GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 112

Remembering The Holocaust


A Sobering Time

As Israel commemorates a dark time in its history, it does so with the backdrop of yet another attempt to exterminate all Jews. We read more about the Holocaust Remembrance day in an article from i24new.tv:

“We’re Still Standing” exhibition at the UN was launched to mark the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, focusing on the stories of survivors that demonstrated extraordinary resilience and rebuilt their lives despite the atrocities committed by the Nazis.

One survivor of the attacks on October 7th connects the dots for us:

Ruth Haran and additional Holocaust survivors that survived the Hamas-led October 7 massacre in southern Israel provided testimony from their experiences of both atrocities, in recordings that were broadcast at the exhibition and at International Holocaust Remembrance Day events across the globe.

"As soon as babies are murdered in their cots, when women are raped, thrown to the ground and murdered brutally the innocents - that is a holocaust!" Haran said in a recorded testimony.

One of Israels representatives for the EU added this:

"Unfortunately, the irrational hatred of Jews that led to the Holocaust has not disappeared. On October 7, the terrorist organization Hamas massacred more than a thousand Israelis in the most barbaric way imaginable, simply because they are Jews living in Israel. It was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust," EU Ambassador in Israel, Dimitar Tzanchev, said at the Israeli event for the International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2024.

We’re Still Standing

Adding to the theme of the day, Israel’s UN ambassador stalked about how Israel still exists:

At the New York UN headquarters, at the exhibition attended by dozens of envoys from around the world, Israel’s Ambassador Erdan said “One hundred and ten days ago, the Jewish people suffered the most brutal massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. We saw acts of evil not seen since the Nazis. Hamas terrorists murdered, raped, beheaded, and burned families alive.”

“Yet just like in the aftermath of the Holocaust, just like the stories told in this exhibition, the nation of Israel is rising up like a phoenix from the ashes,” the Israeli ambassador continued.

Erdan went on to speak about how Israel defies the odds, again and again:

“Fighting for Israel often seems like an impossible challenge. But when I look around the General Assembly, I remember that the Ambassador of the Babylonian Empire is nowhere to be found, and the flag of the Roman Empire is not waving outside the UN,” Erdan referred to historical accounts of empires that persecuted the Jewish people.

“But do you know which flag is? The Star of David. The flag of the Jewish people living in our eternal homeland,” he concluded.

The article goes on to mention another special part of the events which also connects the past with the present:

In honor of the Holocaust survivors, and as part of the exhibition, a book was also launched with photos of the survivors. The organizers said the memorial event “has taken on special importance following the October 7 massacre in which many Israelis were murdered in shocking ways and entire families were exterminated simply because they were Jewish.”

A Split Decision

As expected, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) meeting in the Hague ruled on halting the war as seen in a report from The Times Of Israel:

The International Court of Justice ruled on Friday that at least some of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip during the ongoing war against Hamas could fall within the terms of the Genocide Convention and said it must therefore take a series of preventative measures.

The decision, made 15-2, that there is “plausibility” to South Africa’s claims that Palestinians require protection from genocide, is damaging to Israel.

The court didn’t order the war to totally stop as South Africa requested:

However, the court did not take the action most desired by South Africa and feared by Israel — that of ordering an immediate, unilateral ceasefire which would have stymied the war effort and indicated that the court believes genocide is actively taking place.

Crucially, the court did not use the word “desist” in its decision, which would have also indicated it believed genocide was actively taking place. The order repeated on several occasions that the decision was not a determination on the merits of South Africa’s allegations of genocide. And the provisional measures do not indicate how the ICJ might rule in the far lengthier process on the case.

Prime Minister Netanyahu responded to the decision that didn’t sting as much as it could have but did intimate that genocide could be happening:

“The vile attempt to deny Israel this fundamental right is blatant discrimination against the Jewish state, and it was justly rejected,” stated Netanyahu following the ruling, while insisting that the charge of genocide against Israel was “not only false, it’s outrageous,” and that “decent people everywhere should reject it.”

South Africa saw it differently:

South Africa, meanwhile, hailed the decision, calling it a “decisive victory for the international rule of law and a significant milestone in the search for justice for the Palestinian people.”

Not A Unanimous Decision

As we saw in the previous report, the vote was 15-2 so we know that there was some dissent as we read in an article from The Times Of Israel:

Israeli Justice Aharon Barak, who served on the panel of the International Court of Justice in the Gaza genocide case, issued his dissenting opinion Friday to most of the court’s decisions in the case, including the ICJ’s call for Israel to take preventive measures to prevent genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Along with Uganda’s Julia Sebutinde, Barak was one of only two judges to oppose the court’s assertion that some Israeli actions in the war against Hamas may violate the Genocide Convention and its order for Israel to ensure they do not.

Barak’s ruling was pretty much what the world is already wanting Israel to do:

Barak voted in favor of two measures included in the decision: requiring Israel to do everything “within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip,” and ordering “immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

He did question something we also want to know:

In his separate opinion, Barak criticized South Africa for focusing on Israel instead of Hamas for carrying out the October 7 terror onslaught that sparked the war in Gaza, saying it “wrongly sought to impute the crime of Cain to Abel.”

He also noted his own experience as a Holocaust survivor.

“Genocide is more than just a word for me; it represents calculated destruction and human behavior at its very worst,” Barak wrote. “It is the gravest possible accusation and is deeply intertwined with my personal life experience.”

The retired Israeli Supreme Court chief said that “the idea that Israel is now accused of committing genocide is very hard for me personally, as a genocide survivor deeply aware of Israel’s commitment to the rule of law.”

Barak touted Israel’s commitment to adhering to international law during military operations and argued that the basis for reviewing Israel’s actions in Gaza was international humanitarian law, not the Genocide Convention.

Becoming More Like The Ones They Once Denounced

In my opinion, the Holocaust happened when the world turned a blind eye to Hitler’s blatant goal to wipe all inferior races from the planet, and he especially hated the Jews. And now the world is coming against Israel just like they did to Nazi Germany saying that Israel has become the bad actor. The irony is not lost on me and many others who see so much concern for the terrorists and the people who support them by at least 80% in every election. And when humanitarian aid is taken by Hamas for its terrorist army before any of it goes to the citizens, those are more the war crimes the ICJ should be judging. Raping women and children, brutalizing and decapitating Jews, pulling babies from the wombs of pregnant women, making loved ones watch other loved ones be killed in front of them regardless of their ages and then treating hostages as pawns to be leveraged, these are more of the war crimes that are being somehow ignored or explained away. Pray for Israel even more as the world condemns their fight to exist once more. Listen those who charge Israel of genocide when these terrorists and their supporters are the ones calling for genocide and have clearly stated as much. A higher court is gathering evidence and will judge these people and nations at the proper time. And His ruling will be eternally binding.