In the Bible, the word "shibboleth" was used by the Gileadites to separate friend from foe. Those who pronounced it correctly were accepted as friends and allowed to cross the Jordan River. An Ephraimite who did not was identified as an enemy and put to death.

Here's how the King James Bible put it: "Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan."

Among today's "progressive" Democrats, the phrase "genocide in Gaza" is a modern-day shibboleth. Those who pronounce it properly are accepted as fellow members of the party. Those who do not are foes to be put to political death at the ballot box.

In an October 2025 tweet, Graham Platner wrote that "the genocide in Gaza is the moral test of our time." When forced to withdraw from the Maine Senate race, he whined, "All we were asking for was healthcare, was to end the genocide, to use our taxpayer dollars at home to uplift our communities instead of waging war overseas." It was as if his pronouncement of "genocide in Gaza" gave him a free pass that overrode a Nazi tattoo and sexual assault allegations.

As the leading Democrat behind the release of the Epstein files, California Rep. Ro Khanna wants to demonstrate his commitment to truth and transparency. As a potential presidential candidate, he discards demographic and legal data when he deems Israeli genocide "a moral test for anyone who wants to lead our party."

The problem with these accusations is that they reject the facts. In the vocabulary of modern progressivism, the term "genocide" has been detached from its legal definition and repurposed as a tribal shibboleth.

Gaza's Ministry of Health reports more than 73,000 Palestinian conflict-related deaths, including those of Hamas combatants, since October 2023. Critics maintain the total likely also includes deaths from Hamas' own misfired missiles, the execution of its internal opponents and even a small number from natural causes.

Moreover, Hamas has systematically used schools and hospitals filled with students, teachers, medical personnel and patients as shields for its armed personnel. Meanwhile, Israel took steps to establish safe zones for civilians and warn them before impending attacks.

Hamas' disregard for human life extends to aid delivery as well. In a July 12 statement, the United Nations Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process accused Hamas authorities of the "obstruction of humanitarian operations in Gaza... which endangered humanitarian personnel, intimidated workers delivering lifesaving food assistance and disrupted life-saving humanitarian operations."

The 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence laid out the aspirations of the new state "to ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture." The number of Arabs in Israel has grown over 10 times since its independence and constitutes over a fifth of the total population. Israeli Arabs vote in elections and have members in the Israeli parliament.

The Hamas Covenant of 1988 lays out a different kind of tolerance. It calls for Islam to "obliterate" Israel and to "vanquish" all Jews. As former President Joe Biden said of Hamas, "Its stated purpose is the annihilation of the State of Israel and the murder of Jewish people." Hamas does not deny it. Less than a month after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, an interviewer asked senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad whether his organization's war aims include the "annihilation of Israel." Hamad responded, "Yes, of course."

Israel's lack of genocidal intent is shown by a Gaza population that has increased sixfold since 1967. By contrast, Arab lands have been ethnically cleansed of Jews. The combined Jewish population in eight Arab nations has plummeted, from 850,000 in 1948 to under 4,000 today, a 99.5% decline.

One side in the Middle East has a record of genocidal intent, and it is not Israel.

Abdul El-Sayed, a top contender for the Democratic senate nomination in Michigan, has made attacks on Israeli genocide a centerpiece of his campaign. He has appeared with streamer Hasan Piker who called Hamas "a thousand times better" than Israel. After beating a 30-year incumbent in a Colorado House primary, Melat Kiros said she would not "wait to end the genocide in Palestine."

Accusations against Israel have become key elements even in local campaigns. In the most prominent example, Zohran Mamdani's attacks were central to his victorious campaign for mayor of New York City. Los Angeles mayoral candidate and city counNithya Raman agreed in an interview with Piker that Israel is committing genocide. What foreign affairs has to do with running the two largest cities in America is beyond me.

Embracing an obvious untruth seems to be the shibboleth for success. A recent poll shows that about half of Democrats believe that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, and even 30% of Jews believe so.

No wonder onetime supporters of Israel like New York City's Brad Lander have found it politically advantageous to adopt the term to win elections. While incumbent Representative Dan Goldman criticized the Israeli government without using the word "genocide," he recently lost his renomination bid to Lander.

It doesn't seem to matter that the facts don't support the accusation. War is cruel, and innocent Gaza civilians have indeed suffered grievous harm. But tragic suffering is not in itself genocide. In 1945, American bombers created a firestorm in Tokyo that killed an estimated 100,000 civilians and left over a million homeless. No warning leaflets were dropped. Yet no serious allegations of American genocide followed.

Today, history has given way to ideology. It reminds me of George Orwell's definition of "blackwhite" in his novel 1984: "Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this."

The Democratic Party is on the way to establishing its own Ministry of Truth. In 2026, it doesn't matter to many of its candidates if an accusation of "Israeli genocide" is false — not if it's the shibboleth that provides passage to electoral success.

A renaissance man, Keith Raffel has served as the senior counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, started a successful internet software company, and had six books published including five novels and a collection of his columns. He currently spends the academic year as a resident scholar at Harvard. You can learn more about him at keithraffel.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at creators.com.

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Photo credit: Mohammed Ibrahim at Unsplash