NOTE: The following comments below are an online response from various New York Times readers to the utterly despicable “opinion article” that the habitually arrogant, perpetually reactionary, and deeply fulla shit Bret Stephens wrote today in the Times…By the way I agree 100% with these readers and not Bret. Genocide is not merely “a controversial word in need of a reliable definition” by some willfully clueless opinion writer anymore than “mass murder” is something that can be simply quantified and thus “defined” by someone speculating about just how many deaths exactly incurred by murder should be considered “mass.” Think about it…or rather please don’t…
The braindead article by Bret Stephens appears directly below following these comments:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/opinion/no-israel-is-not-committing-genocide-in-gaza.html
K
United States
8h ago
When will it be genocide? When the entirety of the Gaza strip is in Israeli control? When Palestinian communities have been completely supplanted be Israeli settlers in the West Bank? If 60,000 isn't enough deaths, would 600,000 be enough? Will Brett please take a stab at setting minimum parameters for when we can finally declare a genocide? Or will he just keep moving the goalposts?
Please stop. Accusing me of antisemitism simply because I am aware of the horrific violence that Israel is committing against innocent civilians? That 60% of fatalities are women and children? That they now inflict starvation? That they shoot innocent people intentionally? Is it not appropriate to be disgusted, gut-sickened, burdened by the genocide? Genocide it is, according to: Amnesty International United Nations (special committee) Doctors Without Borders Human Rights Watch "... Most Scholars of genocide by now and Scholars of international law agree that what we are seeing in Gaza now is genocide." —NBC News, June 19, 2025 Calling this antisemitic is to identify Judaism with God-forsaken violence. Be careful how you sling your labels!
Timothy J Randall commented 8 hours ago
Timothy J Randall
N. Smithfield, RI
8h ago
Hey Brett, do me a favor. There's a co-worker of yours here at the Times you may or may not have met but my advice- go seek him out and have a talk because it appears to me you're truly missing the point on this 🤷♂️ "...the systematic destruction in Gaza not only of housing but also of other infrastructure — government buildings, hospitals, universities, schools, mosques, cultural heritage sites, water treatment plants, agriculture areas, and parks — reflects a policy aimed at making the revival of Palestinian life in the territory highly unlikely" That's just one small anecdote. He's a professor from Brown and that was published on July 15. He might be just down the hall from you right now as we speak🤷♂️🤷♂️🙏🙏
Jay T, commented 8 hours ago
J
Jay T,
Texas8h ago
Bret You are so off base on this topic. Israel may well not be committing Genocide but Bibi Netanyahu surely is. He knows that as long as war exists, he can avoid going on trial for actions that will lock him up for a long time so what does he have to lose by continuing to kill starving people in Gaza??
Tracy commented 8 hours ago
T
Tracy
Virginia
8h ago
If your standard for genocide is volume and efficiency, then I guess anything less than 6 million people murdered with German engineered precision is an acceptable loss of life.
Johninnapa commented 8 hours ago
J
Johninnapa
Napa, Ca
8h ago
The idea that indiscriminate intentional killing of civilians, women and children is NOT genocide because it could always be worse is ridiculous. Just as the IDF theoretically could easily decimate Gazans should it choose to do so, they should be able to prosecute the war on Hamas without killing 60,000 civilians. Gone full MAGA eh Bret?
Stujones commented 8 hours ago
S
Stujones
North Carolina’s
8h ago
The opinion writer thinks it’s ok for even 60,000 people to be killed and a country destroyed. It’s ok for food to not get to starving children and hospitals to be bombed according to the writer. The loss of one innocent life is one too many. War is nothing other than hate by one side against the other. Israel leaders made peace with Egypt by talking not killing. Hamas is evil. But Israel is looking no different. Its leader is a man who is full of evil and hate. And one day, he will need to answer why Israel with such good intelligence wasn’t able to pick up a planned October terrorist attack. .
