INTO THE FRAY: Kamala’s unsavory supporters

By MARTIN SHERMAN

Some of Kamala Harris’s supporters constitute yet another ominous omen in the perturbing accumulation that the prospect of her victory portends.

Recently, a distressed Twitter/X message from a well-known Israeli-Australian human rights jurist 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.

Shameful & Shameless

The institute, the Lemkin Institute, 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—that bears the name of the man, who originally conceived the term “genocide”—had chosen to twist and distort its alleged focus of inquiry. With evident dismay, he 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!”

Indeed, 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.

Willfully blind to the fact that Israel is engaged in conflict, not of its choosing, with two terror organizations, backed by a global state sponsor of Jihadi terror, all of which 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’etre of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the tyrannical theocracy in Tehran. Yet, on its X account, the Institute shamelessly accuses Israel of being a “genocidal state that is completely out of control”, wildly 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 Institute’s website and the LinkedIn account of the Institute’s Executive Director.

Conflating “chalk & cheese”

It should be remembered that when Lamkin coined the term “genocide”, it was against the ghastly backdrop of the WWII 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 former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Richard Kemp, and West Point’s Urban warfare expert, John Spencer have stated unequivocally that Israel has achieved the lowest ratio of civilian casualties in the history of urban warfare. Moreover, IDF has regularly pre-warned Gazan civilians to vacate areas to be attacked and arranged for safe passage of non-combatants out of combat zones to designated sanctuary areas. In addition, Israel has conveyed well over a million tons of humanitarian aid—including food, water, and medical supplies—to the Gazan population.

Perversely, it is difficult to conceive of conduct any less consistent with the practice of genocide.

Caricaturizing & miniaturizing

Indeed, not only has the Institute blatantly evaded mentioning that much of the Gazan death toll is due to the actions of Hamas leadership, which not only used its own civilians as human shields but actively urged, threatened, and physically prevented them from evacuating war zones for safer locations.

Thus, the Jews, the victims of the archetypical genocide (the Holocaust) are now, by some perverted sleight-of-hand, being portrayed as the purveyors of a maliciously contrived and choreographed “genocide” of its attackers. In embracing this distorted approach, in which all civilian deaths due to war, regardless of scale, scope, or circumstance, are designated “genocide”, the Institute has cheapened and sullied its solemn sphere of study—in effect caricaturizing its content and miniaturizing its dimensions.

It is against this backdrop that the accusation of genocide, leveled by the Institute, not only at Israel, but at its strategic allies. should be viewed. Thus, the Lemkin Institute charged Azerbaijan, one of Israel’s largest suppliers of energy and a major commercial partner, with perpetrating “genocide” during its 2023 operation in Nagorno-Karabakh—this despite the very low estimates of fatalities incurred in the fighting (mostly combatants on both sides)  and that the ethnic Armenian residents were afforded passage to their motherland, Armenia.

After all, whatever one’s opinion on the rights-and-wrongs of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, it is clear Baku’s objective was not ethnic slaughter. Rather, it was the ending tof he undeniably anomalous and destabilizing situation, whereby a sizeable enclave, entirely within the frontiers of one sovereign nation is populated by inhabitants, who not only identify with another nation, but an adversarial one at that.

November 2016: Ominous omens

This dubious and manipulative “intellectual” skullduggery demonstrated by the Institute might not be worth much attention had it not been for the upcoming elections and the senior leadership of the Institute, not only throwing their weight firmly behind the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, but for aiming to implant their (the Lemkin Institute’s) biased anti-Israel agenda into Harris’s campaign.

For the Jewish state, this is yet one more ominous omen in the gathering accumulation of grave concern that the prospect of a Harris victory portends.

Martin Sherman spent seven years in operational capacities in the Israeli defense establishment. He is the founder of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a member of the Habithonistim-Israel Defense & Security Forum (IDSF) research team, and a participant in the Israel Victory Project.