‘Gazacaust,’ Hamas and the ISIS Proxy

Statements like the reference to ‘Gazacaust’ by a Belgian physician this past July may or may not be driven by personal anti-Semitism. It does, however and at the minimum, actively feed into a larger anti-Semitic feeding frenzy and sweeping accusations towards Israel and, with this, all Jews regardless of where they call home.

References like ‘Gazacaust’ also simultaneously misrepresent, are incorrect and not at all responsive to what is actually happening in Israel, Gaza and the Middle East. For one, such cheap and deliberately inflammatory rhetoric overlooks the very key point that Hamas has been far more systematically brutal, far more indifferent to its own citizens than Israel has ever or ever would be.

The irresponsible and incorrect reference to ‘Gazacaust’ also denies the fact that Hamas continues to spend huge amounts of cash on murder tunnels, missiles and other strategies of destruction focused on Israel while damning to misery its own citizens every single day.

Rather than proclaiming a ‘Gazacaust,’ a much better point to start would be writing directly to Hamas – or show up in person in Gaza – to ask them to first support their own; to support the citizens of Gaza. Then see what would happen next. In fact, an argument can easily be made that the citizens of Gaza would be far safer and stable would Israel have maintained primary control over Gaza.

Another question is whether he who referenced ‘Gazacaust’ along with those other socio-politically like minded individuals and groups have called on Hamas to stop building ‘murder tunnels;’ to stop sending random missiles and mortar fire at Israel from between apartment buildings seeking Israeli return fire on its own citizens while the attackers, themselves, clear out of the area.

How many of those so worried about Palestinian autonomy and Gaza in particular have demanded that Hamas disavow and rewrite their basic Charter which calls for the murder of Jews anywhere; the ethnic cleansing of all Israeli Jews and Hamas’ domination of the land now called Israel?

How many think that might be more directly helpful to the future of all Palestinians and Israelis, alike? Or, instead, how many actually and actively support the key objectives as identified in the Hamas Charter? I say this not as an accusation but as a question.

If Hamas and its colleagues in death, sustained misery and impoverishment had the capacity to recognize Israel; to recognize that Israelis also have a right to live in a secure peace and would revoke its Charter calling for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel, Israeli interactions with Hamas and Gaza would predictably become quite different overnight. Gaza and the deeply fractured Palestinian leadership would most certainly also have a much stronger bargaining position, too.

Certainly some of those proclaiming ‘Gazacaust’ and similarly histrionic and inflammatory rhetoric are virulent anti-Semites. At the least, however, they are collectively providing dramatically incorrect information towards still further warping a reality already deeply warped. These individuals, knowingly or not, are also directly inciting and colluding with continued destruction.

Proclaiming Israel at fault for a ‘Gazacaust’ does not support Gaza or the Palestinian cause in the least but brings, in reality, further degradation, sustained suffering and outright failure. Such histrionic, self aggrandizing and inflammatory rhetoric further hurts and compromises the Palestinian cause.

There has also been extensive and ongoing analysis from within the Arab world and the West alike which has established that the wave of anti-Semitism and very especially the dramatic uptick in both direct field recruitment by and ‘freelance’ operatives aligning themselves with militarized Islamist groups as ISIS have a direct correlate to young men living under brutal, freedom sucking and repressive autocratic Arab regimes.

Even as using Islam and Israel together make for a relevant aside and and effective distractions, many of these recruits are fighting even more directly against their own history; their own corrupt and brutal Arab state rulers. ISIS’ attention to Israel and the West is almost more peripheral to its actions on the ground while serving as active and effective components of its rather sophisticated media, recruitment and self funding campaign.

ISIS’ real and day to day threat and assaults are focused on Arabs and Arab nations. This, along with an evolving hypothesis that ISIS may more be a funding point for small, remarkably wealthy extremist cells among the Arab and Middle Eastern world with whom ISIS then ‘contracts’ to act as their proxy in atrocity and brutality towards weakening selected Arab states in order to effect political and religious control by the funding cells themselves.

While the globe is distracted by shouts of ‘Gazacaust,’ the ISIS criminal paramilitary proxy gang then has far more freedom to operate and embed.

The cold reality which shouts of ‘Gazacaust’ and false accusations of Israeli ‘genocide’ of Palestinians conveniently overlook and/or ignores outright is that ISIS and like minded groups to very much include Hamas have killed and/or brutalized their own far into the tens of thousands and that this is a number growing larger each day which Israel, America and the West combined could never touch.

Those truly concerned about Palestinian Arabs need to differently prioritize and look at a much more comprehensive set of issues. While the internalized sentiments of those shouting ‘Gazacaust,’ similarly inciting and deliberately inflammatory misinformation may be debated, such uninformed, blatantly incorrect and specifically Jewish targeted references without question are directly contributing to the rise of both global and European anti-Semitism.

Israel carries its own responsibility and culpabilities. I do not support the current Israeli government, the ongoing occupation of the Territories or the persisting power of the Israeli settlement movements. But Israeli actions towards Gaza and the Territories doesn’t even come close to the carnage and outright hell being promulgated by either Militarized Islam towards global/religious Islam or by Hamas to its own citizens.

Those shouting ‘Gazacaust’ or of Israeli ‘genocide’ towards Palestinians would be far better served to refocus; to consider the realities on the ground and the multiply confounding variables at play.

References to a ‘Gazacaust’ are not only absurdly inaccurate but also and only greatly sustains the suffering of those same Palestinian and Arab groups such commenters pretend to be supporting by giving cover to and distraction from the degradations visited by Hamas, Hezbollah, autocratic Arab regimes, ISIS and others on their own each and every day.

About the Author
I was born in Baltimore, MD and have since had a wide range of experiences including a year plus in Israel. I've been a progressive organizer, writer/media spokesperson, coordinator and freelance. I am a PhD level Clinical Behavioral Analyst specializing in severe behavioral need in children (and adults) and their families. I write through no ‘agenda or special interest’ other than being a passionate supporter of Israel and Israel's future.