The Definition of Genocide

Genocide.

Do people not know the meaning of the word, do they know what the word means but are lying when they use the word, or are people just stupidly repeating that word because someone else said it?

When our Congresswoman Talib says Israel is committing genocide, I think she knows the meaning and I do not think she is stupid, I think she is knowingly lying to the American people.

Publisher Michael Morris

Hamas’s charter advocates for genocide: the death to every Jewish person in Israel (man, woman, child, civilian, militant). Israel is attempting to destroy Hamas, a terrorist organization responsible for killing civilians for more than 20 years. They are calling for the surrender or killing of 40,000-armed terrorist militants. Simply stated, that is not genocide. No matter how many times in an hour, a day, or a week someone calls that genocide, it is not. No matter how loud you call that genocide, it is not. The mantra of Hamas, “from river to sea,” that Talib espouses, alludes to the murder of every Jew in Israel (genocide), yet she claims (knowingly and falsely) that Israel is perpetrating genocide. So, I repeat myself, does she not know what the word means; is she stupid; or is she knowingly lying to America and her constituents?

Do the students on campuses around the country, our children, do they not know what the word genocide means? Are they simply parroting a word that has been yelled 10 times a day from the top of a mountain without thinking about what they are advocating? Or are they all lying in unison as if under a trance?

I truly do not know what our universities are teaching our children if they can call what Israel is doing genocide but look upon Hamas’s charter as acceptable behavior. I tend to think that our children are being misled. I say that because I believe that if they were told, in plain English, that Hamas calls for: the genocide of Jews in the world, death to all gay, lesbian, trans and queer people, and a worldwide Islamic Caliphate that would subjugate women as property and require all women to be clothed except for their eyes under penalty of death, they may not be so quick to support the side that is beheading children and burning families alive (as if that alone isn’t enough to make one turn against Hamas).

When Congresswoman Talib and our children on university campuses call to free Palestine, surely, they understand that the only occupying force is the tyranny of Hamas. Israel in no way occupies Gaza, they pulled out 20 years ago and let the Gazans determine their own fate. Gaza then elected Hamas and Hamas then canceled all elections and created a dictatorship that subjugates its people at gunpoint. Any Gazan civilian will tell you that, they have told me that.

Gaza desalinizes almost 90 percent of its own drinking water – it doesn’t come from Israel. Gaza produces 100 percent of its own electricity – it doesn’t come from Israel. The small truth Hamas doesn’t want you to know is that both require fuel and Hamas, as of Oct. 7, stopped allowing its citizens to have fuel for any purpose; therefore, Hamas has stopped the flow of water and electricity into Gaza, not Israel. No matter how many times someone says the opposite, no matter how angry you get, it is still just a lie and yelling it louder doesn’t make it truthful. If Gaza were free of Hamas, there would be elections, there could be peace with Israel and Gazans could go back to work in Israel, their water and electricity wouldn’t be cut off by the government, people who are gay and lesbian wouldn’t be subjected to the death penalty, and possibly most important, women wouldn’t be property and children wouldn’t be taught to hate in kindergarten. I too support a Free Palestine.

And here is one more truth that Hamas does not want you to know. While Israel plans on dismantling and destroying Hamas, its infrastructure, and its military leaders, what it cannot do is kill its senior leadership. The senior leaders of Hamas do not live in the country they purport to run and support. They live in Qatar, and up to recently, specifically at the Four Seasons. So, ponder this, where do they get the money to live in that style, why would you live in a rundown country like Gaza if you could live in one of the most expensive hotels in one of the most expensive countries in the world, and in what other country does the leadership not live with its people?

Michael Morris is the Owner and Publisher of The Atlanta Jewish Times.