COMMENTARY / OPINION
Jonathan Pollard: BOMBSHELL: Newly Disclosed Pre-October 7 Hamas Documents
Oct 13, 2024 Machon Shilo – Watch Jonathan Pollard & Machon Shilo’s Rabbi David Bar-Hayim discuss how Israel can defeat the Hezbollah:
[Ed.:
[48:21] LEO HOHMANN
We need more red-blooded American dads willing to defend their daughters like this man did. Sorry the pervert lost his life but that’s the risk you take when you mess with an alpha male’s daughter
OCT 14, 2024 – An Arkansas father has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder after allegedly shooting and killing a 67-year-old pedophile who was found in a vehicle alone with his missing 14-year-old daughter.
And it gets worse. This same pervert had reportedly already raped the man’s teenage daughter once before!
Fox News reports that Aaron Spencer, 36, reported his daughter missing last Tuesday, and Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office deputies were dispatched to his home.
But as deputies were on their way to the home, they learned that Spencer had found his daughter in a vehicle with 67-year-old Michael Fosler. A confrontation ensued between the two men (I bet it did!) before Spencer allegedly shot and killed Fosler.
Deputies arrested Spencer on a preliminary charge of first-degree murder. He was booked into the Lonoke County Detention Center before being released the next day after posting bail, Fox News reports.
Sheriff John Staley said in a video on Facebook that Spencer has not been formally charged yet and that the District Attorney’s Office will decide which charges to file.
The sheriff said: “This is a tragic situation and my thoughts and prayers are with all involved.”
Spencer’s wife, Heather, said on Facebook that the 67-year-old pervert, Mr. Fosler, had a “no contact order” with her daughter for stalking and raping the 14-year-old over the summer and that she and her husband feared he might kill her. She said that she and her husband were unaware Fosler was again in contact with their daughter.
She wrote:
“We absolutely called 911 during the entire event. We had no idea this man was in contact with our child again. He was waiting on 6 to 9 felonies for what he did. He was looking at the rest of his pathetic life in jail, and our daughter was the only witness.”
She added:
“Some things we will never know, but we know that the police department afforded this predator privacy they did not give our family. Including posting our home address. I’m deeply offended by the way this was handled by the county [sheriff’s] office.”
Fosler had been arrested by another law enforcement agency in July and booked for internet stalking of a child and sexual assault, Sheriff Staley told USA Today, adding:
“I absolutely do not support predators. I’m a daddy. I have three daughters. I know she’s hurt right now, but there’s absolutely nobody I would put ahead of our children, their children, my children.”
The sheriff said deputies are looking into what happened leading up to the shooting. He told the news outlet:
“When we get on scene and there’s a homicide, it means one person took the life of another. It’s either justified or not justified. That’s what the fact finding, that’s what the investigation is going to find out.”
These charges need to be dropped or, at the very least, drastically reduced. Mr. Spencer was reacting in the heat of passion to protect his young daughter, who had already been victimized by this scoundrel once before. It’s this kind of twisted justice that has destroyed people’s faith in the system.
If more dads acted like this gentleman did upon finding his daughter in the clutches of this disgusting pedo, maybe we wouldn’t have quite so many disgusting pedos walking around preying on our children? Am I being un-Christian for saying such things? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) Guide for the Perplexed, 2024 Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel initiative”
Based on ancient Jewish sages, October 14, 2024
More on Jewish holidays: Smashwords, Amazon
1. Sukkot is a Jewish national liberation holiday. It commemorates the Biblical Exodus, the transition of the Jewish people from bondage in Egypt to liberty in the Land of Israel, and the sustained Jewish ingathering to the Land of Israel, which inspired the US Founding Fathers and the Abolitionist Movement.
2. Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles (evening of October 16 – October 23, 2024) derives its name from the first stop of the Exodus – the town of Sukkot – as documented in Exodus 13:20-22 and Numbers 33:3-5. Sukkot was also the name of Jacob’s first stop west of the Jordan River, upon returning to the Land of Israel from his 20 years of work for Laban in Aram (Genesis 33:17).
The construction of the Holy Tabernacle, during the Exodus, was launched on the first day of Sukkot (full moon).
