Amos Goldberg, professor of Holocaust studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, sounded the alarm in April of this year by announcing, “Yes, it is genocide. It is so difficult and painful to admit it.”

The United Nations definition is “any act committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The current Israeli military attack on Gaza meets four out of the five criteria found in Article II of the U.N. Convention on Genocide that the U.S. ratified in 1948, with the exception being forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Article III lists acts that shall be punishable including complicity in genocide.

Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel has stated repeatedly that the goal of this military operation was to destroy Hamas and free the hostages. Neither goal has been reached after 13 months of shelling and bombing that have leveled the area and killed almost 50,000 Palestinians with no end in sight. He used the distraction of Election Day in the U.S. to fire his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, removing any pretense of a righteous self-defense.

On his last day, Minister Yoav Gallant told family members of the Israeli hostages that the military had achieved all of its objectives in Gaza and that the prime minister was holding up negotiations with Hamas. Also on Election Night, IDF Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen reportedly stated that “there is no intention of allowing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes.”

Last month, the U.N. estimated there were about 400,000 civilians unable or unwilling to follow Israeli evacuation orders. Cohen added that humanitarian aid would be not be allowed to enter the north, since there are “no more civilians left.” If there are no civilians left then all human beings in the area are fair game.

Out of 254 hostages, 105 have been released by Hamas and 34 were killed by their captors. Netanyahu has been sharply criticized in Israel for his lack of commitment to negotiate for their release. One can only speculate as to his reluctance to do so. Persons connected to him are alleged to have been involved in leaking Hamas strategy documents, manipulating or editing the material to make it seem as though the Palestinian militant group’s leadership planned to drag out the talks as long as possible, as well as smuggle hostages to Egypt to justify the continued destruction in Gaza.

On the same day as he fired his defense minster he expanded his goals to include the destruction of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed extremist militia in Lebanon. Addressing the Lebanese people after IDF incursions into southern Lebanon, Netanyahu said, “You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza. It doesn’t have to be that way.”

He knows full well that Lebanon does not have the military strength or political stability to drive Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon. When they don’t it will become his justification to continue increase the level of violence in Lebanon.

The White House last month gave Israel 30 days to improve humanitarian aid convoys, and other conditions that have not been met, or risk losing military support. By the end of October, an average of just 71 trucks a day were entering Gaza. That deadline has come and gone.

The State Department said Israel has made limited progress and that it would not take any punitive action against its close ally. According to Israel’s count, they are up to 75 trucks a day in November, four trucks a day over the daily count in October and below the minimum of 350 trucks needed to meet the basic needs of the civilian population.

There is plenty of guilt to be shared by all parties for the level of instability in the Middle East. The past 72 years has been marred by Arab terrorists, Christian terrorists and Jewish terrorists who have participated in war crimes including ethnic cleansing as well as the killing and rape of innocent men, women and children.

This cycle of violence has been further exacerbated by the interference of foreign powers with their own geopolitical agendas, the U.S. included. Our $18 billion contribution to this genocide this year makes us complicit and in no way improves the chances for peace.