"Article I

The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

Article II

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Article III

The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide."

--United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Act of Genocide, emphasis added.

One can be both a target and commissioner of a genocide. Nor is genocide a crime with specific regard to the Jewish people. Israeli actions amount to genocide only if the intent is to make Gaza unlivable, as the intent seems to be. Israel has crushed the health system of Gaza, displaced more than 85% of its people, created a massive water crisis in the midst of floods, with starving, freezing, diseased Palestinians forced into massive tent cities. If Israel does not intend to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza, I shudder to think what it could do if its military carried itself with that intent.

Note that I am not saying the Jewish are committing a genocide. Of course they are not. But officials responsible for what is happening in Gaza at the moment, regardless of nationality and religious affiliation, are responsible for a crisis of targeted destruction. And if we are to treat Gaza as an occupied territory (as it is under international law and by admission of the United States State Department), Israeli officials are legally responsible for the people who live there, their standard of living, and care for civilians (again under international law to which it is signatory).

This is not antisemitic. We are examining Israel's obligations according to the international agreements to which it is already party, and using international legal definitions to examine Israeli actions. According to the International Criminal Court, the primary tribunal responsible for prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and crimes against peace, Israel has occupied the Gaza Strip since 1967, regardless of its "disengagement" and "ceding effective control." Israel is ultimately responsible for Gazan citizens' rights and lives.