How can people go along with genocide? 

I’ve heard people ask how the German people could have allowed the Nazi genocide and the Holocaust to happen. 

Now we have the continuing attack on Gaza. Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Herzog, have stated publicly that the goal is to eliminate the people of Gaza, making this a textbook case of genocide in action. Israeli forces are openly targeting civilians & civilian homes, UNRWA schools, ambulances, and even hospitals. Israel told people to evacuate the north, then attacked them on the road & in cities in the south. They’ve used white phosphorous in civilian areas, with devastating results. Hundreds of tons of humanitarian supplies were ready to be shipped into Gaza at the Rafah crossing, so Israel bombed the crossing.

As for President Biden’s assurance that he negotiated an agreement for humanitarian supplies to get into Gaza, what will this accomplish while the slaughter continues? Will it make the genocide humane? (And remember, the US just vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.)

Crimes by Hamas, no matter how horrific, are no excuse for war crimes — and many of the original allegations have since been proven false, including the claim of beheading babies and massacring 100+ people in a kibbutz.  

The day after the Hamas attack, Ha’aretz (Israel’s paper of record) published an editorial saying, “The disaster that befell Israel is the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu.… [He] completely failed to identify the dangers he was consciously leading Israel into when establishing a government of annexation and dispossession… and a foreign policy that openly ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians.”

Nevertheless, here and in several other countries, government officials, legislators, and businesses strongly support Israel’s actions, and governments are criminalizing any activity that supports Palestinians. Is this another wave of ‘McCarthyism’ like we saw in the mid-20th century?

Isn’t anyone who encourages or supports massive war crimes & crimes against humanity complicit?

I salute the Jewish organizations IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace for open and powerful actions in Washington DC to raise the issues of genocide and war crimes.

Now reflect on the question about how the Germans could go along with the Genocide there.