U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, (D-FL), forcefully pushed back on what he described as growing antisemitism occurring both in Congress and online during an interview with The Floridian.
Rep. Moskowitz warns that anti-semitic congressmen are weaponizing such narratives to divide American society and undermine democratic institutions.
“If you want to start dividing a society, if you want to go after Western culture, go after the easiest target. And that is Jews, right? There's not you know, people think we control everything, which is wonderful, but there's actually not a lot of us here. We're like less than 2% of the entire United States population.” he said.
He also addressed mounting criticism of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, rejecting claims that the conflict amounts to genocide.
“There’s no genocide in Israel, okay? There’s no genocide going at all,” he said. “Now, there has been a war in Gaza and massive death, and a lot of innocent civilians have been killed. There’s no doubt about that. I’m not denying reality. There’s been some collective punishment there, I believe, but it's not a genocide and not by any definition of genocide.”
Instead, Moskowitz pointed to atrocities elsewhere, arguing that some countries are attempting to change the definition of genocide to apply it to Israel.
“China is committing a genocide against the Uyghurs, which you don't read about this. China doesn't put that on TikTok. Right. There's a genocide going on in Darfur” he said. “Countries have proposed changing the definition [of genocide] so that this would then fit into it.
“Look, it's a terrible war. I want it to come to an end,” he added. “I think there's an opportunity now that we've taken out the mothership in Iran.”
According to the 1948 Genocide Convention, adopted by the United Nations, “The crime of genocide requires that a perpetrator kill, seriously harm, or inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of a group, in whole or in part, with the intent to destroy the group as such.”
A report by the University Network for Human Rights noted that following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed an estimated 1,200 Israelis and saw another 250 taken hostage. Over 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli military’s counter-offensive against Hamas, including more than 14,000 children. Israel has faced, and repeatedly denied, accusations of deliberately targeting civilians, aid workers, and refugee camps.
