I am a fifth-generation genocide survivor. My ancestors were among the few who escaped the 1822 Ottoman massacre of Chios. The Turks killed, enslaved, or displaced four-fifths of a population then-estimated at 120,000. In my youth, I read every book I could find about the massacre, visited the ossuaries holding the bones of the victims, and walked the ruins of towns never rebuilt. I know genocide when I see it.
That knowledge ensures I cannot remain silent today, as another civilian population – this time in Gaza – is starved, bombed, and systematically destroyed. I am trying – barely – to contain my rage at the Democratic Party leadership, the political heirs to America’s greatest humanitarian accomplishments. These are the people who have helped made my country complicit in bombing hospitals, starving civilians, and destroying every means of survival. This isn’t tragic collateral damage; it meets the legal threshold for genocide.
The 1822 massacre of Chios inspired Americans to aid Greek revolutionaries and rescue Chian children from slavery. Today, the Gaza massacres have inspired America’s leaders to finance the Israeli onslaught while mouthing hypocritical platitudes.
This is a betrayal of what the Founders sought to create in America.
After the Second World War, the United States led the world in building a framework of law to prevent such crimes. The Nuremberg Trials, launched in 1945, were the first to hold individuals – not just states – accountable for crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. The Democrats of that era – President Truman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Justice Robert H. Jackson, Senator Tom Connally, and Dean Acheson – worked with Republicans like Senator Arthur Vandenberg and John Foster Dulles. Together, they gave us the Genocide Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Fourth Geneva Convention – the most important legal shield for civilians during war and military occupation.
These were not acts of idealism. They were forged in horror. By the mid-20th century, the killing of civilians, once incidental to combat, had become war’s defining feature. In World War I, civilians made up about half of all deaths. In World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, they made up 60 to 75 percent. This shift – driven by bombing campaigns, starvation blockades, and ethnic targeting – forced the international community to draw a red line: civilians must not be military targets.
That line has been obliterated in Gaza.
Since October 2023, Israel’s campaign has killed far more than the 60,000 Palestinians reported in the headlines. Independent estimates suggest the full toll – including deaths from starvation, untreated wounds, and disease – may already exceed 180,000. The International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s occupation and settlement policy violates international law. Article 49 of the Geneva Convention forbids forced population transfer and collective punishment. Starving civilians is not a tragic necessity. It is a war crime.
And yet, as of this writing, Democratic Party leaders offer full-throated rhetorical and material support. President Biden appropriated billions for Israel that, according to a Brown University study, has covered 70% of the cost of Israel’s Gaza war. Kamala Harris repeated Israeli horror stories about October 7th that even the IDF has now withdrawn. House Leader Hakeem Jeffries rejected calls for a ceasefire, declared “ironclad” support for Israel’s war, and joined his colleagues in mealy-mouthed criticism of Netanyahu. Former President Bill Clinton, dispatched to soothe Arab-American voters, argued that Israel was “forced” to kill civilians because Hamas used them as shields. The Nazis used virtually the same justification in Greece – “they hid among civilians” – when they burned Kalavryta and Distomo, and their women and children, to the ground. When a military adopts the tactics of past monsters, it does not matter who its victims are.
This betrayal cuts deeper because it comes from the very party that once led with moral clarity. The Democratic Party that helped enshrine the rules of war now supports the funding of their violation. The party that once prosecuted starvation and extermination now excuses them. To rub salt in the wound, Democrats rejected a Palestinian American speaker at their 2024 convention but featured the parents of a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen held hostage by Hamas.
Not all Democrats have remained silent. Senator Bernie Sanders condemned Israel’s actions as “gross violations of American and international law.” Senator Chris Van Hollen called the withholding of food “a textbook war crime.” Senator Dick Durbin and a few others have called for a permanent ceasefire. House members like Jim McGovern, Madeleine Dean, and Becca Balint have also spoken forcefully. Their voices matter. But they are not the leadership.
I never thought I’d thank MAGA politicians for anything, but when they condemned arming an army committing atrocities, they were right. Maybe for the wrong reasons – but, “thank you, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Candace Owens!”
Some will argue that Israel has a right to self-defense. Of course it does. No nation should accept rockets fired at its cities or terrorist attacks on civilians. But self-defense is not a license to annihilate. International law does not permit “defending” yourself by displacing an entire population or destroying its means of life. We knew that in 1945. We must know it now.
Others excuse the inhumanity by claiming the issue of Palestine is complex, laced with ancient hatreds. So be it. Complexity does not absolve murder. History is no defense for starving children. When it all comes out, I hope no American politician says, “I didn’t know.” I once stood in the Monastery of Nea Moni, the repository of the ossuaries of Chios, and mourned the victims of 1822. I fear that children yet unborn will one day walk the ruins of Gaza and do the same.
If Democrats want to reclaim the moral authority they once held, they must act. Vote to end the arms shipments. Acknowledge the ICJ ruling. Demand an immediate ceasefire. And if they won’t, they should stop invoking “Never Again” as if it still holds meaning.
Because right now, in Gaza, it is happening again.