In response to some Democrats accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, Kentucky’s Democratic Governor Andy Beshear dismisses this charge, arguing:<\/p>\n
“That’s becoming one of those new litmus tests that we said we would never, never do as a party again. It’s trying to throw out a word and are you going to raise your hand or are you not going to?”<\/p>\n
However, Israeli Holocaust and genocide researchers — Amos Goldberg, Omer Bartov, Daniel Blatman, Raz Segal and Shmuel Lederman — have all identified Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide. Goldberg writes:<\/p>\n
“What is happening in Gaza is genocide because the level and pace of indiscriminate killing, destruction, mass expulsions, displacement, famine, executions, the wiping out of cultural and religious institutions…and the sweeping dehumanization of the Palestinians — create an overall picture of genocide, of a deliberate, conscious crushing of Palestinian existence in Gaza.”<\/p>\n
Other genocide scholars, including Martin Shaw, author of the book What is Genocide?; Melanie O’Brien, president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars; and Dirk Moses, senior editor of the Journal of Genocide Research, have drawn the same conclusion.<\/p>\n
The United Nations Genocide Convention placed prevention at the center of international law. By rejecting credible evidence of genocide, Gov. Beshear is undermining the postwar promise of “never again” — and the moral leadership his party once championed.<\/p>\n
Terry Hansen<\/strong><\/p>\n Grafton, Wisconsin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In response to some Democrats accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, Kentucky’s Democratic Governor Andy Beshear dismisses this charge, arguing:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3361,"featured_media":894876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1020,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-894875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters","category-opinion"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/heraldnet.com\/2026\/04\/03\/letter-facing-the-reality-of-genocide-in-gaza\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Letter: Facing the reality of genocide in Gaza","url":"http:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/2026\/04\/03\/letter-facing-the-reality-of-genocide-in-gaza\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/2026\/04\/03\/letter-facing-the-reality-of-genocide-in-gaza\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/04\/41973011_web1_260402-ADW-Letter_1.jpeg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/04\/41973011_web1_260402-ADW-Letter_1.jpeg"},"articleSection":"Letters","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"none"}],"creator":["none"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"HeraldNet.com","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-04-03T08:30:00Z","datePublished":"2026-04-03T08:30:00Z","dateModified":"2026-04-03T08:42:11Z"},"rendered":"