Incitement to Genocide

The indispensable Wm Norman Grigg problematizes an evil neo-con cabal’s efforts to bring about war on Iran under the pretense of enforcing the Genocide Convention: http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2007/02/genocidal-war-to-prevent-genocide.html

It seems that some of the neo-con ilk reckon that the Iranian president’s advocacy of destroying Israel amounts to “incitement” to genocide and that the rest of the world (the US and Israel) should invade Iran to apprehend its president and to try him for that crime. If necessary, the US and Israel should kill every last Iranian to accomplish this. Mr Grigg aptly points out the irony of advocating genocide in order to punish advocating genocide.

Let me add my two cents. Alan Dershowitz is one of the jackholes making this argument. He is a lawyer and should know that advocating something and inciting it to happen are not the same thing. If he does not know this, he is a bad lawyer. If he knows it and advances this idiotic argument anyway, he is a bad person.

If I say that the Amish are a scourge on the land and ought to be dispersed or destroyed, this is not incitement to genocide. I don’t have the means to bring this about, and I am not addressing anyone with the means or will to bring it about. Moreover, in order to count as incitement, the action I am inciting should be capable of being carried out imminently and there should be a strong likelihood that it will be carried out imminently. Suppose I urge the Adjutant General of the Pennsylvania National Guard to wipe out the Amish. The Guard certainly has the means to carry out my plan, but there is very little probability that they will do anything of the sort based on my say so. Accordingly, I have not committed incitement to genocide. If I am part of an angry Amish hating mob marching on Lancaster County and I give a rousing speech exhorting mayhem and murder, that might be an incitement to genocide even if it does not come off.

The president of Iran has allegedly argued that the destruction of the state of Israel would be a good idea. I don’t know if he advocates killing Jews. He apparently does not have the means or inclination to attack Israel or to commit genocide, nor does anyone whom he was addressing. Those entities with the means to commit genocide against Israel are ostensibly allies of Israel or, at worst from the Israeli standpoint, indifferent to Israel. There is no basis to argue that imminent genocidal action based on his words was likely, especially since no such action has yet occurred. Accordingly, the Iranian president is not guilty of incitement to genocide, and no indictment should be returned against him.

There is a better case to make against Dershowitz for inciting genocide against Iran. He has influence on the Bush regime and its main constituency, the insane religious right, and the Bush regime is itching to attack Iran.