You're never going to win over popular opinion by saying, you kill our kids, now we're going to kill yours a hundred times over. The Jews blew it when they went in with a sledge hammer to kill an ant. They have every right to go after Hamas, but surgical strikes was the move. Too late now. No way they come out of this looking good, or stronger.
It's long overdue that protestors learned the actual definition of genocide. Genocide is what Hamas is trying to do to the Jews -- in fact Hamas has kill all the Jews and eliminate Israel directly written in its charter. It does not get much more clear than that. Pro-Hamas protestors are cheering for the genocide of the Jews. Enough is enough. No, protesters, Israel is not committing genocide | Opinion https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/article288383000.html Genocide. That word makes me think about how my family suffered as targets of the Nazis’ antisemitic extermination campaign. For more than 30 years,The Florida Holocaust Museum has been teaching people what genocide is, what causes it, and how to prevent it. We now find ourselves in the unexpected position of teaching what genocide is not. Genocide has become a central allegation for anti-Israel activists at campus protests. They use the word as a cudgel, applying it to Israel and anything – whether universities or cancer hospitals – even tangentially associated with it. Israel is not beyond scrutiny or reproach, but advocacy requires truth. If, after learning the actual facts, you disagree with Israel’s response to the brutal terrorism of Oct. 7th, you can call it tragic, inappropriate, and disproportionate – but you can’t accurately call it genocide. The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide rigorously defines the crime, placing a justifiably high burden of proof on accusations of genocide. That convention has come under threat from activists, celebrities, and even openly antisemitic UN officials employing the term against Israel. Per the convention, genocide means killing, harming, or stealing people from a national, ethnic, racial or religious group with the intent to destroy that group. Israel’s war is against Hamas, an avowedly genocidal terrorist organization that represents no nation, ethnicity, race or religion. As in every example of urban warfare, civilians have been killed, injured, and displaced by the fighting, a tragedy that stirs emotion in every civilized person, including every Jewish person I know. Palestinians as a group, however, are not being deliberately targeted. This fact has been confirmed at the highest levels of authority; in testimony before the U.S. Senate, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed that there was “no evidence of genocide” being committed by Israel. Far from declining, the Palestinian population has actually been growing faster than the Israeli population for more than 30 years. These facts matter because characterizing Israel’s actions as genocidal isn’t just inaccurate; it’s offensive and dangerous. Every time an unfounded accusation of genocide is leveled, the word loses some of its necessary gravity, making it harder to call out real genocides as they occur. Under the protesters’ definition, every war could be labeled a genocide – at which point the word would no longer have meaning at all. The problem is so pervasive that some journalists let allegations of genocide pass unchallenged rather than provide proper context. Too many reporters are apparently either unaware of the convention’s terms or don’t think it’s important enough to merit clarification. Their inaction lets guests make emotional appeals – who doesn’t abhor genocide? – to an audience that may not be aware of the term’s correct use. Genocide accusations inform absurd comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany, an equivalency that is necessarily antisemitic according to the internationally accepted IHRA definition of antisemitism. The repugnant idea that supporting Israel’s existence is Nazism has defaced schools, signs, and synagogues. If you were a Holocaust Survivor, many of whom fled to Israel because no other country would accept them, imagine how these comparisons would feel. As the nephew and grandson of survivors, they certainly sicken me. Today, 63% of millennials and Gen Zs don’t know that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. It is vital that they understand the difference between an urban antiterrorist campaign and an organized effort to snuff out the Jewish people – just ask the Jewish students who have been targeted for violence, intimidation, and harassment at anti-Israel demonstrations. The Holocaust was based on lies, endlessly repeated until people believed them. Enough is enough. The lessons of the past should always be used to improve the future, and using the word “genocide” correctly is another step in the direction of a better and safer world. Michael Igel is the Interim CEO and Chair Emeritus of the Florida Holocaust Museum.
The U.N. states that the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry has been completely lying about Palestinian casualties in Gaza. This should not surprise any rational person. United Nations Reports Lower ‘Identified’ Death Toll Among Palestinian Arabs, Noting Conflicting Numbers From Hamas-Run Health Ministry https://www.nysun.com/article/unite...icting-numbers-from-hamas-run-health-ministry
This is yet another reminder that half the deaths in Gaza are Hamas Militants. You would think that the Hamas Health Ministry would break down the figures of civilians versus militant casualties -- but they don't. Because for propaganda purposes Hamas wants to pretend the deaths are all civilians. It should also be mentioned that the civilian deaths in Gaza could be reduced if Hamas stopped using them as human shields. The deaths of children would be reduced in Gaza if Hamas was not arming children as young as twelve making them militants and having them shoot at the IDF. Israel's Netanyahu says militants make up about half of Gaza deaths https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-death-toll-netanyahu-un-civilians-women-children/
Bogus Gaza death counts again prove the United Nations is another Hamas stooge https://nypost.com/2024/05/14/opini...e-the-united-nations-is-another-hamas-stooge/ The United Nations’ sudden about-face on the civilian death toll in Gaza — halving its count of women and children killed — is fresh proof that the UN bureaucracy sides with Hamas. Better late than never? Well, this comes after months of the UN endorsing the blatantly bogus claims of the Hamas-run health ministry, when those lies have already enflamed protests that have the White House breaking with Israel. That is, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs got what it wanted; time to regain some credibility in advance of the next time it wants to endorse terrorists’ propaganda. Heck, they’ve got President Biden talking regularly about Israel’s supposed “excess force” in a sad bid to get good with the ignorant kids and other lefty protesters. He even quoted the Hamas-UN “data” in his State of the Union Address. When the reality is that Israel, more than any other nation engaged in urban warfare ever, including the United States, has bent over backward to mitigate harm to Gazan civilians. UN corruption goes much deeper, of course: The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the special branch dedicated to caring for Palestinian “refugees” (meaning the descendants of people who fled during Arab nations’ 1948 attempt at genocide of Israel’s founders), has worked to radicalize this populace for decades. UNRWA-provided schoolbooks propagate rank antisemitism and false history — concealing, for example, the fact that most Israelis, far from being “settler colonialists,” also descend from families that never left the Middle East. UNRWA sat silently by these last two decades as Hamas diverted aid meant for ordinary Gazans to constructing its 600 miles of underground bunkers and tunnels and to recruiting and arming its terror battalions. And UNRWA workers joined in Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack; Hamas rockets have been found in its schools several times, and the terror group’s tunnel network had a major node beneath UNRWA headquarters in Gaza. In short, UN staff helped lay the groundwork for the terrorists’ atrocities, then endorsed Hamas’ propaganda when Israel struck back. It’s been a long time coming: The Arab states put a decades-long priority on turning the UN bureaucracy against Israel, long aided by the Soviet bloc and, increasingly, the international left. All to build the myth of Zionism’s supposed evils. You can count on most of the Western media, the protesters and the White House to ignore the UN office’s belated correction: The narrative of “Israel’s excess force” is set, and they’re all now invested in it. All ordinary Americans can do is insist that not another dime of their taxes goes to fund UNRWA or the larger UN bureaucracy, and elect US politicians committed to not funding the propaganda machine.
Global Outrage After Deadly Israeli Strike On Refugee Tent Camp In Rafah There have been widespread reports of a civilian massacre following a Sunday Israeli air strike on a camp for displaced Palestinians in the besieged southern city of Rafah, which the Gaza Health Ministry says killed 45 people, including women and children. Israel says it is investigating the strike, amid widespread international condemnation and as horrific videos of the attack aftermath circulate widely, with Israel’s top military prosecutor calling the attack "very grave".