3. Sukkot is the 3rd 3,300-year-old Jewish pilgrimage holiday (following Passover and Shavou’ot/Pentecost). It highlights faith, reality-based-optimism, can-do mentality and the defiance of odds. It is also the 3rd major Jewish holiday – following Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – in the month of Tishrei, the holiest Jewish month. According to Judaism, 3 represents divine wisdom, stability and peace. In addition, the 3rd day of the Creation was blessed twice; God appeared on Mt. Sinai 3 days after Moses’ ascension of the mountain; there are 3 parts to the Bible (the Torah, Prophets and Writings); there are 3 Jewish Patriarchs; 3 is the total sum of the basic odd (1) and even (2) numbers, symbolizing strength. According to Ecclesiastes 4:12, “a three-strand cord is not quickly broken.”
4. Sukkot underscores the gradual transition from the spiritual state-of-mind during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to the mundane, and from religious tenets of Judaism to the formation of the national, historic and geographical Jewish identity.
- 5. The roots of the Hebrew word Sukkot (סוכות) are wholeness and totality (סכ), shelter (סכך) and attentiveness (סכת). The numerical value of סכך (every Hebrew letter has a numerical value) is 100 (ס=60, כ=20, ך=20), representing the totality/unity of the Jewish people, history, roots, education and legacy.
6. The 7 days of Sukkot – which is celebrated in the 7th Jewish month, Tishrei – are dedicated to 7 supreme guests-in-spirit and notable care-takers (Ushpizin in Aramaic and Hebrew): Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron and David. They were endowed with faith, reality-based-optimism, humility, magnanimity, principle-driven leadership, compassion, tenacity in the face of daunting odds and peace-through-strength.
7. Sukkot features the following four species (Leviticus 23:39-41): 1 citron (representing King David, the author of Psalms), 1 palm branch (representing Joseph), 3 myrtle branches (representing the three Patriarchs) and 2 willow branches (representing Moses and Aharon, the role models of humility). These are bound together, representing unity-through-diversity and strength-through-unity.
They embody four leadership prerequisites: a solid backbone (palm branch), humility (willow), a compassionate heart (citron) and penetrating eyes (myrtle).
These species also represent the agricultural regions of the Land of Israel: the southern Negev and Arava (palm); the slopes of the northern Golan Heights, Upper Galilee and Mt. Carmel (myrtle); the streams of the central mountains of Judea and Samaria, including Jerusalem (willow); and the western coastal plain (citron).
The palm branch, an ancient symbol of victory, was featured in coins from the Maccabean era (from the 2nd century BC through the 1st century AD) and the Bar Kokhba rebellion (132-135 AD). According to the First Book of Maccabees, chapter 13, Simon the Maccabee celebrated the retaking of David’s Citadel in Jerusalem with drums, harps and palm branches.
8. Traditionally, Sukkot is dedicated to the study of the Biblical Scroll of Ecclesiastes (Kohelet, ,קהלת in Hebrew, which was one of King Solomon’s names), written by King Solomon, which highlights humility, morality, patience, learning from past mistakes, commemoration and historical perspective, family, friendship, long-term thinking, proper timing, realism and knowledge.
The late Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), the longest serving US Senator, often quoted Biblical verses, in general, and Ecclesiastes, in particular. For example, on November 7, 2008, upon retirement from the chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee, he stated: “’To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.’ Those Biblical words from Ecclesiastes 3:1 express my feelings about this particular time in my life.” On September 9, 1998, Senator Byrd made the following Senate floor remarks on the Lewinsky affair: “As the book of Ecclesiastes plainly tells us, ‘There is no new thing under the sun.’ Time seems to be turning backwards in its flight. And, many of the mistakes that President Nixon made are being made all over again.”
9. During the holiday of Sukkot, it is customary to highlight humility by experiencing a seven-day-relocation from one’s permanent dwelling to the temporary, humble, wooden booth (Sukkah in Hebrew) – which sheltered the people of Israel during the Exodus.
2024 — 9/11 Anniversary Interviews of RG911 You Don’t Want to Miss! Luke Rudkowski, Donald Jeffries, and more! GAIL GAGE
Richard’s expertise, technical evidence, and speaking ability was in high demand again this 9/11 season.
OCT 14, 2024 – 63 Interviews so far in 2024 — reaching millions again this year! Thank you for supporting us!
Another year has flown by, and this year’s Anniversary of 9/11 was another sombering opportunity to bring these horrendous Deep State crimes to the forefront of humanity’s collective mind, which in turn, will hopefully lead to justice for the victims and their families, and accountability for the real perpetrators.
This past year, to me, has honestly felt like the cloaks of the Deep State lies are being torn down, one by one, with each interview and every journalist who chimes in on “What about Building 7”, or “How DID those buildings collapse like that?”
