In his September 21 opinion column, “It’s the nuclear bomb of the 21st century. This is how we can control it,” commentator Justin Ling tackled the potential threats posed by artificial intelligence, calling for more global cooperation and planning to avoid catastrophic results.
And yet, amidst a column that had absolutely nothing to do with Israel, Ling made sure to insert a condemnation of the Jewish State, writing that “we know that Israel has aggressively used AI to make targeting decisions in its war on Gaza, so far without consequence,” adding that it was “fundamentally inhumane, particularly where those decisions may constitute a war crime. Current global chaos may make that kind of diplomacy seem unlikely. But accepting defeat is merely not an option.”
China Leads in AI Surveillance—But Israel Gets the Condemnation
This insertion of Israel as a cautionary tale of AI seems bizarre, particularly when China is the world leader in using such tools to universally surveil its own population. Curiously, Ling mentions China only once, in an unrelated and passing reference, though Israel is given an extended condemnation.
Israel’s Targeting of Terrorists Is Presented as the Problem
As for his allegations that Israel has “aggressively used AI to make targeting decisions,” bemoaning “without consequence,” he neglected to mention that Gaza is a densely-populated urban jungle where thousands of Hamas terrorists (and countless other ‘civilians’ invaded Israel on October 7, 2023), for whom Israel had entirely legitimate desire to target.
Notably, Israel’s use of AI in targeting terrorist combatants is a direct repudiation of the “genocide” slur that has been popularly leveled against it, demonstrating that Jerusalem has used advanced tools in order to target combatants and minimize civilian casualties as much as possible, a point that Ling – who has previously amplified the unfounded “genocide” slur in The Toronto Star – curiously did not acknowledge.
Serious Accusations Without a Scintilla of Evidence
Not once does Ling explain why Israel should have faced “consequence” for using advanced technologies aimed at minimizing civilian casualties in Gaza, admittedly a herculean task given Gaza’s density and the propensity for Hamas and other terrorist groups deliberately embedding their weapons and fighters within civilian infrastructure.
Nor does Ling explain how using AI to fight openly genocidal Islamist terrorist groups is somehow “fundamentally inhumane” or how they “constitute a war crime.” These are deadly serious accusations lobbed by Ling against Israel, yet he offers no fulsome articulation of his allegations, let alone providing even a scintilla of evidence for his claims.
Instead, Ling simply raises the spectre of “war crime(s)” and lets the mere accusation sit in the minds of readers, without having to defend any actual argument.
A Familiar Pattern of Attacking Israel
This is not the first time that Justin Ling has used falsehoods to assail Israel at The Toronto Star. He has previously demanded that the Carney government sever ties with Israel – while making no mention of genocidal
dictatorships – and has in our view brazenly misrepresented an International Court of Justice (ICJ) provisional ruling, falsely claiming that it called on Israel to stop fighting in Gaza (it did no such thing).
In another instance, Ling falsely claimed that Israel’s striking of a hospital where Hamas was operating was a war crime, when it is not. In fact, that falsehood prompted HonestReporting Canada to file an official complaint with The Toronto Star, which subsequently printed a correction, noting that such attacks are not illegal.
Drive-by accusations against Israel are nothing new, be they “genocide,” “famine” or the more generic “war crime.” But The Toronto Star would do well to insist that their columnists avoid leveling broad accusations of war crimes, all while complaining about Israel using technology to more precisely target terrorists and avoid civilians.
