Robert Kennedy Jr. Talking Sense on Israel and Its Enemies

It’s not Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s official remit — he is the secretary of health and human services, not secretary of state or national security advisor. And given some of his dubious remarks, I was pleasantly surprised to find him talking sensibly about Israel and those who would destroy it. More of his recent remarks on this subject can be found here: “RFK Jr. Defends Israel from ‘Genocide’ Slander,” by Corey Walker, Algemeiner, June 30, 2026:

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week defended Israel against accusations of genocide, telling Fox News host Jesse Watters that the Middle East’s “real genocide” has been the decline of Jewish and Christian populations across the region over the past several decades.

“There was a million Jews in the Middle East in the Arab countries” in 1948, Kennedy said. “Today, there’s about 15,000 left.” He added that Christians made up roughly one-fifth of the region’s population in 1948, a share that has since fallen to about five percent, with virtually no Jews now remaining in Jordan or Gaza.

Kennedy contrasted those declines with the growth of Israel’s Arab population, which he said rose from 150,000 in 1948 to nearly two million today, about 20 percent of the country’s population. “If Israel wanted to commit a genocide against Palestinians, they could do it in a minute,” he said. “It’s doing the opposite … If you want to see where a real genocide is happening, it’s not in Israel. It’s happening in all the nations around it.”

He noted that Gaza’s Christian population has fallen by about 80 percent over the past decade.

Kennedy’s remarks come as Israel faces mounting international scrutiny over its military campaign in Gaza, launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that killed approximately 1,200 people in Israel and saw about 250 taken hostage. Some governments, human rights organizations and legal experts have accused Israel of genocide — allegations Israel has repeatedly rejected as false and politically motivated….

Kennedy’s comments echo arguments made by many supporters of Israel, who point to regional demographic trends and to Israel’s civilian-warning measures — including leaflets, calls and texts before airstrikes — as evidence against the genocide accusations. Critics counter that demographic trends elsewhere do not resolve the legal questions surrounding Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

Among the demographic trends that Israel’s supporters point to are the remarkable increase in the Arab population in Israel. In 1949, there were 160,000 Arabs In Israel; today there are two million. And in 1967, when Israel took over Gaza, there were 356,000 Arabs in the Strip; today, there are 2.1 million. Genocide? What genocide? Hamas claims that 73,000 people have been killed in Gaza. The IDF believes it has killed, as of July 1, 2026, close to 30,000 terrorists, mainly from Hamas, but also some from Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In addition, there have been many examples of Gazan civilians that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad killed with missiles they fired that fell short, landing in Gaza. That was what happened at the Al-Ahli Hospital on October 17, 2023, where a missile that Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired landed in the hospital parking lot. According to Hamas, 471 Gazan civilians were killed in that single strike. The U.S., the UK, France, and Canada all agreed with Israel that a missile that Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired that fell short was responsible for their deaths. In fact, so many Palestinian Islamic Jihad missiles have misfired and landed in Gaza that Hamas held a meeting with Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders and excoriated them for their defective missiles. At least two thousand Gazans have died from the missiles that Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired that fell short, landing in Gaza.

Now, let us do the math. First, we subtract the number of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad combatants the IDF believes it has killed, and those civilians in Gaza whom misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad missiles killed. Do the math. 73,000 minus 30,000 equals 43,000. 43,000 minus 2,000 (Palestinian Islamic Jihad missiles falling short) equals 41,000 civilians killed. The civilian-to-combatant ratio of those killed is 41,000:30,000, which is much less than 2:1. According to the UN, in all the wars fought since World War II, the average civilian-to-combatant ratio has been 9:1. In Iraq, the American military managed to get that ratio down to 4:1. But no other military has done what the IDF has done, in lowering that ratio to 1.36:1.

Now that is a fact that Robert Kennedy, Jr. can make good use of, the next time he decides to speak about Israel. He’s rejected the malevolent charges of “apartheid” and “genocide.” He’s reminded us that Christian numbers have been greatly reduced almost everywhere in the Middle East, going down even in Bethlehem, but risen in Israel. He’s told us about the 850,00 Jews who after 1948 fled or were expelled from Arab lands, so that now fewer than 15,000 are left. He’s also reminded us that in 1948, Christians made up 20% of the region’s population, and now that percentage has fallen to about five percent (most of those are in Egypt and Lebanon).

“There was a million Jews in the Middle East in the Arab countries” in 1948, Kennedy said. “Today, there’s about 15,000 left.”

Actually, the decline in the Jewish population in Arab countries is even more dramatic: there are only 4,000 Jews left in the Arab lands, mostly in Morocco and Tunisia. Kennedy added that Christians made up roughly one-fifth of the region’s population in 1948, a share that has since fallen to about five percent, with virtually no Christians now remaining in Jordan or Gaza.

And Kennedy’s key sentence bears repeating:

“If Israel wanted to commit a genocide against Palestinians, they could do it in a minute,” he said. “It’s doing the opposite … If you want to see where a real genocide is happening, it’s not in Israel. It’s happening in all the nations around it.”

Kennedy’s clear-sightedness on Israel, given the sustained campaign against the Jewish state, both surprised and heartened me. I thought you’d feel the same.

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