‘South Africa should be on trial for genocide, for supporting Hamas’

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – Tomorrow, the International Court of Justice in The Hague is expected to release its preliminary finding in South Africa’s lawsuit claiming that Israel is committing “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza and that Israel has a “genocidal intent.”

I can't think of a more insane charge.

The term “genocide” itself was actually coined by a Polish Jew who developed the term to describe what had happened to the Jewish people during the Holocaust.

Indeed, Israel was one of the original signers of the Genocide Convention within international law.

Israel is absolutely not engaged in genocide – to the contrary, we are defending ourselves from Hamas, a terrorist organization which openly calls for the total annihilation of the Jewish state.

Given the urgency of this issue, tonight on THE ROSENBERG REPORT, I’ll deal with South Africa’s allegations head on.

Joining me is Lieutenant-Colonel (reserves) Jonathan Conricus.

I first met Conricus – a former IDF combat commander – a few years ago while he was serving as the chief spokesman for Israel Defense Forces.

Since the Hamas invasion of Israel on Oct. 7th, he was back in the IDF Spokesman's Unit, giving hundreds of TV and radio interviews explaining the IDF’s war in Gaza – and then against Hezbollah in Lebanon – and batting all kinds of scurrilous and at times outright antisemitic charges against Israel.

Recently, Conricus was released from reserve duty and was hired by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), an excellent think tank in Washington, though he remains here in Israel.

In our pre-taped interview, which we recorded on Monday, I pressed him to dismantle South Africa’s case.

I encourage you to watch the full conversation tonight at 9 p.m. EST on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), the most-watched Christian TV network in the U.S.

But given the World Court’s imminent decision, I wanted to share some of Conricus’ insights here on ALL ISRAEL NEWS.

“You know, I actually thank the South Africans because I think presented their case, the Hamas case, in such a sloppy and unorganized and really shaky way,” Conricus told me.

“It provided Israel with an opportunity with the best legal minds that we have – Israel really took this challenge seriously, brought the heavy guns, really excellent legal experts – who really dismantled the South African claim point after point after point in clear, concise, legal and everyday language so that it was clear for consumers around the world to understand and for legal experts to understand.”

“It is a perverse allegation,” he told me.

“I think South Africa should be on trial for supporting genocide because Hamas itself, by its charter and by its actions and by the statements of Hamas seniors after October the 7th, they promote and they try to achieve genocide.”

“Senior Hamas officials are saying that, ‘If we can, we will do October 7th again and again and again and we will end the occupation,” he noted, explaining that “occupation isn't Gaza in their terminology – the occupation is Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, Ashdod, Safed, and Rosh Pina,” all Israeli citizens within Israel’s internationally recognized borders.

In our conversation, Conricus goes on to make several excellent points.

First, he said, “Let's say it in blunt words: If Israel really wanted to mass murder and conduct genocide, we have the weapons in our arsenal. We have the capacity to do so if we wanted if we would be as morally corrupt as our enemies, we could take the many bombs that we have dropped them on Gaza and then just mow everything down. So that is not what the IDF has done. That is never, never was our intention. And the fact that we have the capability but have not used it. I think that shows that we do not have the intent.”

Second, he noted, “The IDF took unprecedented steps by a military in combat by signaling and telegraphing ahead its intentions and basically telling civilians, but also telling the enemy, ‘This is where we're going to operate,’” and urging Palestinians to get move south to get out of the way of hostilities.

What’s more, the IDF sent out those warnings three full weeks between the attack of Oct. 7 and the commencement of Israel's actual ground invasion on Oct. 28.

“We're talking about 20,000 live phone calls; and “five million text messages that were disseminated directly and locally,” Conricus went on to say.

The IDF has also dropped upwards of 15 million leaflets telling Palestinians to leave combat zones and telling them exactly where to go to find food, water, shelter and medical supplies.

The IDF didn’t just tell Gazans, “Go south and good luck,” he stressed.

“No, it was, ‘Go south. And we are going to designate one area which is going to be a combat free zone where you will be able to go, and this will be the safest place for you to be.’”

Third, Conricus told me that, as of this week, the IDF has facilitated the arrival into Gaza of massive amounts of humanitarian aid.

“We’re talking about more than 170,000 tons of food, water, medicine, shelter, and other types of humanitarian supplies” that have entered Gaza since the war began, he said. “And they have come in [via] approximately 11,000 trucks.”

Were the Jews of Germany, Poland, and the rest of Europe told to get out of the way of the Nazis in World War II?

Of course not.

Did Adolf Hitler and his forces make phone calls and drop leaflets warning Jews to go to safe zones in his mad bid to take over Europe and the world?

Of course not.

Did Hitler provide food, water, and medical supplies to Jews during the Holocaust?

Of course not.

Hitler truly had genocidal intent.

He wanted to murder every Jew in Europe, and the world.

And he succeeded in slaughtering six million – one out of three Jews on the planet at the time.

Hamas has genocidal intent.

But have the South Africans put them on trial?

Of course not.

Conricus is right.

Israel has been doing everything possible to protect Palestinian civilians while fighting to protect the Jewish state from Hamas’ genocidal mission.

That’s why the South African case against Israel is not only insane but provably wrong.

But that doesn’t mean South Africa will lose before the World Court tomorrow.

Please join me in praying justice is done and that Israel is absolved of these cruel, crazy and corrupt charges.