With all of the difficult truths that are being exposed about the seemingly never-ending assaults on humanity, it’s almost as though “we” have been given permission to “go there”, despite the criticism and attacks by the corrupt Mainstream Media, those who are still “asleep” and those who are simply confused and afraid to let go of their cognitive dissonance.
So, the tide seems to be turning and people seem to be steadily growing more and more hungry for truth, therefore many people are learning about Building 7 for the first time, which in turn, opens their minds to the Twin Towers . . . and then many other false flag events are “allowed in” to their consciousness, and become more legitimate to them.
How do we, here at RichardGage911, contribute to the “mass awakening” of humanity? Well, one of the major and most effective ways is for Richard to share his many years of research into 9/11 and other more recent false flags, through interviews. And one very important way that YOU can contribute, is to share the critical research reflected in these interview with the people in your world.
And… SEND OUR PROMO PACK TO YOUR FAVORITE PODCASTERS & TV SHOW HOSTS!
We started off our 9/11 Truth Anniversary commemoration on September 1st with Ahmed Elkholy and Patrick Phillips of Geneva Academy . They didn’t want their audience to miss ANY of the critically important technical evidence, expert testimonies, and witness testimonies that Richard has developed in his extensive presentations for both Building 7 and the Twin Towers, so they interviewed him in two parts:
DOJ Fights for Illegal Aliens to Vote in Virginia By John Mills
Oct. 13, 2024 6:20 pm – Commentary
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is now suing Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia for having the temerity to remove unlawful voters from the election rolls. In 2019, I made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to my Virginia County Clerk of the Court on those rejected for Jury Duty. The Jury Duty rolls, by Commonwealth of Virginia Law, harvest the names predominantly from the Voting Rolls. There are 20 different reasons someone can be rejected from Jury Duty.
Doing basic math, there are three non-debatable categories where someone would be unlawful to be on the election roll. Yet 6% of the names were rejected from Jury Duty because they were unlawfully on the election rolls. Taking in other categories where there may be an issue with the lawful nature of the voter, applying a very low percentage of the total, the number of potential unlawful names on the rolls shot to 12% of the total on the Virginia Rolls being unlawful (again a very low, small “c” conservative percentage was applied).
One of the hard categories of illegality is not being a U.S. Citizen. How could a non-U.S. Citizen be on the Virginia voter rolls? For anyone who is not aware of it, 18USC611 “Voting by aliens”, makes it unequivocally clear that it is unlawful for a non-U.S. Citizen to vote. Yet here we are, illegal aliens are on the election rolls in Virginia, and the current U.S. Attorney General is fighting against the lawful U.S. Citizen to keep unlawful voters on the rolls.
A Constitutional Showdown – which has precedence, 18USC611 or Motor Voter?
It would have been wonderful if Attorney General Bill Barr had remembered 18USC611 in 2020. There is gross ignorance by the self-appointed “election law experts” on Federal Laws in regard to the conduct of elections. There are actually not that many Federal Laws on the conduct of elections. There is the 1965 Civil Rights Act, 1993 Motor Voter (also known as The National Voter Registration Act), the 2002 Helping Americans Voter Act (HAVA), and 52USC207 Retention of Records. But for some reason, 18USC611 is conveniently ignored, forgotten, or not known. Some bring up the caveated possible exception of 18USC611 unless “(c)(3)the alien reasonably believed at the time of voting in violation of such subsection that he or she was a citizen of the United States.” That would only apply if there was written guidance posted at the ports of entry where illegals are being brought in by the Biden Harris Team.
A constitutional showdown has been established. Which has precedence, 18USC611, which mandates only U.S. Citizens can vote, or the 1993 Motor Voter Law, which may have placed unlawful voters on the election rolls? Motor Voter requires a 90-day quiet period in advance of an Election for removal of a name – and requires the written approval of that registrant before they are removed. However, Motor Voter also imposes criminal penalties upon an individual that “deprives or defrauds the inhabitants of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process.”
Allowing an unlawful voter onto the rolls would rise to the “deprives or defrauds” threshold. There is a clear conflict between two Federal Laws – first, that someone must be a U.S. Citizen to vote and second, allowing someone who is unlawful to stay on the Roll, thus depriving U.S. Citizens of their Constitutionally guaranteed vote. Any rational, constitutionally-minded Citizen would concur that 18USC611 should prevail over the 1993 Motor Voter law.
