Really frustrating moment during an interview of John Kirby by Willie Geist on Morning Joe today. In what looked like a totally staged question, Geist mentioned accusations of Israel committing genocide in Gaza and asked Kirby if he’d seen evidence of genocide in Gaza. Kirby of course said no, no, there’s no evidence of genocide in Gaza. Israeli soldiers aren’t getting up every morning, putting on their boots and saying I’m going to see how many civilians I can kill today. (Not a direct quote but that was the gist.) So no, Willie, there’s no genocide.
Um, what about the tens of thousands of dead Palestinians? Women and children? More than 30 times as many Palestinians have been killed than Israelis who were killed by Hamas on 10/7. Cities have been leveled. They’re blocking aid and trying to starve the population. The killing isn’t about to stop. I see a whole lot of evidence of genocide.
I get the political reality, that you can’t say yes, they’re committing genocide. But Jesus, don’t be so fucking clumsy and transparent in your denial. That show gets pretty heavy-handed in their full-throated defense of Israel (while still being highly critical of Netanyahu).