Former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan believes the U.S. is an “active participant” in the “genocide” happening in Gaza.
“I would argue that what we have witnessed in Gaza from the US government is worse than complicity. It is active participation in an ongoing genocide,” Hasan writes in The Guardian.
“There are also genocide enablers in the liberal media. Those who repeatedly insist Israelis have a right to defend themselves while never asking whether Palestinians do.”
Um…Palestinians are, in fact, defending themselves by enabling an armed terrorist group in charge of the government to kill Israelis. That’s how this entire mess got started in the first place.
It hardly matters. The key to Hasan’s critique of U.S.-Israel policy is the unchallenged notion that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza in the first place.
Hasan goes to great pains to enlighten his readers that all the “international experts” and presumably all the smart people say that Israel is committing genocide.
“The debate over whether or not Gaza is a genocide is, effectively, over. So can we now also stop pretending that we are mere bystanders to this genocide?” Hasan writes.
The link is to a list of U.S. politicians, nations, human rights organizations, genocide scholars, and others on Hasan’s Substack page who agree that there’s genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza.
The definition of genocide has “evolved” over the years so that it can fit circumstances unforeseen by the 1948 Genocide Convention, which first defined the term. Fair enough. But what if that definition has “evolved” not as a matter of circumstance but as a matter of politics?
The “legal definition” of genocide depends on the context. Other than the legal definition, there are three ways to conceptualise genocide: in academic social science, in international politics and policy, and in colloquial public usage. What connects those conceptualizations is the question of “intent to destroy.” Destruction of physical structures, destruction of people, destruction of a culture; these are all examples of the “intent to destroy” qualification for genocide.
So how’s Israel doing in its campaign of genocide against Gazans?
“For an act to be classified as genocide (under the Genocide Convention), it is essential to demonstrate that the perpetrators had a deliberate and specific aim (dolus specialis) to physically destroy the group based on its real or perceived nationality, ethnicity, race, or religion,” according to the United Nations.
If so many can agree that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza, do they also agree that Israel is doing an incredibly incompetent job of carrying it out? This is a nation that blew up a thousand terrorists using damn cell phones, for god’s sake. They can’t do any better than killing a few dozen Gazans standing around waiting for food?
This is what soldiers call “a target-rich environment.”
🚨BREAKING: A humanitarian coordinator in central Gaza tells Drop Site that the newly opened U.S.-backed distribution centers, guarded on the perimeter by Israeli forces, are being used to detain civilians.
One elderly man was interrogated at the Muraj Crossing. After he failed… https://t.co/waWrbz5yDH pic.twitter.com/nXory8CHfy
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) May 27, 2025
Where are the Israeli jets bombing and strafing the crowds of innocent civilians? What kind of half-assed “genocide” is this?
According to the Hamas propaganda arm, the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 60,000 Gazans have been killed since the war began 22 months ago. How many tens of thousands of those were Hamas fighters is a number that the Gaza Health Ministry forgets to mention during every press briefing.
And this is the best the Israelis can do? Where’s the “intent to destroy”? The Israelis can’t even do starvation right. If they were going to kill every Palestinian, why bother feeding them at all? There are 2.3 million Gazans still to kill, and if you’re the government of Israel, you’re making incredibly slow progress in achieving your goal of genocide of the Palestinians.
According to a Bloomberg story using satellite maps, 140,000 buildings in Gaza are still standing. That’s 40% of Gaza still intact. And this is the vaunted Israeli military? Where’s the “intent to destroy”?
The fact is, any evidence that shows Israel is NOT fighting with “an intent to destroy” is glossed over to highlight the unbearable tragedy of Palestinians in Gaza. Mr. Hasan thinks we’re “pretending” that there’s no genocide in Gaza. e’s pretending there’s only one side to this war, and that the furry kittens in Hamas bear no responsibility for hiding behind women and children to provoke exactly the response from brainless antisemites like Hasan that absolves them of starting the war.
In the broadest sense, Israel and Hamas are both committing war crimes. But Israel has spent its entire 77-year existence with a knife at its throat held by genocidal fanatics who want every Israeli Jew dead. No other nation on earth has been so threatened.
Stop using words like “genocide” unless they apply.
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