The Department of State’s annual report on human-rights abuses around the world, released on March 3, devotes 69 pages to Israel and an additional 72 to the West Bank and Gaza, for a combined total equaling that devoted to China. No other nation, not even Syria or Iran, received such attention. But the problem is far more than a quantitative one, as Evelyn Gordon points out:

Take, for instance, the demolition of illegal construction in the Israeli Bedouin town of Umm al-Hiran. We’ll leave aside the question of why demolishing illegal construction—with the approval of several courts, including the Supreme Court, and while offering the residents alternative land plus cash compensation—constitutes a human-rights violation at all. It’s enough to consider a single sentence, which is based on a report by an Israeli NGO, the Negev Coexistence Forum (NCF): “The NCF reported that construction work on [the planned new town of] Hiran progressed and expanded during the year, reaching to within a few yards of Bedouin houses in Umm al-Hiran, and residents suffered from the dust raised by construction.”

Is this a joke? Or do State’s human-rights gurus seriously think people suffering from the dust of nearby construction constitutes a human-rights violation? By that logic, the only place anyone could build without violating human rights would be in wilderness areas. . . . .

But far worse than such inanities is the way the report traffics in unsupported libel. Take, for instance, this gem: “There were reports some children worked in forced labor in the West Bank, including in settlements. NGOs reported employers subjected Palestinian men to forced labor in Israeli settlements. . . . The Palestinian Authority was unable to monitor and investigate abuses in these areas.”

In other words, the State Department accused Israel of subjecting Palestinians—including children—to forced labor, without citing a single example to substantiate this accusation. . . . Nor is this lack of evidence surprising, since the accusation is groundless. So why was such a vile, unsubstantiated allegation even included in the report?

A human-rights report worthy of the name would prioritize, devoting most of its attention to the world’s worst abusers. It would reflect enough basic good judgment to excise inanities like “suffering from construction dust.” It would either try to confirm unsubstantiated allegations or omit them because they were unsubstantiated. . . . Instead, the State Department apparently just copied and pasted anything it could find from [anti-Israel NGOs], no matter how ludicrous or unsubstantiated.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.