Washington Examiner
· collected 2026-09-23 · by Warren H. Cohn
The author discusses how Brooklyn Council President Brad Lander used Yom Kippur to accuse Israel of genocide during the conflict in Gaza. The article emphasizes that using the term "genocide" is not merely political rhetoric but carries significant legal and historical weight, as it was coined by Raphael Lemkin to describe deliberate mass destruction of a people. The author argues for a more nuanced discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, highlighting the complexities involved in legally defining genocide, which requires proving specific intent rather than just describing extensive suffering or violations.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-23,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
I spent Yom Kippur doing what Jews have done for generations.
asserted
Jews → spend → generations
I fasted.
asserted
I → fast → ?
I prayed.
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I → pray → ?
I stood alongside other Jews and declared God King.
asserted
God → stand → Jews
I asked forgiveness.
asserted
I → ask → forgiveness
I prayed for my family, my community, the Jewish people, and a better year ahead.
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I → pray → family
Brad Lander spent part of his Yom Kippur at Grand Army Plaza declaring that Israel is committing genocide.
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Israel → spend → genocide
It is not a synonym for a terrible war, enormous civilian suffering, disproportionate force, or even alleged war crimes.
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It → allege → war
It is a specific legal concept carrying a particular history.
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It → carry → history
And before Lander uses that word again, there is someone I believe he should hear from: Joseph Lemkin.
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he → use → word
Joseph Lemkin is a relative of Raphael Lemkin, the Polish Jewish lawyer who coined the word “genocide” in 1944 and spent years fighting to make genocide a crime under international law.
asserted
genocide → coin → law
The Nazis murdered 49 members of Raphael Lemkin’s family, according to Joseph Lemkin’s own account.
uncertain
Nazis → murder → account
Raphael Lemkin did not invent a rhetorical weapon.
asserted
Lemkin → invent → weapon
He invented a word because the existing vocabulary was inadequate to describe the deliberate destruction of a people.
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vocabulary → invent → people
That distinction matters.
asserted
distinction → matter → ?
And it is precisely why the argument over Gaza deserves more intellectual seriousness than slogans shouted on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
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argument → deserve → calendar
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed.
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thousands → kill → Palestinians
Homes and infrastructure have been destroyed on an enormous scale.
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Homes → destroy → scale
International investigators have alleged grave violations by Israel, and a United Nations commission has reached conclusions supporting allegations of genocide.
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commission → allege → genocide
Those facts cannot simply be waved away.
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facts → wave → ?
Israel says it is fighting Hamas and other armed organizations rather than seeking the destruction of Palestinians as a people.
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it → say → people
Hamas began this war with the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, killing civilians and taking hostages.
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Hamas → begin → hostages
Palestinian armed groups embedded themselves in a densely populated battlefield.
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groups → embed → battlefield
Estimates of how many Palestinian combatants have been killed vary dramatically, making confident claims about the civilian-to-combatant ratio extraordinarily difficult.
uncertain
claims → kill → ratio
And raw casualty numbers themselves do not answer the genocide question.
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numbers → answer → question
Before the war, Gaza had roughly 2.2 million residents.
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Gaza → have → residents
The reported death toll over more than two years of war represents approximately 3% of that prewar population.
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toll → report → population
That statistic neither proves nor disproves genocide.
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statistic → prove → genocide
Genocide law contains no mathematical threshold.
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law → contain → threshold
The defining question is intent: whether prohibited acts were committed with the specific intent required by the Genocide Convention to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group as such.
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acts → prohibit → group
That is exactly what remains contested.
The International Court of Justice has not issued a final judgment finding Israel guilty of genocide.
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Israel → remain → genocide
Proceedings remain underway.
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Proceedings → remain → ?
That nuance apparently did not fit comfortably into Grand Army Plaza.
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nuance → fit → Plaza
What bothered me even more was the day chosen for this declaration.
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bothered → bother → declaration
Yom Kippur is supposed to strip Jews of ego.
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Kippur → suppose → ego
We confess collectively.
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We → confess → ?
We remember our dead.
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We → remember → dead
We ask God to seal us in the Book of Life.
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We → ask → Life
We stand shoulder to shoulder, often with Jews with whom we disagree profoundly, because for one day, the arguments become smaller than the people.
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arguments → stand → people
Lander sees his activism differently.
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Lander → see → activism
…and 30 more, not listed.
The Aporia
