 innocent protesters — over the course of a few days? Does that rise to genocide according to the mayor and Professor Bartov?
To my knowledge, Professor Bartov has not said he believes our forefathers, particularly President Andrew Jackson, committed genocide against Native Americans.
Maybe we should check the dictionary for the definition of genocide.
Here are five definitions.
Dictionary.com defines genocide as the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group. dictionary
*I am not a scholar of the holocaust or a genocide expert, but I don’t believe Israel’s war with Hamas comes close to a deliberate and systematic extermination of today’s 15.5 million Palestinians. *
Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries defines it as the murder of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group, with the aim of destroying that nation or group. oxfordlearnersdictionaries
*I am not a scholar of the holocaust or a genocide expert, but I don’t believe that Israel arranged to be attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023 in order to destroy 15.5 million Palestinians. If it did, we’d be seeing mass extermination of Palestinians in the West Bank. *
Cambridge defines genocide as the crime of intentionally destroying part or all of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, by killing people or by other methods. dictionary.cambridge
*I am not a scholar of the holocaust or a genocide expert, but I don’t believe that Israel intentionally arranged to be attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023 to kill a purported 51,000 Palestinian civilians. *
Britannica defines genocide as the deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people because of ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race. britannica
*I am not a scholar of the holocaust or a genocide expert, but I don’t believe that Israel has engaged in deliberate or systematic destruction of 15.5 million people in fighting Hamas. *
Collins defines genocide as the deliberate murder of a whole community or race, or the systematic killing of a whole national or ethnic group.
*I am not a scholar of the holocaust or a genocide expert, but I don’t believe that Israel has deliberately murdered the whole community of 15.5 Palestinians. *
Since Beliefs Have Risen to Journalism, Here Are Some of Mine
I don’t believe that Roosevelt, Churchill, or Truman committed genocide.
I don’t believe the NY Mayor should be grandstanding to enhance his political credentials.
I believe the only solution for Israel and the Palestinians is a two-state solution.
I believe that the path to a two-state solution for Palestinians is nonviolence.
I believe Hamas is a terrorist organization that needs to be destroyed once and for all.
I believe that Hamas’ destruction is a sine qua non for a two-state solution.
I believe that there are many Israelis who want to occupy and evict all Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.
I believe that there are many Palestinians who want to evict all Jews from Israel and that “From the River to the Sea” is code for doing so.
I believe that a very small segment of white Americans would approve exterminating all black Americans, Jews, and other minorities. I believe a very small segment of Israelis would approve exterminating all Palestinians. I believe a very small segment of Palestinians would approved exterminating all Israeli Jews.
I believe that the vast majority of Israelis would be thrilled with a two-state solution that does not involve an armed, hostile Palestinian state that seeks its destruction.
I believe that we are in an existential war with Iran and its three terrorist proxies.
I believe our allies should come to our immediate assistance in fighting Iran. Their future is equally at stake.
I don’t believe Israel is committing or has committed genocide. Nor do I believe Hamas is committing or has committed genocide.
I believe war crimes have been committed by both Israel and Hamas.
I believe accusing Israel of genocide is engaging, whether intentionally or not, in antisemitism. Anyone claiming that Israel could have fought Hamas with far fewer casualties, starting with Mayor Mamdani and Professor Bartov, needs to make and prove that case.
I believe that anyone who accuses Israel of genocide is knowingly or unknowingly engaging in antisemitism — by holding Israel to a far higher standard than anyone has held the US and our allies, let alone Russia.
I believe that accusing Jews of deliberately and systematically killing innocents is part of a practice, called the blood libel, that dates to 1144.
I believe Mayor Mamdani should watch this short documentary on the history of the blood libel.
I believe the NY Times should publish primarily fact-based, not primarily belief-based commentary — commentary that’s informative, not a veiled antisemitic, left-wing political rant.
I believe you know genocide when you see it — master plans and organizations assigned for its enactment, industrial-scale extermination camps, the use of 30,000 box cars to transport 3,000,000 people to their deaths, the building of gas chambers, the organization of mass shootings, death marches of entire populations, etc.
I believe use of the word genocide needs to be restricted to unambiguous efforts to annihilate a whole tribal, racial, national, or ethnic group.
I believe that Mayor Mamdani should visit Auschwitz and see what he’s talking about.
