{"id":11221,"date":"2026-03-21T05:50:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T16:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=11221"},"modified":"2026-03-20T14:44:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T01:44:02","slug":"shutting-out-the-noise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=11221","title":{"rendered":"Shutting out the noise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

OPINION: Ashley Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a long time, after October 7, I tried to respond to the claims that Israel was committing \u201cgenocide\u201d in Gaza in good faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I assumed that most people were using that word out of ignorance. That they\u2019d picked it up from headlines, activists, or social media feeds, without really understanding what genocide actually means in law, history, or reality. I thought that, if I just explained the term, people would stop using it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It became obvious that the word \u201cgenocide\u201d wasn\u2019t being used because people were confused or misinformed. It was being used by people who didn\u2019t WANT to know it\u2019s real meaning . It was being used in the same way that people throw around words like \u201cNazi\u201d and \u201cfascist\u201d. Not in a politically and historically accurate sense \u2013 but as a rhetorical weapon. As a loaded word chosen, not to describe reality, but to inflict maximum offense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So pretending that this is just sloppy language is naive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When people casually accuse Israel of genocide, they aren\u2019t making a legal argument. They\u2019re casting a moral slur. They\u2019re reaching for the most emotionally charged accusation available, because they know that it carries with it the deepest possible offense. It\u2019s an attempt to portray Israel as evil \u2013 and by extension, to portray Jews as evil. Not because there\u2019s any truth in the claim \u2013 there isn\u2019t \u2013 but as yet another way to express the irrational and centuries old hatred of Jews that grips the minds and hearts of so many. The same reason that the one Jewish state on earth is held to standards and labels that are not applied to any other modern conflict: antisemitism. The oldest prejudice in the book, dressed up in fashionable political language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here\u2019s the thing \u2013 once you strip away the Jew-hatred \u2013 the genocide claim evaporates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no Genocide in Gaza (no matter how often people throw that word around)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genocide isn\u2019t a \u201cfeeling\u201d. It isn\u2019t shorthand for \u201cthis war is horrific.\u201d It is a very specific crime in international law. It requires proof of something very particular: an intent to destroy a people as a people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not an intent to defeat a terrorist army. Not an intent to dismantle a regime. Not an intent to fight a defensive war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A deliberate campaign to destroy a group because it is that group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the legal threshold is clear. Courts have determined that genocidal intent must be the only reasonable inference from the evidence. If there are credible alternative explanations for what is happening \u2013 such as a brutal urban war against an armed organisation embedded within civilian infrastructure \u2013 the genocide allegation fails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel\u2019s stated war aims have been consistent from day one: dismantle Hamas and recover hostages. Those are conventional military objectives in response to the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. You may disagree with the tactics. You may question particular decisions. But those aims are not genocidal aims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conduct of the war also matters. When you see:<\/p>\n\n\n\n