Private Citizen AU commented 8 hours ago
Private Citizen AU
Sydney, Australia
8h ago
This denial is exactly why 125 Nations created the International Criminal Court. Destroyed water supply for 2.5 million people - day one Stopped 750 food trucks daily - day one Intentionally attacking of hospitals with precision ordinance. Israel proves South Africas ICC complaint daily. Repeated disregard for civilian casualties. Then there will be the millions affected by concrete dust poisoning. Something New Yorkers should appreciate after the collapse of the Twin towers. Israel complains that we should compare them against the horrors of Hamas, but I am holding them to the same standards that led us to impose sanctions on Russia for its nearly identical behaviour in the Ukraine. So maybe its not genocide completely so we could go back and rewrite the Holocaust - as it was not genocide if they dont succeed completely.
Chin C commented 8 hours ago
C
Chin C
HK
8h ago
And Trump was not responsible for J6….. Sometimes we just don’t need a pundit or so called expert to tell us what we are clearly watching on tv or news…. While the IDF has outperformed any prior expectations against a whole host of dangerous enemies (of course, with America’s help), I wonder if the continued slaughter of innocents in Gaza is actually bringing more risk and harm to Jews around the world.
mvw commented 8 hours ago
m
mvw
Pittsburgh, PA8h ago
Jesus. A decade from now I would hate to be the guy who defended a genocide that the whole world has watched happen.
Catherine Maddux commented 8 hours ago
C
Catherine Maddux
Virginia
8h ago
Mr. Stephens: This reads like a cold Oxford debate. It is just immoral to set up food distribution and have near daily reports of the IDF killing hungry and vulnerable Gazans. And I don't care if there may be Hamas elements there, as detestable and, yes, evil as its members are. There are (or used to be) some rules governing humanity in war, And the reason no one but the IDF knows what's really happening or sparking these horrific events around food distribution in Gaza is because the Netanyahu government will not allow journalists in to report. You've been a reporter. How can you countenance this? By the way, I have been squarely on your side about the need for decimating Hamas because of the horrors of Oct 7. I, who am not Jewish, have shed a tear for murdered hostages, for attacks on Jews here in the U.S. I've spent days/weeks/month thinking through Oct. 7, the atrocities, the consequences for Israel and Jews. I listen to podcasts by Israelis on the topic. You've lost me on this one. Something is very very wrong when men, women and children who need food and water are being killed. Five this day, according to the morning newscaster. Then, another 20 a few days later; 10 next week and then, oh, another 14, reports the newscaster. You're living in some weird, lifeless bubble of intellectual rationale. What is happening with food distribution in Gaza is grotesque. And it matters just as much as Oct. 7th.
Democracy has left the building
NE
4m ago
The foremost professor of genocide studies wrote an opinion piece in this paper stating in n uncertain terms that Netanyahu is committing genocide. Many Israeli citizens agree. Brett Stevens can deny all he wants but the rest of us see what we see.
Tomfromharlem commented 6 minutes ago
Tomfromharlem
NYC
4m ago
Unlike Stephen’s thesis, the UN definition he cites supports a reasonable assertion that genocide need not be a O-sum gain, but rather is, in whole or in PART, intent to destroy a national group or other. His argument that if this were genocide then death tolls would be higher is an assertion as blind as seeing a fire in a forest and saying it is not a forest fire because it is not consuming the entire forest. Are we not to believe TF’s critiques of the “Messianic Zionism” intention to rid the national yearnings of WB Palestinians, and believe the same mindset does not infect any number of decisions large and small, superior and trooper, within the Gaza war? Why do non Jewish Americans focus on Israel’s behavior? It is because of the extraordinary amount of support that we offer while for decades reading day after day of this intransigent struggle. Why does the prison doctor in My Promised Land say, I wish they were all dead? How many single bullet holes to children’s heads does it take, how many killed approaching ill fashioned aid stations, how many 2000 pd bombs, how many false promises to move “them” all somewhere else that’s better, before it may be deemed as intent, in part, to destroy a national group, before we are respected the right to speak our own conscience, before the black and white thinkers of the world succumb to reasonableness, dialogue, openness and a non-defensive clarity of light?
P
Private Citizen AU
Sydney, Australia
8h ago
This denial is exactly why 125 Nations created the International Criminal Court. Destroyed water supply for 2.5 million people - day one Stopped 750 food trucks daily - day one Intentionally attacking of hospitals with precision ordinance. Israel proves South Africas ICC complaint daily. Repeated disregard for civilian casualties. Then there will be the millions affected by concrete dust poisoning. Something New Yorkers should appreciate after the collapse of the Twin towers. Israel complains that we should compare them against the horrors of Hamas, but I am holding them to the same standards that led us to impose sanctions on Russia for its nearly identical behaviour in the Ukraine. So maybe its not genocide completely so we could go back and rewrite the Holocaust - as it was not genocide if they dont succeed completely.
