Omer Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University, has publicly denounced Israel as being responsible for the attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7: “‘Genocidal Intent’: Brown University Holocaust Professor Blames Israel for Hamas Terrorism,” by Alec Schemmel, Washington Free Beacon, December 6, 2023:
“Even if Hamas were somehow removed from Gaza—as the Palestine Liberation Organization was removed from Beirut—there is no known plan by the Israeli government as to what would happen next,” Bartov wrote. “The Israelis do not want responsibility for governing an additional 2 million Palestinians; nor does Egypt.” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the nation’s military will control Gaza following the war.
There is no “known plan” about what happens in Gaza after Hamas is destroyed, or rather, there is no plan known to Professor Omer Bartov. There is the stale and unworkable notion — it’s hardly a plan — pushed by the Bidenites, for a “two-state solution” that will never come to pass. I suspect Bartov likes that the best, because this so-called “solution” would force Israel to be squeezed back within the now indefensible 1949 armistice lines. There are those who have other ideas. The one I keep proposing here at Jihad Watch is this: after the fighting ends, the IDF takes a few months to search for, and destroy, every last tunnel, and every last weapons storehouse, above or below ground. At the same time, even before Israel’s task of destruction of tunnels and weapons is complete. the UAE and Saudi Arabia could be persuaded to take on the task of ruling Gaza, at least as long as the Strip is undergoing reconstruction with funds largely provided by those two surpassingly rich countries.
In addition to Bartov, Brown professor of Palestinian studies Beshara Doumani has endorsed the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to wage economic warfare on Israel. The movement’s founder, Omar Barghouti, has touted BDS as a way to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state” and “turn Israel into a pariah state.”…
I see that “Palestinian studies” are well represented at Brown. Not only is there a professor of Palestinian studies — who wants to wage economic warfare against Israel — but even the professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies seems more interested in supporting the Palestinians and denouncing Israel than in supporting the Jews in their attempt to head off a second holocaust.
Professor Doumani has been working behind the scenes, helping the Brown chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) compose their response to the October 7 Hamas attack, which attack Doumani — and the SJP students — have the maddening gall to blame not on the perpetrator Hamas, but rather on the victim, Israel.
There is fear on the Brown campus, but it is one-sided. None of the SJP students are fearful. They know that they will suffer no consequences from the administration for their blaming Israel for “causing” the attacks on October 7. No hordes of Jewish students will chant slogans against them, or try to attack them. At Brown, it is the Jewish students who are now in a permanent state of fear. The campus for them is unsafe. The professor of Holocaust studies, whom one might have expected would display solidarity with Jews after experiencing the largest antisemitic attack since the Nazis, and show sympathy for Jewish fears on campus, instead has taken the side of Hamas, blaming Israel for the current conflict. Remember what he claimed in a recent article: “If you keep over 2 million people under siege for 16 years [sic], cramped in a narrow strip of land, without enough work, proper sanitation, food, water, energy and education, with no hope or future prospects, you cannot but expect outbreaks of ever more desperate and brutal violence,” wrote Bartov.
There has been no 16-year “siege,” but only a narrowly-tailored blockade of “dual-use” materials, such as cement and steel rods, that can be used to build tunnels and bunkers. The fact that there is not enough work in Gaza is hardly Israel’s fault; it is due entirely to the corruption and mismanagement by Hamas itself, three of whose leaders (Khaled Meshaal, Mousa Abu Marzouk, Ismail Haniyeh) have stolen from the aid meant for Gaza the colossal sum of eleven billion dollars. Israel has tried to alleviate the problem by providing well-paying jobs for 20,000 Gazans — a number it was about to increase before October 7, but of course since then, no Gazan workers have been allowed into Israel, given the belief that some of those guest-workers provided intelligence to Hamas about the layout of both kibbutzim and the house shelters, and the placement of security details.Contrary to Bartov, the Israeli “siege” never included food or medicine; Israel also had been supplying Gaza, until October 7, with food, water, and 50% of its electricity. None of this is taken into account by Omer Bartov. It is entirely possible he knows none of this, but more likely, he is counting on his audience not knowing.
Ian Senior says
Pray Israel comes out of this war stronger than when it went in.
Plenty of Left Wing Nut Jobs around who blame Israel and the British for the woes of the world.
bill says
Education is in a parlous state in USA even in its most prestigious institutions. I am contantly appalled at the ignorant idiots who get appointed to professorships there and head departments, whilst spouting ignorant claims. These people are not fit for their positions. It just shows that gaining a doctorate or two is no indication of intelligence.
If there has been a 16 year siege how have Iran and others managed to smuggle in such large quantities of weapons and ammunition, not to mention the huge amounts of cement to build
that vast tunnle complex?
