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Congresswoman Tells Munich Security Conference Israel "Enabled a Genocide in Gaza," Sparks Outrage
(Fox News) Benjamin Weinthal - U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) alleged at the Munich Security Conference on Friday that U.S. aid "enabled a genocide in Gaza" by Israel. In Dec. 2024, Germany joined the U.S. in rejecting allegations that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. Tom Gross, an expert on international affairs, told Fox News that "AOC has flown all the way to Munich - infamous as the city in which Hitler staged his Nazi Beer Hall Putsch that marked the beginning of the road to the Holocaust - in order to smear the Jewish people further with a phony genocide allegation. Such preposterous allegations of 'genocide' form the bedrock of modern antisemitic incitement against Jews in the U.S. and globally." Danny Orbach, a military historian from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said the accusation "is incorrect both factually and legally. Under the Genocide Convention, genocide requires proof of a special intent to destroy a protected group, in whole or in part, and as a baseline condition, an active effort to maximize civilian destruction. The evidence shows the opposite....Israel undertook unprecedented measures to mitigate civilian harm, including establishing humanitarian safe zones that independently verified data show were approximately six times safer than other areas of Gaza." "Israel also issued detailed advance warnings before strikes and facilitated the entry of over two million tons of humanitarian aid, often at significant cost to its own military advantage, including the loss of surprise and the sustainment of an enemy during wartime." "These measures were taken despite Hamas's Oct. 7 massacre, its systematic use of human shields and hospitals for military purposes, and a tunnel network exceeding 1,000 km. - an operational challenge without historical precedent. Finally, no credible evidence demonstrates the kind of unambiguous, exclusive genocidal intent toward Palestinians that international law requires and that cannot be reasonably interpreted otherwise."