Only When Jews Do It

Indeed, the essay is remarkable primarily for how flimsy it is. Bartov’s summary reliance on the agreement of other “genocide scholars” with his conclusion constitutes the weakest form of argument — that from authority. And that weakness is compounded when the experts cited include such figures as the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, and South Africa’s complaint to the International Criminal Court.

Bartov’s more-than-3,000-word essay is part of an ongoing onslaught on Israel in the Times. (Mitchell Bard has suggested the paper should consider adopting the crusaders’ Jerusalem cross as its new logo.) Along with Bartov’s piece, the Times published another long article arguing that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is deliberately prolonging the war in Gaza to preserve his coalition.

That article did not even attempt to demonstrate that Israel’s goal of removing Hamas from Gaza is either illegitimate or could have already been achieved sooner. Further, it did not address Israel’s significant achievements over the past year and a half: the dramatic degradation of the Hezbollah threat, and the major setback dealt to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, chief among them.

The Times recently broadcast around the world a front-page photo of an emaciated infant child in Gaza, as emblematic of the widespread starvation there. And even when it was established that the infant in question suffered from cerebral palsy and other genetic birth defects, and that the photo in question was cropped from a larger one including the infant’s healthy, well-fed older brother, the Times could not muster an apology, only “added context” to the photo and an exculpatory statement that there are, in any event, other starving children in Gaza.