Punitive Election Interference by Merrick Garland
The Biden/Harris DOJ likely had the assault on Governor Glenn Youngkin pre-written and ready to go on the October Surprise conveyor belt to ensure illegals can vote. There are likely several more lawfare suits “Teed Up” to throw sand into the gears of election integrity. All Garland’s team has to do is fill in the Governor’s Name and State, and the assault is ready to file in U.S. District Court. AG Garland is ruthlessly “depriving” and “defrauding” legal U.S. Citizens by fighting for illegal aliens to vote.
Governor Youngkin responded to Garland’s assault on the Constitution, “With less than 30 days until the election, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice is filing an unprecedented lawsuit against me and the Commonwealth of Virginia, for appropriately enforcing a 2006 law signed by Democrat Tim Kaine that requires Virginia to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls – a process that starts with someone declaring themselves a non-citizen and then registering to vote. Virginians – and Americans – will see this for exactly what it is: a desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of the elections in the Commonwealth, the very crucible of American Democracy.”
Once again, Blacks and all lawful Citizens of Virginia are having their votes nullified – this time by the Federal Government
Virginia was held to account by the 1965 Civil Rights Act to ensure Black Americans could vote, and their rights were not undermined by Civil War-era Jim Crow laws. Now that many demographic groups, including Blacks are sharply increasing their support for Former President Trump, their votes are again being thrown into the trash bin again, this time by an over-bearing, reckless, and unlawful U.S. Attorney General.
There are two Americas – one for American Citizens and one for illegal aliens brought in by the Biden-Harris Team to steal an election.
Criminals and the malign-minded constantly evolve their tactics to manipulate or get around the law. This time, non-Citizens are given a special status and showered with largess looted from the U.S. Treasury which was taken from the American People.
Governor Youngkin is following the law and coming down on the side of the lawful U.S. Citizen in a clear conflict between two Federal Laws – one of which has been hidden in a cave for years by the experts. A state Governor must resolve this Constitutional crisis because the Federal Government is not doing its lawful, Constitutional duty.
All viewpoints are personal and do not reflect the viewpoints of any organization
COL (Ret) John Mills has significantly shaped U.S. national security policy over four decades, serving in roles from the Cold War through the era of Great Power Competition. His career includes multiple combat tours, senior civilian positions at the Department of Defense, and strategic duties with the National Security Council in two administrations. Additionally, he is associated with the Center for Security Policy, and the Committee on Present Danger China. ColonelRETJohn2 on X, ColonelRETJohn on Substack, GETTR, and Truth Social.
You can email John Mills here, and read more of John Mills’s articles here.
Pentagon issues Federal Directive allowing military to use ‘lethal force’ against Americans as video resurfaces showing Kamala fantasizing about weaponizing DOJ against U.S. citizens LEO HOHMANN
The timing of Federal Directive 5240.01 is interesting in light of the upcoming election and the government’s narrative about right wing extremists being the ‘biggest threat’ to US national security.
OCT 13, 2024 – A video clip has resurfaced from May of 2019 in which Kamala Harris advocates weaponizing the DOJ against speech the government doesn’t like, and the platforms that allow it.
In the meantime, one month before a tense presidential election, the U.S. Department of Defense has authorized U.S. military “defense intelligence components” to use “lethal force” against American citizens if requested by state or local law enforcement in an emergency situation. More on this in a minute, but first let’s get to the May 2019 video showing Kamala Harris unleashing her inner dictator.
Speaking at the annual NAACP ‘Fight for Freedom Fund’ dinner in Detroit, Harris threatened: “We will put the Department of Justice of the United States back in the business of justice. We will double the civil rights division, and direct Law Enforcement to counter this extremism.”
She went on to say she would “hold Social Media Platforms accountable for the hate infiltrating their platforms, because they have a responsibility to help fight against this threat to our Democracy. If you don’t police your platforms, we are going to hold you accountable…”
What she’s saying is chilling. She’s saying that she, or some entity in her administration, will decide what is appropriate speech and what is not. These are the musings of a dangerous authoritarian. This is the real Kamala Harris. You won’t find her talking smack like this on the campaign trail, where all we get is the warm and fuzzy Kamala who wants to help the middle class.
Holding platforms accountable for every opinion or rant placed on their platform means arrests will be made. It’s already happening in other formerly free countries. In the UK, thousands of British citizens were arrested, tried and convicted within a 72-hour period for posting photos and videos on social media that challenged the government narrative about recent rioting in the country.
