Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas told a crisis meeting in Ramallah on Wednesday that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza during its military offensive which has so far killed at least 50 Palestinians.It is obvious that Abbas throwing the term "genocide" around is about as wrong and sickening as can be.
“It’s genocide -- the killing of entire families is genocide by Israel against our Palestinian people,” Abbas told the crisis meeting of the Palestinian leadership.
“What’s happening now is a war against the Palestinian people as a whole and not against the (militant) factions.
“We know that Israel is not defending itself, it is defending settlements, its main project,” said Abbas.
“Is this collective punishment?” Abbas says. “No way it’s collective punishment. It’s genocide. It’s called genocide. What can I say about Abu Khdeir? Shall we recall Auschwitz?”
Of course, no world leaders take him to task for sounding more like Saddam Hussein rather than the statesman they pretend he is. They still believe him to be a man of peace, because the truth is so depressing.
Still, it is worthwhile to do the grisly math.
Let's underestimate and say that there are 1.5 million people in Gaza. (Palestinian Arabs claim 1.8 million.)
The birthrate is 34.3 per 1000 population.
The crude death rate is only 3.22 per thousand.
Crunching the numbers means that every day in Gaza there are 128 more people than the day before.
To commit "genocide" one would have to kill far more quickly than people are being born - at least 1000 a day, which would still take quite a few years to decimate Gaza.
Now, lets actually do the obscene comparison that Abbas is hoping that is listeners are making in their minds, especially by invoking Auschwitz.
Six million Jews were killed over a five year period in a real genocide. That comes out to nearly 3300 people a day, every day, for five years. Far more Jews were killed every hour of every day than have been killed in the current "genocide."
But Abbas wants you to equate the two.
Using the term "genocide" so flippantly towards a people who actually did suffer that crime cannot be considered anything other than antisemitism. Any decent world leader should unequivocally condemn Mahmoud Abbas for his words.
And none will.
(UPDATED with Auschwitz quote, h/t Yair)