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The New York Times Continues Its Campaign to Accuse Israel of ‘Genocide’
On and after Oct. 7, 2023, Israel’s prime minister and then-foreign minister made clear their plans for Hamas, the group responsible for the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.
On the day of the massacre, as Hamas attackers swarmed Israeli towns, Netanyahu spoke of the country’s straightforward goals: to repel the attack, defeat Hamas in Gaza, and deter other fronts. Per Haaretz:
Speaking at the beginning of the security cabinet meeting later on Saturday, Netanyahu said that “Our first goal is to purge the area of enemy forces that have infiltrated and restore security and peace to the towns that were attacked.”
The second goal according to Netanyahu, is to “exact a huge price from the enemy, also in the Gaza Strip. The third goal is to fortify other arenas so that no one makes the mistake of joining this war. [emphasis added]
In a separate statement that same day, Netanyahu said:
The IDF will immediately use all its strength to destroy Hamas’s capabilities. We will destroy them and we will forcefully avenge this dark day that they have forced on the State of Israel and its citizens. As Bialik wrote: ‘Revenge for the blood of a little child has yet been devised by Satan’.
All of the places which Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating in, that wicked city, we will turn them into rubble.
I say to the residents of Gaza: Leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere.
At this hour, the IDF is clearing the terrorists out of the last communities. They are going community by community, house by house, and are restoring our control.
I embrace and send heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families whose loved ones were murdered today in cold blood and endless brutality. [emphasis added]
Two days after the attack, defense minister Yoav Gallant said of Hamas, “We are fighting human animals.” It was a phrase he also used elsewhere to refer to the terror group that he dubbed the ISIS of Gaza.
Three weeks later, as Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza, Netanyahu explained that Israel’s army “does everything to avoid harming non-combatants” and stated that the goals of the war are clear: “Destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, and bringing the captives back home.”
In that speech, he also recited a verse from Deuteronomy. “Remember what Amalek did to you,” he said several sentences after speaking about protecting non-combatants in Gaza. It is a passage that Jewish tradition and Holocaust memorials have long used as a call to remember the oppressors of the Jewish people, including the Nazis, which some consider the spiritual heirs of Amalek.
None of these quotes are particularly surprising or, given the context, notable. Hamas slaughtered Israeli civilians in one of the worst terror attacks in modern memory. Israel said that in response it would destroy the group, and its leaders had harsh words for the group behind the massacre.
And yet so many anti-Israel commentators have absurdly cited those very statements as purported evidence of “genocide.”
A New York Times Guest Essay this week by Omer Bartov is just the latest example. Bartov points to the passages cited above as his leading examples to purport “genocidal intent” by Israel’s leaders.
This is because intent — not simply death resulting from war — is key to the legal definition of “genocide,” as Bartov must acknowledge in his piece:
The crime of genocide was defined in 1948 by the United Nations as the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.” In determining what constitutes genocide, therefore, we must both establish intent and show that it is being carried out.
He then claims — as if he hadn’t just cited unremarkable martial language by Israel’s decision makers — that “In Israel’s case, that intent has been publicly expressed by numerous officials and leaders.”
Some lower-ranking Israeli politicians have gone farther. After misconstruing Netanyahu and Gallant’s words, the author points to vitriolic statements by Israel’s finance minister and deputy speaker of Parliament. Both are hardliners far to the right of those with practical authority over the direction of the war — the prime minister and defense minister. But clearly Bartov recognizes that the words by lower-ranking officials, however over-the-top, weren’t enough to make his case. So he invents genocidal rhetoric to manufacture genocidal intent.
Bartov recruits others in support of his allegation. These include Francesca Albanese, the extremist rapporteur and rape denier who herself has relied on misquoted and misrepresented statements by Israeli officials to justify her allegation, and Amnesty International, whose charge of genocide hinges on an assembly line of distorted quotes.
And at the same time, Bartov laments that “only a few scholars of the Holocaust” have echoed his allegation, and that “Most Holocaust scholars I know don’t hold, or at least publicly express” the view that the war is a genocide. (Somewhat puzzlingly, Bartov insists that it isn’t even a war because it is — by contrast? — a series of battles against a group that “continues to fight Israeli forces” while “retaining control” over territory not held by Israel.)
If most scholars don’t agree with Bartov and fellow anti-Israel activists who seem to dominate the discussion, perhaps it is because they recognize that Israel’s calls to destroy Hamas and angry descriptions of the terror group are hardly evidence of genocidal intent — even if The New York Times has chosen to join the campaign to misrepresent those statements.
Gilead Ini is a Senior Research Analyst at CAMERA, the foremost media watchdog organization focused on coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The post The New York Times Continues Its Campaign to Accuse Israel of ‘Genocide’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.