A Polish citizen named Damian Sobol was among the seven World Central Kitchen employees killed by Israeli Defense Forces’ drone strikes while working to deliver aid to starving Gazans on Monday. On Friday, the Israelis attempted an explanation. It’s hard to assess its credibility, but it ultimately takes responsibility for making a grave error. It also amounts to a strong denial that the killings were deliberate. Of course, it’s not easy to believe that the three cars, which were clearly identified as belonging to World Central Kitchen, were targeted by mistake. In addition to being clearly marked, the IDF was well-informed of the food delivery mission and admits that they were closely monitoring every movement through aerial surveillance.

Nonetheless, Israel’s ambassador to Poland, Yacov Livne, posted on social media that only the “extreme right and left in Poland” were making the intentionality accusation and that “antisemites will always remain antisemites, and Israel will remain a democratic Jewish state that fights for its right to exist. Also for the good of the entire Western world.” It did not go over well.

A new diplomatic crisis between Poland and Israel has erupted following the death of a Polish aid worker in Gaza, with the Polish president denouncing a comment by the Israeli ambassador as “outrageous” and the Foreign Ministry in Warsaw saying it was summoning him for a meeting…

…Polish President Andrzej Duda called the comment “outrageous” and described the ambassador as “the biggest problem for the state of Israel in relations with Poland.”

Duda said authorities in Israel have spoken about the tragedy “in a very subdued way,” but added, “Unfortunately, their ambassador to Poland is not able to maintain such delicacy and sensitivity, which is unacceptable.”

Prime Minister Donald Tusk, while a political opponent of Duda’s, voiced a similar position on Thursday.

He said that the comment was unacceptable and had offended Poles and that the ambassador should apologize.

“If the ambassador decides to make public appearances in our media, he should use this opportunity to offer a simple, human apology,” Tusk said.

The deputy foreign minister was quoted in Polish media as saying that Livne was summoned to a meeting on Friday morning.

Think about what’s happening here. The Israeli ambassador is summoned to receive a formal reprimand for giving offense to the people of Poland. And what was the offense? The offense was that a mourning people who have good reason not to trust the word of the Israeli military were accused of hating Jews if they did not wholeheartedly accept a dubious explanation.

One thing to consider here is that if people actually take what Ambassador Livne wrote as true, they have the choice of maintaining their position and accepting that they are antisemites. Here’s the formulation for that: “I think the drone strikes were part of a deliberate Israeli policy to discourage food aid to the Gazans, and if that makes me an antisemite then I am an antisemite.”

My position is that I am skeptical of the IDF explanation and do not accept it as the gospel truth. That in no way makes me an antisemite. I choose to take offense at Livne’s accusation rather than to either change my view or embrace his characterization of my doubt. Furthermore, I am concerned that others might choose the path I described, and form anti-Jewish beliefs in response.

People cannot be bullied into believing things they find implausible. And that is why the antisemitism charge should not be used as a method of persuasion. True expressions of antisemitism should not be tolerated and must be called out, but that actually becomes difficult to do when false or mendacious claims are common.

It’s bad enough when critics of Israel’s government are accused of antisemitism irrespective of the tone and tenor of their critiques. But here there is a clear pattern of killing aid workers, and a six-month history that has led to famine. Israel is resisting all efforts to prevent starvation in Gaza, and that cannot be wholly unintentional. The result of the strikes is that the World Central Kitchen and other organizations have suspended food assistance programs, and that seems to be consistent with the Israeli government’s goals.

But even if we accept their explanation, it amounts to an admission that the rules of engagement are so loose and poorly supervised that mistakes like this are inevitable. They have cashiered two officers and reprimanded others, but they must immediately shift to stopping the famine if they don’t want to be held responsible for it. It seems like the most antisemitic thing you can do is to give a bad name to Israel by committing genocide.

What’s remarkable about this Polish incident is how well it demonstrates that the antisemitism charge has lost its power, and no one is more to blame for that the government of Netanyahu.