Joshua Muravchik forklarer at Israel ikke bare hadde rett til, men i henhold til Folkemordskonvensjonen også plikt til å ta livet av Rantisi.

Unlike, say, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the genocide convention is a treaty, with the force of law. It is one of the oldest, and perhaps the most widely subscribed piece of international human-rights legislation, and arguably the one with the soundest legal foundation, codifying what the Nuremberg tribunal and the U.N. General Assembly in its very first session found to be existing customary law.

Article One of the convention obligates every party «to prevent and punish» genocide as «a crime under international law.» The convention goes on to define genocide as, inter alia, «killing» intended «to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.»

By this definition, it is clear that Hamas is an organization devoted to genocide and has been working busily at this mission for years. Hamas’s goal is the complete destruction of the Jewish state. As the late Rantisi himself affirmed: «By God, we will not leave one Jew in Palestine.» Nor did Rantisi leave doubt about what would become of these Jews. Asked by an interviewer «what do you see ultimately happening to the people [of] Israel?» Rantisi replied: «They killed thousands of Palestinians…. so I think it is just to do with them as they did with us.»

Nor are Hamas’s intended targets limited to Israeli Jews. Hamas’s covenant boasts: «HAMAS regards itself the spearhead and the vanguard of the circle of struggle against World Zionism [and] the fight against the warmongering Jews.» It makes clear that there is to be no end of killing: «The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.'»