In France, the government arrested the owner of Telegram, a popular social-media platform, because he refused to “cooperate” with government authorities seeking backdoor censorship avenues into his system.
This is the wave of the future, and it’s global in scope. Top U.S. Democrats like Hillary Clinton, Antony Blinken and John Kerry have all recently come out and said the First Amendment is a hindrance to establishing their globalist agenda centered on climate-change hysteria, fake elections and toxic mRNA injections for all. If you tell the truth about these issues, they call it disinformation and say it should be banned.
US national security mandates regime-change in Iran Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”
October 13, 2024 – *The US State Department has rejected the regime-change option (which would gratify most Iranians) since 1978/79, when Iran’s Ayatollahs seized power, assisted by the State Department, which had stabbed the back of the Shah, who had been America’s Policeman in the Gulf.
Instead, the State Department has embraced the diplomatic option, which has generated hundreds of billions of dollars to the Ayatollahs – notwithstanding their systematically anti-US policies – facilitating their surge from a non-leadership regional stature in 1979 to global prominence, militarily and diplomatically in 2024. Furthermore, the diplomatic option has substantially upgraded the Ayatollahs’ support of terror entities such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.
*In 2024, independent of potential nuclear capabilities, the conventional military capabilities of Iran’s Ayatollahs constitute the most critical epicenter of anti-US global terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering and the proliferation of advanced missiles and predator unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Ayatollahs’ conventional capabilities are a clear and present danger to the US homeland (e.g. proliferation of sleeper cells on US soil and the tight collaboration with Mexico’s drug cartels) and national security. Since the early 1980s, the Ayatollahs have severely eroded the US’ strategic posture in Latin America. In addition, the Ayatollahs pose an imminent lethal threat to every pro-US Arab regime, especially the oil-producing regimes (e.g., Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain), aiming to seize control of 48% of the global oil reserves.
*In 1978/79, the State Department deluded itself that Ayatollah Khomeini would be controlled by moderate advisors, distancing himself from Moscow, focusing on introducing liberty to the Iranian people, refraining from the exportation of the Islamic Revolution, evolving into an Iranian edition of Ghandi.
In 1978/79, the State Department policy doomed the pro-US Iran, transforming it into a venomous anti-US octopus with its tentacles stretched from the Persian Gulf, through the Middle East and Africa to Latin America and the US homeland.
In 2024, irrespective of the Ayatollahs’ rogue track record, the State Department is still convinced that they could be reformed. Foggy Bottom avers that diplomatic and financial bonanzas could induce the Ayatollahs to accept peaceful-coexistence with their Sunni Arab neighbors, become good-faith negotiators, and to abandon their religiously fanatical vision, which mandates the destruction of their “apostate” (Sunni) and “infidel” (Western) enemies.
*In 2024, the State Department’s rejection of regime-change in Iran could doom (any day!) Jordan’s pro-US Hashemite regime, which is increasingly besieged by the Ayatollahs’ conventional capabilities (subversion, terrorism, drug and arms trafficking), in collaboration with their Syrian and Iraqi terror proxies, Jordan-based Moslem Brotherhood terrorists, Palestinian terrorists (including Hamas) and 2 million Syrian and Iraqi refugees in northern Jordan.
*The toppling of the pro-US Hashemite regime would transform Jordan into a major platform of anti-US global terrorism, igniting a volcanic ripple effect in Israel, transforming its most critical and peaceful 310-mile-long Jordanian border into the most vulnerable and explosive border. In addition, this would pose a lethal threat to the pro-US Egypt, bolstering the anti-US and anti-Sisi Ayatollahs, ISIS and Moslem Brotherhood-controlled terrorism in the Red Sea, Sinai and Egypt mainland. It would also threaten the survival of Jordan’s southern neighbors, the Arabian Peninsula Arab oil producing regimes, which could accord the Ayatollahs control of 48% of the global oil reserves.
*However, the Israel-Arab peace process would be dramatically advanced by a State Department’s realization that the Ayatollahs are not partners for a diplomatic option, but rather a target for regime change. Thus, a regime-change in Iran (which would advance human rights and liberty for all Iranians) would bolster the posture of deterrence of the US and Israel, remove the Ayatollahs’ machete from the throats of its Sunni Arab neighbors, and reduce the Saudi and the UAE courting of China and Russia. This would eliminate the major hurdle on the path of Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Peace Accords, possibly followed by Indonesia, Oman and even Kuwait.
