Dr.
@LeeMordechai from the Hebrew University consistently tweets that he is an Israeli historian claiming Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
I read the article about him in
@haaretzcom. Almost every claim he makes can be contested both factually and morally, but Iโll focus on a few key points here. It is long, but important.
First, the article is utterly disconnected from context. It's true that genocide does not "depend on the context", but claiming for genocide with false accusations is...
The IDF didnโt enter Gaza one day out of bloodlust or a desire to harm civilians.
We cannot forget October 7thโa day when thousands of Gazans invaded Israel, entered villages and towns, and massacred innocent civilians with deliberate, unimaginable brutality. 1,200 Israelis were murdered, and 251 were kidnapped, with 100 hostages still held captive.
Only after this atrocity did the IDF launch an attack to dismantle Hamas and bring back the hostages. None of this is mentioned in the article.
The sole reference to October 7th comes from Mordechai himself, who recounts waking up during his sabbatical at Princeton to the news. Within hours, he claimed to have realized there was a "gap between what Israelis saw and reality."
His first mission? Downplay the horrors of October 7th. Weeks later, he shifted to amplifying claims against the IDF.
This is the only description of October 7th in the article, as seen through Mordechaiโs distorted view.
When I woke up on October 7th, during my own sabbatical in North America, my first thoughtsโbeyond horror and concernโwere about how quickly I could return to help. Minutes later, I had booked my flight back to Israel.
Mordechai, however, recounts considering volunteering in a civilian organization but ultimately deciding he could contribute more by documenting "IDF crimes" from his comfortable seat in the U.S.
Yet, he proudly waves his Israeli citizenship and Hebrew University affiliation as if they lend credibility to his reliance on Palestinian claims.
Clearly, Mordechaiโs mission was to diminish the atrocities of October 7th while accusing the IDF of genocide. And still, some may argue that he reports "objectively" or presents "facts." To counter this, Iโll briefly address several of his claims mentioned in the article (sources in the comments):
1. "This is the first war where Israel doesnโt count the casualties on the other side. Foreign governments, media, and international organizations rely on reports from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which are โconsidered quite reliable.โ"
Iโm not sure if Israel has ever officially counted enemy casualties. But calling the Palestinian Ministry of Health "reliable"? Laughable.
Numerous reports expose their fabricated numbers, including a study by Prof. Abraham Wyner from UPenn, highlighting severe statistical flaws. Palestinians often lower ages to classify adult combatants as children. A 19-year-old militant becomes a "child casualty."
2. Mordechai focuses heavily on the high Palestinian death toll. This is always a striking argument but ultimately weak. If a significant percentage of the casualties (estimated between 33%-50%) are Hamas militants, then these are military achievements, not genocide. High casualties donโt make one side less moral. The Allies killed far more Germans and Japaneseโcivilians includedโthan they suffered. Does Mordechai claim the Nazis were the victims in WWII?
3. "Kill zones" near Israeli forces. Maintaining secure buffer zones is a necessity after October 7th. The fact that Israel didn't maintain the buffer zone close to the border and allowed civilians to enter it, served Hamas for intelligence gathering, to attack soldiers, and ultimately to invade Israel on October 7th.
4. Mordechai claims that he relies only on reliable sources. But in practice, he continues to spread stories that proved to be lies or unreliable. For example, he says in the article that the rape in Shifa hospital is only a footnote in the report. But this lie was even removed from Al Jazeera website. His report is full of lies and unreliable resources. See for example here:
nitter.app/aizenberg55/status/180โฆ
5. Many of his claims are out of context or miss the most important piece of information.
For example, he talked about tens of bodies that were found in Shifa hospital after the IDF was there.
Who are the bodies? Hamas? Civilians? He doesn't say and doesn't distinguish between civilians and Hamas militants.
6. "IDF soldiers celebrated running over a person." I know several cases where IDF armored vehicles ran over a person. In all those cases, the person was a Hamas militant that tried to attach a charge to the side of the vehicle or tried to climb it (usually to throw a grenade inside).
Is it the case also here? Who knows? Are we to mourn terrorists killed in self-defense?
Letโs be honest: war is horrific, filled with atrocities. But armies and societies are judged by their conduct and response.
The IDF operates with clear rules of engagement, rooted in moral principles. The unprecedented challenges in Gazaโits density and Hamasโ use of human shieldsโmake avoiding civilian harm exceptionally hard.
It's true that there are exceptions. No society is perfect. But the IDF and Israel investigate every known exceptional case and seeks for the truth.
By any objective standard, the IDFโs achievementsโneutralizing thousands of militants with relatively low civilian casualtiesโare extraordinary.
What do we have here?
A professor at an Israeli university downplaying the horrors of October 7th while accusing Israel of genocide. Masked as a scientist, he promotes a narrative riddled with anecdotes, most unrelated to his central claim. His tweets reach millions, causing immense damage.
The truth must be told. Spread it.