The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has accused Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of betraying “American values” by stating that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. In a fundraising email, AIPAC likened Greene to left-wing opponents of Israel, saying, “You expect anti-Israel smears from Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. But now, Marjorie Taylor Greene has joined their ranks – spouting the same vile rhetoric and voting against the US-Israel alliance.”
Greene, an ally of US President Donald Trump, had echoed the growing consensus of rights groups, academics, and United Nations experts that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza. “It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza,” she wrote in a social media post. AIPAC called Greene’s comment “disgusting” and stated, “Let’s call this what it is: Marjorie Taylor Greene is the newest member of the anti-Israel Squad.”
The United Nations defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. Over the past 22 months, Israel has destroyed nearly all of Gaza, repeatedly displaced the enclave’s population, killed more than 61,000 people, and imposed a suffocating blockade that sparked deadly hunger in the territory. At least 197 people have starved to death in Gaza, including 96 children, according to local health authorities.
Despite AIPAC’s efforts to mitigate growing outrage over Israel’s starvation policy in Gaza, many congressmembers, including some legislators backed by AIPAC, have begun condemning Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Democratic Congresswoman Valerie Foushee, whom AIPAC helped elect to Congress in 2022 with $2m in campaign spending, said she was co-sponsoring a bill to block offensive weapons to Israel. “We simply cannot continue to provide the Israeli government with weapons when they are not being used in accordance with international law to maximize the protection of civilians in Gaza,” Foushee wrote in a social media post.
Meanwhile, a recent poll found that 79% of Jewish Israelis are “not troubled” by reports of famine in Gaza, despite growing global outrage. However, some Israelis are beginning to speak out against the war, with hundreds of demonstrators led by wounded soldiers and families of captives marching on the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, demanding that the war on Gaza be ended. Israeli scholar Ori Goldberg argued that images of hunger provoke a deeper response because they tap into the most traumatic layer of Israeli Jewish memory: the Holocaust.