Chin C commented 8 hours ago
C
Chin C
HK
8h ago
And Trump was not responsible for J6….. Sometimes we just don’t need a pundit or so called expert to tell us what we are clearly watching on tv or news…. While the IDF has outperformed any prior expectations against a whole host of dangerous enemies (of course, with America’s help), I wonder if the continued slaughter of innocents in Gaza is actually bringing more risk and harm to Jews around the world.
mvw commented 8 hours ago
m
mvw
Pittsburgh, PA
8h ago
Jesus. A decade from now I would hate to be the guy who defended a genocide that the whole world has watched happen.
Catherine Maddux commented 8 hours ago
C
Catherine Maddux
Virginia
8h ago
Mr. Stephens: This reads like a cold Oxford debate. It is just immoral to set up food distribution and have near daily reports of the IDF killing hungry and vulnerable Gazans. And I don't care if there may be Hamas elements there, as detestable and, yes, evil as its members are. There are (or used to be) some rules governing humanity in war, And the reason no one but the IDF knows what's really happening or sparking these horrific events around food distribution in Gaza is because the Netanyahu government will not allow journalists in to report. You've been a reporter. How can you countenance this? By the way, I have been squarely on your side about the need for decimating Hamas because of the horrors of Oct 7. I, who am not Jewish, have shed a tear for murdered hostages, for attacks on Jews here in the U.S. I've spent days/weeks/month thinking through Oct. 7, the atrocities, the consequences for Israel and Jews. I listen to podcasts by Israelis on the topic. You've lost me on this one. Something is very very wrong when men, women and children who need food and water are being killed. Five this day, according to the morning newscaster. Then, another 20 a few days later; 10 next week and then, oh, another 14, reports the newscaster. You're living in some weird, lifeless bubble of intellectual rationale. What is happening with food distribution in Gaza is grotesque. And it matters just as much as Oct. 7th.
D
David C
Kawasaki Japan
8h ago
Don’t believe your lying eyes. Stephens would have us believe that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s not a duck. His hair splitting over what constitutes “real” genocide is disgusting. The fact he feels the need to do so is a tacit admission he knows it’s happening in Gaza. Meanwhile, the IDF continues killing with impunity.
All,
NOTE (ONCE AGAIN): The comments above are in response from various New York Times readers to the utterly despicable “opinion article” that the habitually arrogant, perpetually reactionary, and deeply fulla shit Bret Stephens wrote today in the Times (see article directly below)…By the way I agree 100% with these readers and not Bret. Genocide is not merely “a controversial word in need of a reliable definition” by some willfully clueless opinion writer anymore than “mass murder” is something that can be simply quantified and thus “defined” by someone speculating about just how many deaths exactly incurred by murder should be considered “mass.” Think about it…or rather don’t…
Kofi
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/opinion/no-israel-is-not-committing-genocide-in-gaza.html
Opinion
No, Israel Is Not Committing Genocide in Gaza
If your standard for genocide is volume and efficiency, then I guess anything less than 6 million people murdered with German engineered precision is an acceptable loss of life.
Johninnapa commented 8 hours ago
J
Johninnapa
Napa, Ca
8h ago
The idea that indiscriminate intentional killing of civilians, women and children is NOT genocide because it could always be worse is ridiculous. Just as the IDF theoretically could easily decimate Gazans should it choose to do so, they should be able to prosecute the war on Hamas without killing 60,000 civilians. Gone full MAGA eh Bret?
Stujones commented 8 hours ago
S
Stujones
North Carolina’s
8h ago
The opinion writer thinks it’s ok for even 60,000 people to be killed and a country destroyed. It’s ok for food to not get to starving children and hospitals to be bombed according to the writer. The loss of one innocent life is one too many. War is nothing other than hate by one side against the other. Israel leaders made peace with Egypt by talking not killing. Hamas is evil. But Israel is looking no different. Its leader is a man who is full of evil and hate. And one day, he will need to answer why Israel with such good intelligence wasn’t able to pick up a planned October terrorist attack. .
