OpEd: NY’s 17th District deserves leaders with moral clarity on Israel-Gaza conflict 

By Effie Phillips-Staley

Fueled by AIPAC money and a Trump-era contempt for empathy, Lawler doubled-down on violence in Gaza so widespread and extreme that the world is now forced to confront a deeply painful moral litmus test: the question of genocide. Half of American voters, and nearly 40% of American Jews, see Israel’s actions as a genocide — a once unthinkable accusation that is currently being adjudicated by the International Criminal Court. Hamas’s brutal assault on innocent civilians in 2023, the worst act of violence against Jews since the Holocaust, was rightly condemned worldwide as a crime against humanity. I grieve with my Jewish neighbors and family for the 1,200 Israelis who were viciously murdered, and for the hostages who were tortured and killed. I rejoiced in the return of surviving hostages to their families, and I applaud the efforts across New York and the United States to protect Jewish communities from the rising scourge of anti-Semitism.

The Journal News

https://www.lohud.com/story/opinion/2025/10/27/mike-lawler-israel-hamas-war-opinion/86920347007/