*The State Department’s rejection of the regime-change option – underscored by the suspension and softening of economic sanctions and the timid response to the frequent bombings of US installations (also in Jordan) by the Ayatollahs and their proxies in Yemen, Iraq and Syria – has been interpreted, in the Middle East, as a preference for short term diplomatic convenience over long term national security. Moreover, it has been discerned by all actors in the Middle East as a suspension of disbelief, hesitancy, a non-realization that rogue entities bite the hands that feed them, while undermining the US posture of deterrence. This has energized anti-US terrorists, threatening the survival of all pro-US Arab regimes (e.g., Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt), and driving them closer to China and Russia.
*The 45-year-old State Department’s rejection of the regime-change option, in defiance of Middle East and global reality, has bolstered the anti-US capabilities of Iran’s Ayatollahs, undermining US homeland and national security, reflecting Foggy Bottom’s assumption that the Iranian leopard is amenable to changing spots, not merely tactics.
KAMALA HARRIS’S UNSAVORY SUPPORTERS by Martin Sherman
The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security has chosen to twist and distort its alleged focus of inquiry.
October 7, 2024 Israel Unwired – (JNS) Recently, a distressed Twitter/X message from a well-known Israeli-Australian human rights jurist, Arsen Ostrovsky, caught my eye. It dealt with an institute, which I must confess, I had never heard of previously, but perhaps that is merely a testament to my ignorance.
The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security professes to be dedicated to the study of the grisly topic of “genocide” and what so appalled the eminent lawyer was the bizarre manner in which the institute, which bears the name of the man who originally conceived the term “genocide,” has chosen to twist and distort its alleged focus of inquiry. With evident dismay, Ostrovsky tweeted: “Quite incredible that @LemkinInstitute, named after Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term ‘genocide,’ would now be shilling for jihadists of Hezbollah (and Hamas), who would seek to carry out another genocide against the Jewish people! Shame on you!”
There is much to justify his consternation. After all, the institute issued a statement that reeks of unadulterated Judeophobia, condemning Israel’s response to an unprovoked and barbarous massacre of its civilian population by the Islamo-fascist terror organization Hamas with the eager complicity of the Gazan population at large.
The institute appears willfully blind to the fact that Israel is engaged in a conflict—not of its choosing—with two terror organizations that are backed by a global state sponsor of Jihadi terror, all of whom have the explicit intent of genocide (the express intent of eliminating the Jewish state and its Jewish inhabitants) brazenly emblazoned across their publicly professed positions. In fact, the obliteration of Israel is a major part of the raison d’être of Hamas, Hezbollah and the theocracy in Tehran. Yet on its X account, the institute shamelessly accuses Israel of being a “genocidal state that is completely out of control,” alleging that it is “supported by a Western world that is, in large measure, too racist and Islamophobic to care.” Similar toxic tirades appear on the group’s website and LinkedIn account of its executive director.
Conflating ‘chalk and cheese’
It should be remembered that when Lemkin coined the term “genocide,” it was against the ghastly backdrop of the Holocaust, a mega-tragedy involving the meticulously planned and purposely perpetrated annihilation of millions of non-combatants, particularly Jews, for no other reason than their ethnic origins. Israel’s action in Gaza differs vastly from anything that can be associated, even remotely, with those comprising genocide.
After all, what genocidally inclined villain would take the painstaking –some would say decidedly ill-advised—efforts that Israel has taken to protect enemy civilians? Indeed, authoritative military sources such as Richard Kemp, the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, and John Spencer, West Point U.S. Military Academy’s urban warfare expert, have stated unequivocally that Israel has achieved the lowest ratio of civilian casualties in the history of urban warfare. Moreover, the Israel Defense Forces have regularly pre-warned Gazan civilians to vacate certain areas and arranged for safe passage of non-combatants out of combat zones to designated sanctuary areas. Israel has also conveyed more than a million tons of humanitarian aid, including food, water and medical supplies, to the Palestinian residents of Gaza.
Perversely, it is difficult to conceive of conduct any less consistent with the practice of genocide.
Caricaturizing and miniaturizing
Indeed, not only has the Lemkin Institute blatantly evaded mentioning that much of the Gazan death toll is due to the actions of Hamas leadership, which not only used its civilians as human shields but actively urged, threatened and physically prevented them from evacuating war zones for safer locations.
