Mr Kerry: The problem isn’t Israel; it’s PA genocide

Once again, US Secretary of State John Kerry demonizes Israel (Matthew Lee,  “Kerry warns Israel about collapse of Palestinian Authority”, Associated Press, December 5, 2015). This time, he doesn’t just blame Israel for a lack of peace between Jews and Arabs. He blames Israel for the possible collapse of the Palestinian Authority (PA) (ibid).

If Kerry wants peace, he should promote Israel, not blame Israel. Kerry’s blame-game against Israel doesn’t support peace. It strengthens the PA’s resolve to resist peace.

Kerry’s anti-Israelism is counter-productive. It doesn’t make peace possible. It makes genocide possible.

Kerry ignores three truths: (1) The PA has a genocide agenda. (2) Genocide never brings peace. (3) Blaming the intended victim of genocide for ‘no peace’ only supports the genocide—and pushes peace farther away.

If you believe the PA is not obsessed with genocide, you’re ignoring PA Arab news sites. Those Arabic-only sites tell the truth. The PA has a genocide agenda for Israel, not a peace agenda. 

If you can’t read Arabic, visit the websites, MEMRI, and Palestinian Media Watch. Those sites bring you (in translation) what the PA tells its Arab audience.

The headlines you’ll see in a moment don’t cover a broad period. But they are completely consistent with the kind of headlines the PA regularly presents in Arabic about Jews and Israel.

As you look at these headlines, you’ll need to think about the definition of ‘genocide’. As defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, genocide includes:

Article II: …genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Article III: The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide.

Article IV: Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals [emphasis mine].

These statements tell you that genocide is about destroying or harming members of ‘a group’ precisely because individuals belong to that group. In this instance, that ‘group’ is Jews, who are called by the PA ‘Zionists’, ‘settlers’ and ‘Israelis’.

Remember, it’s not genocide to call, for example, for ‘the arrest of those responsible for this heinous murder’. But it is genocide to call for the killing of ‘Zionists’, Jews, settlers and ‘Israelis’ [all members of a group]—or to honour those who kill ‘Zionists’, settlers, etc.

That’s genocide because ‘Zionists’, Israelis, settlers and ‘Jews’ are not identified as individuals who have committed a crime; they have no individual identity. Instead, they are members of a group whom you want to destroy or incite others to destroy.

You should also keep in mind that there is a relationship between genocide and demonization/dehumanization. Genocide against a hated group doesn’t happen in a vacuum (Itamar Marcus, “The Genocide Mechanism”, Jerusalem Post, April 26, 2009). The hate of a population anxious to commit genocide against others needs to be stoked and nurtured (ibid). The PA uses its media, education system and clergy to complete that ‘stoking’ and nurturing process.

See if you can understand how these PA headlines below prepare its population to be comfortable with genocide:

-November 23, 2015: “PA daily: School football tournament named after 13-year-old terrorist who stabbed and nearly killed a 13-year-old Israeli boy”, Palestinian Media Watch.

-November 18, 2015: “Terrorists who butchered 5 rabbis exemplified the meaning of heroism for the homeland... [They] died as Martyrs on the path of honor", ibid.

-November 18, 2015: “Fatah: All Israelis are Nazis; a Fatah official: There is no difference between Netanyahu and Hitler”, ibid.

November 19, 2015: “The PA's [ideal of the] moral murder: Kill the [Jewish] parents, spare the children”, ibid).

-November 22, 2015: “Girl's hate speech on PA TV: Our enemy, Zion, is Satan with a tail” (ibid).

-November 14, 2015: “PLO official: Terrorist murderer of 2 is a role model for generations of young”, ibid.

-December 4, 2015: “Abbas’ Fatah honors heroic killer of 11 Zionists”, ibid.

-December 3, 2015: “PA: Killing Israelis is good, but must choose place and time so world accepts it”, ibid.

-November 2, 2015: “Palestinian football tournament named after murderer ‎who stabbed two to death”, ibid.

-October 6, 2015: “Fatah officials: Killing ‘settlers’ is legal and ‘national duty’, ibid.

-November 14, 2015: “Fatah: Israel breeds violence in the entire ‎world”, ibid.

-July 31, 2015: “‎Jews paid doctors to create and spread diseases because 95% of the pharmaceutical industry is owned by Jews, according to Islamic preacher”, ibid.

-November 16, 2015: “Fatah cartoon compares Jews to ISIS”, ibid.

-November 9, 2015: “Fatah official: Israel is barbaric, fascist, has aggressive plots in Jerusalem, says gangs of settlers are running wild and causing devastating corruption everywhere”, ibid.

-November 1, 2015: “Fatah spokesman: Jews are sons of apes and pigs", ibid.

-November 17, 2015: “PA daily: Palestinian Ambassador claimed Israel steals the Martyrs’ organs”, ibid.  

This incessant stream of unalloyed hate knows no limit. It’s an insult to Israel for Kerry to declare that both sides here ‘hurl invective at each other on a daily basis’ (Matthew Lee, above). 

There is simply nothing like this genocidal hate from Israel. This flow of hate is all one-sided.

These headlines, found by Palestinian Media Watch, reflect just some of the PA’s public record. That record is viciously anti-Semitic. That record incites for genocide against Jews.

If John Kerry wants peace in this region between Arabs and Jews, he should address that genocide. If he doesn’t do that, he’s either incompetent, an anti-Israel ‘Palestinian’ advocate or an outright anti-Semite—or some combination of all three.