Lauren Stephenson

For the second time in 10 days, White House National Security Spokesperson John Kirby makes the position of the White House and the United States government clear: Israel is not engaged in genocide, but Hamas has engaged in genocide. “This word genocide is getting thrown around in a pretty inappropriate way by lots of different folks. What Hamas wants, make no mistake about it, is genocide. they want to wipe Israel off the map, they’ve said so, publicly, on more than one occasion, in fact just recently. And they’ve said that they’re not going to stop. What happened on the 7th of October is going to happen again, and again, and again. And what happened on the 7th of October? Murder, slaughter, of innocent people in their homes, or at a music festival. That’s genocidal intentions. Yes, there are too many civilian casualties in Gaza, yes the numbers are too high, yes too many families are grieving, and yes we continue to urge the Israelis to be as careful and cautious as possible. That’s not gonna stop. From the president and right on down. But Israel is not trying to wipe the Palestinian people off the map, Israel is not trying wipe Gaza off the map. Israel is trying to defend itself against a genocidal terrorist threat. So if we’re going to start using that word, fine, let’s use it appropriately.”