VMS says
So, will Brown fire the esteemed professor for professing lies in his supposed area of expertise?
Unknown guy says
Jews claim they had a continuous presence in the holy Land since the time of abraham so are these British Jews or any jew moving to Israel asked to prove they are descendant of the Jews that lived there 2000 yrs ago. We all know no such rules exist. Recently i have seen this argument being peddled by some leftist. How can we counter this argument?
mgoldberg says
A stupid argument… no need to ‘counter’ it.
Transmaster says
Just point out the Mizrahi Jews. This is a term given by the State of Israel for Jews that never left the Holy land and lived in Egypt, and in Anatolia during the Byzantin, and Ottoman Empires, an area that included Jerusalem The Oriental Jews lived in the traditional areas they inhabited since the time of the exodus. As for the European Jews they were present during to Roman Rule of the area. Many forced out of Samaria after the Jewish rebellion and the sacking of Jerusalem AD 70 and moved West to the Roman Senatorial, and Imperial Provinces.
Transmaster says
The thing is Samaria was very much inhabited by Hellenistic Jews. They spoke Greek as their 1st language. The big problem Hellenistic Jews had was when they went to the bathhouses, and participated in Greek athletic events in which the participants were naked. Their desire to be fashionably Greek fell apart because they were circumcised.
gravenimage says
And Transmaster, the term Mizrahi much preceeds the existence of the modern state of Israel. There have been Jews in the Levant for 3000 year now.
And of what other country is it demanded that no one who doesn’t fit their arbitrary demands of genetic purity be allowed?
Brenrod says
your ignorance unmasks you. The answers are clear to your questions but you are too lazy and ignorant to look them up.
somehistory says
In 2005, they moved all of the Jews out. Get rid of the terrorists, and give the land back to the people they moved out….if they want it….or to the Jews who have been moving in since Oct. to fill the void in the job market left by those palestinian spies who worked and spied in Israel proper.
mozlums have no legal right to the land they stole from the Jews and Christians who lived there in times past. (Many Jews became Christians in the days when Jesus was there and in the years afterward.)
Tell the so-called palestinians they can stay if they follow all the Laws of Israel and work for a living….don’t give them any funds if they don’t work….or they can go to Jordan, Egypt, or wherever they are allowed by other nations.
Treat them as the mafia they are. Some of them may not be all bad….like the elderly woman who said hamas was taking all of the food, water and other ‘help’ and giving the people nothing.
Give each one, each family a choice…if they want to stay, they must agree to obey all laws.
carpediadem says
They will promise and it will be a lie because Islam.
somehistory says
Probably near 100%, but there may be a few who would like something different, but are afraid of the terrorists, and even members of their families.
Kind of like the few not guilty who are sent to prison….it does happen occasionally.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
For there to be a siege, a place has to be surrounded on all sides & cut off from anyone else. Hamas still had the Mediterranean, where it could get supplies from sympathizing countries like Turkey, and they also had the Egypt border, so if Egypt wanted, Hamas could have been supported via Khan Younis and Rafah. If France seals off its border w/ Spain, Spain is not “under siege”. Similarly, Gaza was never under siege either
gravenimage says
True, Infidel.
Transmaster says
This stupidity of the Palestinians is telling. The EU was going to build desalination plants along the Mediterranean. It was rejected because these idiots said they had enough water. Then sited water sources inside Israel as if Israel didn’t exist. Of course the EU was going to build these plants so there was no cash to steal and hide away in secret bank accounts. They bitched about no cement to built schools, Israel gave the the concrete. Hamas used the children that would have been in those schools to dig the tunnels, and the concrete line them.
There is drone footage of the destruction of a tunnel system in Northern Gaza. Impressive secondary explosions, made even better when the buildings above collapsed into them.
gravenimage says
No, There Has Been No Sixteen-Year Israeli Siege of Gaza
…………………………………….
This claim is grotesque. Israel left Gaza in 2005, and has *only* had any involvement there when Hamas or some other Jihad terror group has attacked them using Gaza as a a base. Usually this has just involved a few surgical strikes–their actually entering Gaza, as they have done in the wake of the horrifying October 7 attack, is rare.
All Gazans have to do is stop murdering Israelis.
Paul says
We are all supposed to believe that open borders and unlimited immigration from Islamic countries is a “good thing” so why don’t all the people who keep preaching this to *us* demand that Egypt open the border to the people who have been living in Gaza, and let them all in. And pay for their education, health and housing. Just like we have to do. Get *all* of the terrorists and *all* of their supporters, actual and potential, present and future, *out* of there. Make other *Islamic* countries take them in. And turn the whole area into a DMZ.