Private Citizen AU commented 8 hours ago
Private Citizen AU
Sydney, Australia
8h ago
This denial is exactly why 125 Nations created the International Criminal Court. Destroyed water supply for 2.5 million people - day one Stopped 750 food trucks daily - day one Intentionally attacking of hospitals with precision ordinance. Israel proves South Africas ICC complaint daily. Repeated disregard for civilian casualties. Then there will be the millions affected by concrete dust poisoning. Something New Yorkers should appreciate after the collapse of the Twin towers. Israel complains that we should compare them against the horrors of Hamas, but I am holding them to the same standards that led us to impose sanctions on Russia for its nearly identical behaviour in the Ukraine. So maybe its not genocide completely so we could go back and rewrite the Holocaust - as it was not genocide if they dont succeed completely.
Chin C commented 8 hours ago
C
Chin C
HK
8h ago
And Trump was not responsible for J6….. Sometimes we just don’t need a pundit or so called expert to tell us what we are clearly watching on tv or news…. While the IDF has outperformed any prior expectations against a whole host of dangerous enemies (of course, with America’s help), I wonder if the continued slaughter of innocents in Gaza is actually bringing more risk and harm to Jews around the world.
mvw commented 8 hours ago
m
mvw
Pittsburgh, PA8h ago
Jesus. A decade from now I would hate to be the guy who defended a genocide that the whole world has watched happen.
Catherine Maddux commented 8 hours ago
C
Catherine Maddux
Virginia
8h ago
Mr. Stephens: This reads like a cold Oxford debate. It is just immoral to set up food distribution and have near daily reports of the IDF killing hungry and vulnerable Gazans. And I don't care if there may be Hamas elements there, as detestable and, yes, evil as its members are. There are (or used to be) some rules governing humanity in war, And the reason no one but the IDF knows what's really happening or sparking these horrific events around food distribution in Gaza is because the Netanyahu government will not allow journalists in to report. You've been a reporter. How can you countenance this? By the way, I have been squarely on your side about the need for decimating Hamas because of the horrors of Oct 7. I, who am not Jewish, have shed a tear for murdered hostages, for attacks on Jews here in the U.S. I've spent days/weeks/month thinking through Oct. 7, the atrocities, the consequences for Israel and Jews. I listen to podcasts by Israelis on the topic. You've lost me on this one. Something is very very wrong when men, women and children who need food and water are being killed. Five this day, according to the morning newscaster. Then, another 20 a few days later; 10 next week and then, oh, another 14, reports the newscaster. You're living in some weird, lifeless bubble of intellectual rationale. What is happening with food distribution in Gaza is grotesque. And it matters just as much as Oct. 7th.
Democracy has left the building
NE
4m ago
The foremost professor of genocide studies wrote an opinion piece in this paper stating in n uncertain terms that Netanyahu is committing genocide. Many Israeli citizens agree. Brett Stevens can deny all he wants but the rest of us see what we see.
Tomfromharlem commented 6 minutes ago
Tomfromharlem
NYC
4m ago
Unlike Stephen’s thesis, the UN definition he cites supports a reasonable assertion that genocide need not be a O-sum gain, but rather is, in whole or in PART, intent to destroy a national group or other. His argument that if this were genocide then death tolls would be higher is an assertion as blind as seeing a fire in a forest and saying it is not a forest fire because it is not consuming the entire forest. Are we not to believe TF’s critiques of the “Messianic Zionism” intention to rid the national yearnings of WB Palestinians, and believe the same mindset does not infect any number of decisions large and small, superior and trooper, within the Gaza war? Why do non Jewish Americans focus on Israel’s behavior? It is because of the extraordinary amount of support that we offer while for decades reading day after day of this intransigent struggle. Why does the prison doctor in My Promised Land say, I wish they were all dead? How many single bullet holes to children’s heads does it take, how many killed approaching ill fashioned aid stations, how many 2000 pd bombs, how many false promises to move “them” all somewhere else that’s better, before it may be deemed as intent, in part, to destroy a national group, before we are respected the right to speak our own conscience, before the black and white thinkers of the world succumb to reasonableness, dialogue, openness and a non-defensive clarity of light?
