Try: "Israel fought a just and proportionate war of self-defense against aggressors who committed mass sexual violence and used civilians as human shields, among other heinous war crimes." https://t.co/VI54k3NdRi
— David Frum (@davidfrum) June 13, 2026
Frum is referring to Darializa Avila Chevalier, a left-wing challenger to Representative Adriano Espaillat, who is trying to hold onto his US Hous seat in CD-13 in the New York Democratic Party primary to be held on June 23, 2026. Espaillat is asked "should we continue to be sending funding and military weapons to Israel"? She responds
No, and I really believe that we need to stop spending our tax dollars to arm a state that is currently enacting genocide, a word that my opponent has yet to say.
It is deeply important that we recognize that it is the taxpayer money of the American people that is contributing to this atrocities (sic). If you want to talk about accountability to be able to actually create peace, there cannot be peace while American tapayer dollars is continuing to be used to slaughter civilians. It is abhorrent to me that we continue to invest so much of our money n weapons and bombs that are slaughtering communities abroad when so many of our people here are suffering from lack of dignified housing, from lack of access to quality food, from lack of access to the social safety net that make life dignified for so many.
Then asked "in refernce to the last question, do you believe Israel has committed genocide on the Palestinian people since the Octover 7 attacks, you're a yes," Chevalier responded "yes".
Prior to October 7, 2023, many Americans were suffering from lack of dignified housing and access to quality food and the social safety net. The problem has been greatly exacerbated by the Trump Administration and especially by Elon Musk's DOGE. And after President Trump's departure, there still will be indignities foisted upon the American people, especially (not exclusively) upon the poor and working class. If Congress and the President wanted to ameliorate the situation, they would, no matter the exorbitant spending on defense. Or as Vice President Dick Cheney once told the Secretary of the Treasury, "deficits don't matter".
But on to the point Chevalier was trying to make, that we are arming a nation "currently enacting genocide". No, we are not, and for two reasons.
Al Jazeera, arch enemy of the Jewish state, reported on June 13 "according to Gaza's Health Ministry, at least 983 Palestinians have been killed and 3,122 injured in Israeli attacks on the strip since the ceasefire was reported." That's not from Israel, the United Nations, or an objective observer- that's from Hamas.
There were 243 days from the date- October 10, 2025- that the ceasefire was announced till, for point of reference, June 10, 2026. According to a government agency representing a terrorist organization devoted to destroying Israel, 983 residents of Gaza were killed by Israeli arms during that period. That amounts to slightly more than four indviduals a day on average by a military widely believed to possess strategic and tactical nuclear weapons. If Israel is trying to wipe out Gazans or Palestinians generally, it has the most inept military in history, by far.
Even prior to the ceasefire, Israel was not trying to wipe out a people, which is the traditional, valid definition of genocide. This is not to say, contrary to David Frum's implication, that Israel's response to the genocidal attack of Hamas upon Jews in the Southern District of Israel on 10/7/23 always has been proportional. Two months after the terrorist incursion
Almost three months after the start of the war, CNN explained that Israel had
dropped hundreds of massive bombs, many of them capable of killing or wounding people more than 1,000 feet away, analysis by CNN and artificial intelligence company Synthetaic suggests.
Satellite imagery from those early days of the war reveals more than 500 impact craters over 12 meters (40 feet) in diameter, consistent with those left behind by 2,000-pound bombs. Those are four times heavier than the vast majority of the largest bombs the United States dropped on ISIS during the war against the extremist group in Syria and Iraq.
Weapons and warfare experts blame the extensive use of heavy
munitions such as the 2,000-pound bomb for the soaring death toll. The
population of Gaza is packed together much more tightly than almost anywhere
else on earth, so the use of such heavy munitions has a profound effect.
“The use of 2,000-pound bombs in an area as densely populated as Gaza means it will take decades for communities to recover,” said John Chappell, advocacy and legal fellow at CIVIC, a DC-based group focused on minimizing civilian harm in conflict….
Israeli officials have argued that its heavy munitions are
necessary to eliminating Hamas, whose fighters killed more than 1,200 people
and took more than 240 hostages on October 7. They also claim that Israel is
doing all it can to minimize civilian casualties.
Well, maybe not. Arms shipments from the USA to Israel for use in the war have included such items as tank shells; F-35 stealth fighter jets; Hellfire missiles; artillery shells and related weapons; and advanced air-to-air missiles.
And MK82 and MK84 bombs, the former weighing 500 pounds each and the latter, 2,000 pounds. Israel had been receiving both from the USA though, as CNN reported, the big bombs are far ore controversial. In February, the Trump Administration shipped to Israel 1600 of the MK84 bombs, which followed
the lifting of an embargo imposed by the Biden administration in May 2024, which sought to curb the use of American-supplied bombs in densely populated areas due to concerns about civilian harm.
The MK-84 bombs, produced by Boeing, have been a controversial weapon due to their wide blast radius and devastating impact when used in urban settings.
Human rights organisations, including Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), have warned that their use in populated areas frequently results in mass civilian casualties and long-term infrastructural damage.
“The history of air-dropped bombs like the MK-84 tells us that their use in densely populated regions will almost certainly lead to indiscriminate civilian harm,” said Dr Iain Overton, Executive Director of AOAV. “There needs to be a far greater emphasis on minimising the humanitarian cost of these weapons.”
Israel has been engaging in a just war, yet, objectively, not a proportionate war. So Frum is not entirely correct
But the House of Representatives candidate, Darializa Avila Chevalier, has nary a clue. If she has any idea- and it's nearly certain she does not- what the USA is supplying Israel, she doesn't let on that she does. In an abundance of ignorance, she simply repeats the mantra of the naive left, oblivious to the history of the Mideast or what Hamas, were it to expand its influence, has in mind for Israelis, and not only of the Jewish kind.
"A state that is currently enacting genocide" she describes our ally, knowing only that the nation is committing "atrocitiies" of an unspecified type.
If she has any idea of what constitues "genocide," she keeps it well hidden. She and her fellow travelers should not; "genocide" is an extraordinarily serious charge and means far more than "atrocities". Mass shootings and destroying food provided by USDA for combatting starvation are atrocities; they are not genocide.
Definition creep is all the rage now. Blood libel is tolerated and in some quarters, encouraged. If Israel has been naughty- very naughty, its detractors believe- it is "genocide," accuracy and honesty be damned. Unless this is denounced, it will not be good for the Middle East, the USA, or the Democratic Party.
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