The genocide lie: An unconventional weapon of mass destruction

The article, an opinion piece by Michal Cotler-Wunsh, contends that the accusation of genocide against Israel is a deliberate and destructive falsehood. The author asserts that this accusation functions as an "unconventional weapon of mass destruction" within a playbook of "progressive antisemitism."

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Hamas, a genocidal terror proxy of the criminal Islamic Regime in Iran, must disarm; 251 kidnapped human beings, including Holocaust survivors and children taken and held in standing violation of law and morality, must be returned; and perpetrators who infiltrated Israel to butcher, rape, burn alive, and abduct hundreds must face international justice.

The piece contrasts the international community's response to the October 7 massacre with what the author believes should have been an immediate and unequivocal condemnation of Hamas and a demand for the return of hostages. Instead, the author claims, the world responded with silence, denial, justification, and attacks on Jews and Israel.

Cotler-Wunsh defines genocide according to Raphael Lemkin and the 1948 Genocide Convention, emphasizing that the "intent to destroy" is the legal core of the crime. The author argues that this legal definition has been deliberately distorted and weaponized to demonize Israel, creating a double standard and fueling a conspiratorial lie that facilitates antisemitism.

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Instead, history will recall responses of silence, denial, justification, and attacks on Jews and the Jewish nation-state beginning on October 8.

The article criticizes the use of Gaza's civilians and infrastructure as human shields by Hamas, and calls for accountability for those who fund and support the organization, rather than being seen as "honest brokers."

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It will recall the unleashing of an unconventional weapon of mass destruction, the ultimate lie in the “progressive” antisemitism playbook: accusing Israel of genocide, even as it defended itself against Hamas’s pre-meditated war crimes and crimes against humanity to fulfill its openly declared genocidal intent.

Ultimately, the author posits that the "genocide lie" is a tool used by terror and tyranny to achieve their aim of destroying Israel, and that this lie is a potent form of antisemitism.

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That “intent” is not a technicality. It is the legal distinction between genocide and other crimes.