P
Private Citizen AU
Sydney, Australia
8h ago
This denial is exactly why 125 Nations created the International Criminal Court. Destroyed water supply for 2.5 million people - day one Stopped 750 food trucks daily - day one Intentionally attacking of hospitals with precision ordinance. Israel proves South Africas ICC complaint daily. Repeated disregard for civilian casualties. Then there will be the millions affected by concrete dust poisoning. Something New Yorkers should appreciate after the collapse of the Twin towers. Israel complains that we should compare them against the horrors of Hamas, but I am holding them to the same standards that led us to impose sanctions on Russia for its nearly identical behaviour in the Ukraine. So maybe its not genocide completely so we could go back and rewrite the Holocaust - as it was not genocide if they dont succeed completely.
Chin C commented 8 hours ago
C
Chin C
HK
8h ago
And Trump was not responsible for J6….. Sometimes we just don’t need a pundit or so called expert to tell us what we are clearly watching on tv or news…. While the IDF has outperformed any prior expectations against a whole host of dangerous enemies (of course, with America’s help), I wonder if the continued slaughter of innocents in Gaza is actually bringing more risk and harm to Jews around the world.
mvw commented 8 hours ago
m
mvw
Pittsburgh, PA
8h ago
Jesus. A decade from now I would hate to be the guy who defended a genocide that the whole world has watched happen.
Catherine Maddux commented 8 hours ago
C
Catherine Maddux
Virginia
8h ago
Mr. Stephens: This reads like a cold Oxford debate. It is just immoral to set up food distribution and have near daily reports of the IDF killing hungry and vulnerable Gazans. And I don't care if there may be Hamas elements there, as detestable and, yes, evil as its members are. There are (or used to be) some rules governing humanity in war, And the reason no one but the IDF knows what's really happening or sparking these horrific events around food distribution in Gaza is because the Netanyahu government will not allow journalists in to report. You've been a reporter. How can you countenance this? By the way, I have been squarely on your side about the need for decimating Hamas because of the horrors of Oct 7. I, who am not Jewish, have shed a tear for murdered hostages, for attacks on Jews here in the U.S. I've spent days/weeks/month thinking through Oct. 7, the atrocities, the consequences for Israel and Jews. I listen to podcasts by Israelis on the topic. You've lost me on this one. Something is very very wrong when men, women and children who need food and water are being killed. Five this day, according to the morning newscaster. Then, another 20 a few days later; 10 next week and then, oh, another 14, reports the newscaster. You're living in some weird, lifeless bubble of intellectual rationale. What is happening with food distribution in Gaza is grotesque. And it matters just as much as Oct. 7th.
D
David C
Kawasaki Japan
8h ago
Don’t believe your lying eyes. Stephens would have us believe that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s not a duck. His hair splitting over what constitutes “real” genocide is disgusting. The fact he feels the need to do so is a tacit admission he knows it’s happening in Gaza. Meanwhile, the IDF continues killing with impunity.
All,
NOTE (ONCE AGAIN): The comments above are in response from various New York Times readers to the utterly despicable “opinion article” that the habitually arrogant, perpetually reactionary, and deeply fulla shit Bret Stephens wrote today in the Times (see article directly below)…By the way I agree 100% with these readers and not Bret. Genocide is not merely “a controversial word in need of a reliable definition” by some willfully clueless opinion writer anymore than “mass murder” is something that can be simply quantified and thus “defined” by someone speculating about just how many deaths exactly incurred by murder should be considered “mass.” Think about it…or rather don’t…
Kofi
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/opinion/no-israel-is-not-committing-genocide-in-gaza.html
Opinion
No, Israel Is Not Committing Genocide in Gaza
A truck carrying humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. Credit: Omar Al-Qattaa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Listen to this article · 7:43 minutes
Learn more
by Bret Stephens
July 22, 2025
New York Times
It may seem harsh to say, but there is a glaring dissonance to the charge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. To wit: If the Israeli government’s intentions and actions are truly genocidal — if it is so malevolent that it is committed to the annihilation of Gazans — why hasn’t it been more methodical and vastly more deadly? Why not, say, hundreds of thousands of deaths, as opposed to the nearly 60,000 that Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatant and civilian deaths, has cited so far in nearly two years of war?
