Yesterday, I spoke with a group of about 40 people about the outcomes and likely scenarios following the election in Israel on Tuesday. I shared some observations, not the least important of which is that what seems to be the most favorable outcome to us here in the US may not - most likely does not - reflect the priorities or the psyche of the Israeli electorate. What I didn’t say is that it may be an exercise in futility and perhaps presumption to even articulate glee or disappointment from these shores. It isn’t for us to project our own personalities and experiences onto the Israeli electorate.

Nonetheless, I look forward to an Israel that is more united, strong, tolerant, welcoming, economically self-sufficient, and more imbued with the creativity, justice and goodness that are among the gifts that the Almighty bestowed upon our people. Like most societies, it is not quite there. I pray that every exercise of the privilege of democratic choice brings it closer.

Before that happens, we’ll have to continue reckoning with those for whom a Jewish polity of any stripe is an abomination to be destroyed.

Earlier this week I was struck by an observation in a podcast I was listening to that led me to a conclusion of my own. To distill it within my own perspective, The only country, the only people in the world, that has entire societies - millions of people if not tens or hundreds of millions - that want to destroy it, eradicate it utterly, is Israel and the Jewish people. And this desire existed far before the Jewish people articulated their identity once more in their ancestral homeland. It has only metastasized since 1948, and especially in the last three years.

If this murderous ideology is what motivates you, whatever vestige of humanity you have demands that you justify your bloodthirsty desire. So how do you do it? You convince yourself and everyone else - or you allow yourself to be convinced by the malign manipulators with an agenda older than yours and intrinsically evil in a way that you haven’t yet contemplated - that the object of your hatred, that which must be erased, is a danger to the world. That it will corrupt, abuse, or destroy what you hold dear.

And what could possibly fit that description more than a genocidal country and those who support it? Genocide is a zero sum accusation. Once articulated, you can’t justify inaction to yourself or anyone else. It becomes a self fulfilling blood libel.

Make no mistake, though. This is no chicken and egg situation. The intent to destroy - and to justify that destruction - came first. The fact that only two generations past, the object of that annihilationist desire experienced genocide itself is a delicious irony for the purveyors of this dangerous incitement.

Accusing those whom you want to destroy of a crime so heinous that ignoring it is itself criminal is the most complete justification imaginable. It’s a closed circuit.

It doesn’t matter that there is a legal definition in the Genocide Convention of 1948 and even the villainous libelers at Amnesty International admit that the only way they can make genocide stick is by changing the definition (page 101 of ther Gaza report)

It doesn’t matter that the Convention standard expressly built into the definition of Dolus Specialis, meaning any other possible explanation for action obviates the application of the statute, which clearly applies, isn’t even mentioned or considered by the accusers.

It doesn’t matter that the numbers don’t add up, either. When 80% of the structures (most of which were weaponized by Hamas) are damaged or destroyed, and only less than 3% of those who lived or worked in those structures are killed, including at least half of whom were combatants, it is proof of the opposite of genocide.

It doesn’t matter that the foremost experts on Urban combat find the accusation to be a preposterous misreading and misuse of statistics on casualties, food distribution, and health, built on data from the Hamas Ministry of Health, echoed by the UN, but disproven by its own numbers.

It doesn’t matter that the founding charter of the government that launched the 10/7 attacks explicitly calls for the genocide of all Jews, let alone those in Israel, or that the hadith in Rasul Sultan so often quoted does the same.

I could go on, but it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters in this discussion is that the introduction of the genocide blood libel is a coherent, evil plan to justify the destruction of our people and our homeland.

Coming back to where I started - the continued presence of Israel, the vibrant democracy indicated by an almost 80% voter participation, especially among Israel’s 2 million Arab citizens - is a rebuke to those who echo the engineers of this campaign to destroy us. Our presence here in America, as an articulate, involved, aware and motivated part of our people, is a rebuke to their plans to deny our identity, denigrate our brotherhood, and silence us.

Remember - the plan and desire to eliminate us came first. The libel makes the plan not only palatable, but it demands our end. Whether it is participating in consequential elections, or standing up to the voices of those who act to end us and all those they inspire, we are a stiff necked people. May the Almighty bless us with continued stubbornness.