In an Aug. 11 op-ed, “Maine Jewish group’s call for peace falls short,” the author attempts to explain why local Jews, who stubbornly refuse to believe libel against Israel, deserve antisemitic abuse. Loren Johnston quotes the International Association of Genocide Scholars, failing to point out that membership is open to anyone willing to pay $30.
He writes that the number of victims is irrelevant to a ruling of genocide, which would make every war in history a genocide — and ignores the fact that armies bent on exterminating a people don’t pause to administer polio vaccines to children and supervise civilian evacuations to safe zones (something Hamas leaders often blocked at gunpoint).
Johnston refers to social media content as though it is infallible, without even acknowledging the existence of the genocidal terror group Hamas and the millions of dollars it spent building underground tunnels before starting the war and refusing to offer civilians shelter. Johnston’s description of Gazan children “teetering on the verge of starvation” would be heartbreaking if it weren’t for the recent UNICEF-coordinated report showing that Gaza has extraordinarily low rates of child malnutrition. If this is a genocide, Israel’s really bad at it.
But none of this really matters, because just as nothing justifies anti-Black racism, nothing justifies antisemitism. Johnston says he values “dialogue”; what he actually wants is to tell Jews what they’re allowed to say if they want to be protected as equal citizens.
The answer to that is “No.”
Hannah Thomson
Hollis, N.H.