It’s not that Israel lacks the capacity to have meted vastly greater destruction than what it has inflicted so far. It is the leading military power of its region, stronger now that it has decimated Hezbollah and humbled Iran. It could have bombed without prior notice, instead of routinely warningGazans to evacuate areas it intended to strike. It could have bombed without putting its own soldiers, hundreds of whom have died in combat, at risk.
It isn’t that Israel has been deterred from striking harder by the presence of its hostages in Gaza. Israeli intelligence is said to have a fairly good idea of where those hostages are being held, which is one reason, with tragic exceptions, relatively few have died from Israeli fire. And it knows that, asbrutal as the hostages’ captivity has been, Hamas has an interest in keeping them alive.
Nor is it that Israel lacks diplomatic cover. President Trump has openly envisaged requiring all Gazans to leave the territory, repeatedly warning that “all hell” would break out in Gaza if Hamas didn’t return the hostages. As for the threat of economic boycotts, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has been the world’s best-performing major stock index since Oct. 7. 2023. With due respect to the risk of Irish boycotts, Israel is not a country facing a fundamental economic threat. If anything, it’s the boycotters who stand to suffer.
In short, the first question the anti-Israel genocide chorus needs to answer is: Why isn’t the death count higher?
The answer, of course, is that Israel is manifestly not committing genocide, a legally specific and morally freighted term that is defined by the United Nations convention on genocide as the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.”
Note the words “intent” and “as such.” Genocide does not mean simply “too many civilian deaths” — a heartbreaking fact of nearly every war, including the one in Gaza. It means seeking to exterminate a category of people for no other reason than that they belong to that category: the Nazis and their partners killing Jews in the Holocaust because they were Jews or the Hutus slaughtering the Tutsis in the Rwandan genocide because they were Tutsi. When Hamas invaded on Oct. 7, intentionally butchering families in their homes and young people at a music festival, they also murdered Israelis “as such.”
By contrast, the fact that over a million German civilians died in World War II — thousands of them in appalling bombings of cities like Hamburg and Dresden — made them victims of war but not of genocide. The aim of the Allies was to defeat the Nazis for leading Germany into war, not to wipe out Germans simply for being German.
In response, Israel’s inveterate critics note the scale of destruction in Gaza. They also point to a handful of remarks by a few Israeli politicians dehumanizing Gazans and promising brutal retaliation. But furious comments in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities hardly amount to a Wannsee conference, and I am aware of no evidence of an Israeli plan to deliberately target and kill Gazan civilians.
As for the destruction in Gaza, it is indeed immense. There are important questions to be asked about the tactics Israel has used, most recently when it comes to the chaotic food distribution system it has attempted to set up as a way of depriving Hamas of control of the food supply. And hardly any military in history has gone to war without at least some of its soldiers committing war crimes. That includes Israel in this war — and America in nearly all of our wars, including World War II, when some of our greatest generation bombed schools accidentally or murdered P.O.W.s in cold blood.
But bungled humanitarian schemes or trigger-happy soldiers or strikes that hit the wrong target or politicians reaching for vengeful sound bites do not come close to adding up to genocide. They are war in its usual tragic dimensions.
What is unusual about Gaza is the cynical and criminal way Hamas has chosen to wage war. In Ukraine, when Russia attacks with missiles, drones or artillery, civilians go underground while the Ukrainian military stays aboveground to fight. In Gaza, it’s the reverse: Hamas hides and feeds and preserves itself in its vast warren of tunnels rather than open them to civilians for protection.
These tactics, which are war crimes in themselves, make it difficult for Israel to achieve its war aims: the return of its hostages and the elimination of Hamas as a military and political force so that Israel may never again be threatened with another Oct. 7. Those twin aims were and remain entirely justifiable — and would bring the killing in Gaza to an end if Hamas simply handed over the hostages and surrendered. Those are demands one almost never hears from Israel’s supposedly evenhanded accusers.
It’s also worth asking how the United States would operate in similar circumstances. As it happens, we know. In 2016 and 2017, under Barack Obama and Trump, the United States aided the government of Iraq in retaking the city of Mosul, which was captured by the Islamic State three years earlier and turned into a booby-trapped, underground fortress. Here’s a description in The Times of the way the war was waged to eliminate ISIS.
