Benny Morris: They Had It Coming
(April 22, 2024)
In a new article, Israeli historian-turned-state-propagandist Benny Morris chastises the hypocrisy of Recep Tayyip Erdogan: the Turkish president deplores Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza yet denies the atrocities that Muslim Turks committed against Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, and Kurds circa the early 20th century. (He also takes note of Erdogan’s current “cultural repression” of Turkish Kurds and the bloody war he has been waging against Kurdish armed forces in neighboring countries.) (“Erdogan’s Hypocrisy,” 22 April 2024) No doubt, such rank hypocrisy deserves condemnation. It is no less true, however, that a public personality’s denial of a past genocide pales in moral culpability beside denial in the face of an ongoing genocide, when openly expressing outrage at an infamy in progress can literally be a matter of life and death for the victims. Consider this case in point. Mouin Rabbani and I recently participated in a debate during which Professor Morris cavalierly denied the imminence of mass famine in Gaza and Israel’s hand in engineering it. Here’s the official transcript: Benny Morris—There’s no genocide. Norman Finkelstein— … half of whom are children… Yeah, according to the most current UN reports, as of today- Benny Morris—There’s no genocide. Norman Finkelstein—… one quarter of the population of Gaza- Benny Morris—Is starving. Norman Finkelstein— That means 500,000 children- Benny Morris—Are starving, Norman Finkelstein— … are on the verge of famine. Benny Morris—They keep saying on the verge of. Steven Bonnell: On the verge of. Didn’t you quote that they said it was unlivable? Benny Morris—I have not seen one Palestinian die of starvation in these last four months. Not one. Mouin Rabbani—There have been documented cases. Benny Morris—They are always on the verge. They’re on the verge. Mouin Rabbani—have been documented cases. Benny Morris—I haven’t seen any. Steven Bonnell—Yesterday Al Jazeera said six, and the day before that they said two, so those are the two. Benny Morris—That number probably dies in Israel of starvation also. Mouin Rabbani—I don’t think there’s famine in Israel. Norman Finkelstein—You’re so laid back, so blasé. Benny Morris—There isn’t. There isn’t in the Gaza Strip either. It’s something which is produced for the Western- Norman Finkelstein—“I haven’t seen any starving children yet.” Mouin Rabbani— There are infants dying due to a engineered lack of access to food and nutrition. Benny Morris—I don’t think it’s engineered, I think that if the Hamas stopped shooting perhaps, or- Norman Finkelstein—Unfortunately, most- Mouin Rabbani—As I said, engineered. Norman Finkelstein—I think Human Rights Watch called it using starvation as a weapon. That’s called engineering. Today, B’Tselem (Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories) issued a report, “Manufacturing Famine: Israel is Committing the War Crime of Starvation in the Gaza Strip,” that confirms what has already been widely documented. It finds that “for months, Israel has been committing the crime of starvation under international law in the Gaza Strip.” It further finds that, under the terms of the Rome Statute, Israel is culpable of the “war crime” of “starvation,” as it has intentionally (mens rea) engineered a famine (actus reus) in Gaza: “[F]or many months, Israel has prevented the required scope of humanitarian relief, including food and medicines, from entering the Gaza Strip and particularly northern Gaza. The destruction that Israel sowed during the fighting has all but obliterated the ability to locally grow food or source it for production. Given these circumstances, the population’s diet relies almost entirely on outside aid, which is controlled by Israel. ... Israel is failing to meet its obligations ... by not allowing sufficient aid to enter the Gaza Strip and by failing to guarantee the safe arrival of the aid to its destination, even in areas it says are under its control.” “Israel’s intent to use starvation in order to gain a military advantage is reflected in statements made by senior politicians and military commanders, that denying residents food and water is part of Israel’s methods of warfare in the Gaza Strip. For example, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, a member of the war cabinet, which is the highest forum directing Israel’s policy in its war in Gaza, explicitly stated that denying food and water is part of the fighting: ‘We are imposing a full siege on Gaza City. There is no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting beasts and we are acting accordingly.’ Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir tied efforts to release the Israeli hostages to preventing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza: ‘As long as Hamas refuses to release the hostages it is holding, the only thing that should enter Gaza is hundreds of tons of Air Force explosives, and not a gram of humanitarian relief.’ Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said: ‘For years, we’ve given Gaza electricity, water and fuel. Instead of thanking us, they sent thousands of beasts to butcher, rape and kidnap babies, women and elderly people. That is why we decided to stop the supply of water, electricity and fuel, and now their local power plant has collapsed and there’s no electricity in Gaza. We will continue to tighten the siege until the threat that Hamas poses to Israel and to the world is removed. The past will not be the future.’” It should finally be noted that decriers of the South African genocide application to the International Court of Justice have alleged that the case mounted by South Africa was defective as it didn’t prove criminal intent to commit genocide. For example, it’s purported that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s allusions to “Amalek” were distorted. Thus Morris: “The prime minister didn’t say genocide.” Here, however, is B’Tselem’s gloss: “‘The current war against the Hamas murderers is another chapter in the story of our national resilience through the generations. Remember what Amalek did to you.’ That is what Binyamin Netanyahu wrote in a message to Israeli soldiers on 3 November 2023, in a dog whistle that anyone who has gone through Israel’s education system will recognize as meaning a response to an attack in a way that would obliterate any memory of that nation, women and children included. When the fight against Hamas is compared to the war against Amalek, the conclusion is clear: The order is to wipe out Gaza.” In other words, “the conclusion is clear” that Netanyahu’s Amalek allusion evidences criminal intent to commit genocide. But according to Morris, even if Netanyahu did target Gaza’s civilian population for annihilation, that wouldn’t quite constitute genocide as these noncombatants aren’t innocent: “Gaza’s civilian population ... is largely sympathetic to Hamas’s actions and goals, which include the destruction of Israel. In going after the Hamas units, the IDF inevitably killed many non-combatants. They died in a war initiated by Hamas.” That is, standing not just before but also behind Hamas, Gazan civilians have it coming if they’re wiped out. Doesn’t only a flea’s hop separate Morris’s palliation of Israeli genocide from a full-blown apologia for it? If Erdogan is a genocide denier, then Morris is his doppelganger.
One of the more gruesome massacres of Native Americans/ Indians in my country of birth was that of Methodist preacher and Col. of volunteers John Chivington of Hinono'eino/ Arapaho and Tsistsistas/ Cheyenne at Sand Creek, Colorado in November 1864. His comment about murdering women and children at the time was "nits make lice."
So here's Benny Morris, who once bemoaned that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine wasn't thorough enough to achieve the dream of Zionists like the Irgun/EZL or LEHI/Stern gang or for that matter, the Haganah back in 1948, basically stating that the Palestinians of the Gaza strip should share the fate of Hamas terrorists or political operatives or what-have-you. Some of the reports of massacres at hospitals and other sites in the Gaza strip indicate that men who worked for public works, government functions, etc. were all killed as "Hamas." The Hamas movement has run the place since they overturned the Fatah/Israeli/US coup to prevent Hamas taking the place of the PA through elections, and so for the gravest sin of disobedience, the place has been under siege for 17 years. If Gazans hadn't developed Dubai or the "Singapore of the Middle East" under the restraints and strictures of the occupying IDF and secret police, well then, it's just because Hamas was more committed to making rockets to retaliate for various sundry "mowings of the lawn" than development of the ghetto, right? Quibble delusionally over every demonstrable fact of the unfolding slaughter: "Whaddya mean starvation?" The lawn was never supposed to mow back.
The slippery slope of terrorist logic has been that most Israeli adults are reservists. So if the society is a Zionist Sparta, then attack the soldiers and Wehrbauer in uniform or in mufti. And, the IDF and police and secret police "retaliate" with overwhelming force and state terrorism for the violent reactions that dispossession and brutality elicited. Finally, then cue the manichaeism of "children of light" versus "children of darkness." Add Benny Morris' utterances to the squalid and vile inventory of apologia for mass murder, wanton destruction, hateful invective, genocide.
Thing is: Benny Morris' article pretty much invokes all of the genocides and ethnic cleansing in Turkey and Anatolia but studiously ignores the influence it had on Zionist leaders of various persuasions about "population transfer." Recall that the "exchange" of Muslims in the Balkans and Pontic Greeks and others driven out of Anatolia during the Greek-Turkish War, aka Turkish War of Independence was ratified internationally with the Treaty of Lausanne. Morris wants the same deal for Israel.
Basically, this article about Turkish leaders' hypocrisy is to persuade readership that genocide is simply the stuff of ethnic nationalism, "everybody does it," and that the Middle East is one tough neighborhood, and so Israel's "gotta do what its gotta do..." In "self defense" of course! It also feeds into the "irredeemably intolerant" Muslim world that Morris has now invoked and rehearsed to dismiss his former conclusion that ethnic intolerance and settler colonialism were baked into Zionism from the outset. This is the switch that Norman Finkelstein critiqued him for, and challenged him to demonstrate any further evidence, records, or documents to adduce his change of analysis, or else simply ignore showing us all the goods and demonstrate he's just a shill and propagandist. Morris chose the latter.