Response to "I'm a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It."

Submitted to The New York Times July 20, 2025

Dear Editor:

There's one inescapable conclusion sensible people must draw from Omer Bartov's commentary "I'm a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It." The conclusion is Bartov is not qualified to teach about genocide.

Israel continues to defend itself from the barbaric October 7 attack by an avowedly genocidal terrorist organization, an organization backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is not shy about calling for the destruction of Israel.

In defending itself, Israel has taken more steps to avoid harming civilians - civilians strategically used as human shields by Hamas - than any other army in history, so much so that military leaders from other countries have visited Israel to learn what it does to minimize harm to civilians. They generally conclude they would not go as far as Israel does because they wouldn't be willing to increase the risk to their soldiers to protect enemy civilians the way Israel does.

Yet against all the evidence, Bartov argues Israel is guilty of genocide.

Sincerely,

Alan Stein

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