As Iraqi forces have advanced, American airstrikes have at times leveled entire blocks — including the one in Mosul Jidideh this month that residents said left as many as 200 civilians dead. At the same time, the Islamic State fighters have used masses of civilians as human shields, and have been indiscriminate about sniper and mortar fire.
This fight, carried out over nine months, had broad bipartisan and international support. By some estimates, it left as many as 11,000 civilians dead. I don’t recall any campus protests.
Some readers may say that even if the war in Gaza isn’t genocide, it has gone on too long and needs to end. That’s a fair point of view, shared by a majority of Israelis. So why does the argument over the word “genocide” matter? Two reasons.
First, while some pundits and scholars may sincerely believe the genocide charge, it is also used byanti-Zionists and antisemites to equate modern Israel with Nazi Germany. The effect is to license a new wave of Jew hatred, stirring enmity not only for the Israeli government but also for any Jew who supports Israel as a genocide supporter. It’s a tactic Israel haters have pursued for years with inflated or bogus charges of Israeli massacres or war crimes that, on close inspection, weren’t. The genocide charge is more of the same but with deadlier effects.
Second, if genocide — a word that was coined only in the 1940s — is to retain its status as a uniquely horrific crime, then the term can’t be promiscuously applied to any military situation we don’t like. Wars are awful enough. But the abuse of the term “genocide” runs the risk of ultimately blinding us to real ones when they unfold.
The war in Gaza should be brought to an end in a way that ensures it is never repeated. To call it a genocide does nothing to advance that aim, except to dilute the meaning of a word we cannot afford to cheapen.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Bret Stephens is an Opinion columnist for The Times, writing about foreign policy, domestic politics and cultural issues. Facebook
More on Israel and Gaza:
Opinion | Omer Bartov
I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.
July 15, 2025
Opinion | Bret Stephens
What ‘Globalize the Intifada’ Really Means
July 1, 2025
Opinion | David Wallace-Wells
The Judgment of History Won’t Save Gaza
June 25, 2025
Listen to this article · 7:43 minutes
Learn more
by Bret Stephens
July 22, 2025
New York Times
It may seem harsh to say, but there is a glaring dissonance to the charge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. To wit: If the Israeli government’s intentions and actions are truly genocidal — if it is so malevolent that it is committed to the annihilation of Gazans — why hasn’t it been more methodical and vastly more deadly? Why not, say, hundreds of thousands of deaths, as opposed to the nearly 60,000 that Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatant and civilian deaths, has cited so far in nearly two years of war?
It’s not that Israel lacks the capacity to have meted vastly greater destruction than what it has inflicted so far. It is the leading military power of its region, stronger now that it has decimated Hezbollah and humbled Iran. It could have bombed without prior notice, instead of routinely warningGazans to evacuate areas it intended to strike. It could have bombed without putting its own soldiers, hundreds of whom have died in combat, at risk.
It isn’t that Israel has been deterred from striking harder by the presence of its hostages in Gaza. Israeli intelligence is said to have a fairly good idea of where those hostages are being held, which is one reason, with tragic exceptions, relatively few have died from Israeli fire. And it knows that, asbrutal as the hostages’ captivity has been, Hamas has an interest in keeping them alive.
Nor is it that Israel lacks diplomatic cover. President Trump has openly envisaged requiring all Gazans to leave the territory, repeatedly warning that “all hell” would break out in Gaza if Hamas didn’t return the hostages. As for the threat of economic boycotts, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has been the world’s best-performing major stock index since Oct. 7. 2023. With due respect to the risk of Irish boycotts, Israel is not a country facing a fundamental economic threat. If anything, it’s the boycotters who stand to suffer.
In short, the first question the anti-Israel genocide chorus needs to answer is: Why isn’t the death count higher?
The answer, of course, is that Israel is manifestly not committing genocide, a legally specific and morally freighted term that is defined by the United Nations convention on genocide as the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.”
Note the words “intent” and “as such.” Genocide does not mean simply “too many civilian deaths” — a heartbreaking fact of nearly every war, including the one in Gaza. It means seeking to exterminate a category of people for no other reason than that they belong to that category: the Nazis and their partners killing Jews in the Holocaust because they were Jews or the Hutus slaughtering the Tutsis in the Rwandan genocide because they were Tutsi. When Hamas invaded on Oct. 7, intentionally butchering families in their homes and young people at a music festival, they also murdered Israelis “as such.”
By contrast, the fact that over a million German civilians died in World War II — thousands of them in appalling bombings of cities like Hamburg and Dresden — made them victims of war but not of genocide. The aim of the Allies was to defeat the Nazis for leading Germany into war, not to wipe out Germans simply for being German.
In response, Israel’s inveterate critics note the scale of destruction in Gaza. They also point to a handful of remarks by a few Israeli politicians dehumanizing Gazans and promising brutal retaliation. But furious comments in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities hardly amount to a Wannsee conference, and I am aware of no evidence of an Israeli plan to deliberately target and kill Gazan civilians.
As for the destruction in Gaza, it is indeed immense. There are important questions to be asked about the tactics Israel has used, most recently when it comes to the chaotic food distribution system it has attempted to set up as a way of depriving Hamas of control of the food supply. And hardly any military in history has gone to war without at least some of its soldiers committing war crimes. That includes Israel in this war — and America in nearly all of our wars, including World War II, when some of our greatest generation bombed schools accidentally or murdered P.O.W.s in cold blood.
But bungled humanitarian schemes or trigger-happy soldiers or strikes that hit the wrong target or politicians reaching for vengeful sound bites do not come close to adding up to genocide. They are war in its usual tragic dimensions.
What is unusual about Gaza is the cynical and criminal way Hamas has chosen to wage war. In Ukraine, when Russia attacks with missiles, drones or artillery, civilians go underground while the Ukrainian military stays aboveground to fight. In Gaza, it’s the reverse: Hamas hides and feeds and preserves itself in its vast warren of tunnels rather than open them to civilians for protection.
These tactics, which are war crimes in themselves, make it difficult for Israel to achieve its war aims: the return of its hostages and the elimination of Hamas as a military and political force so that Israel may never again be threatened with another Oct. 7. Those twin aims were and remain entirely justifiable — and would bring the killing in Gaza to an end if Hamas simply handed over the hostages and surrendered. Those are demands one almost never hears from Israel’s supposedly evenhanded accusers.
It’s also worth asking how the United States would operate in similar circumstances. As it happens, we know. In 2016 and 2017, under Barack Obama and Trump, the United States aided the government of Iraq in retaking the city of Mosul, which was captured by the Islamic State three years earlier and turned into a booby-trapped, underground fortress. Here’s a description in The Times of the way the war was waged to eliminate ISIS.
As Iraqi forces have advanced, American airstrikes have at times leveled entire blocks — including the one in Mosul Jidideh this month that residents said left as many as 200 civilians dead. At the same time, the Islamic State fighters have used masses of civilians as human shields, and have been indiscriminate about sniper and mortar fire.
This fight, carried out over nine months, had broad bipartisan and international support. By some estimates, it left as many as 11,000 civilians dead. I don’t recall any campus protests.
Some readers may say that even if the war in Gaza isn’t genocide, it has gone on too long and needs to end. That’s a fair point of view, shared by a majority of Israelis. So why does the argument over the word “genocide” matter? Two reasons.
First, while some pundits and scholars may sincerely believe the genocide charge, it is also used byanti-Zionists and antisemites to equate modern Israel with Nazi Germany. The effect is to license a new wave of Jew hatred, stirring enmity not only for the Israeli government but also for any Jew who supports Israel as a genocide supporter. It’s a tactic Israel haters have pursued for years with inflated or bogus charges of Israeli massacres or war crimes that, on close inspection, weren’t. The genocide charge is more of the same but with deadlier effects.
Second, if genocide — a word that was coined only in the 1940s — is to retain its status as a uniquely horrific crime, then the term can’t be promiscuously applied to any military situation we don’t like. Wars are awful enough. But the abuse of the term “genocide” runs the risk of ultimately blinding us to real ones when they unfold.
The war in Gaza should be brought to an end in a way that ensures it is never repeated. To call it a genocide does nothing to advance that aim, except to dilute the meaning of a word we cannot afford to cheapen.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Bret Stephens is an Opinion columnist for The Times, writing about foreign policy, domestic politics and cultural issues. Facebook
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Opinion | David Wallace-Wells
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