| Eugene Finkel, an associate professor of international affairs at Johns Hopkins University, is a scholar of the Holocaust and a descendant of Holocaust survivors. He believes in caution when applying the genocide label, and has criticized governments in the past for misapplying the term. But in Ukraine, he argues, "genocide is unfolding before our eyes." "Contrary to popular perceptions, shaped by the Holocaust and Rwanda, perpetrating genocide does not require large numbers of victims," he explains. "The intent and logic of targeting are the key." In light of the widespread violence being documented in Ukraine — including reports of the bombardment, abduction and murder of civilians — and the rhetoric emanating from Russia, Finkel reaches a grim conclusion. "The combination of official statements denying Ukraine and Ukrainians the right to exist, and mounting evidence of deliberate, large-scale targeting of Ukrainian civilians, leaves little room for doubt. The threshold from war crimes to genocide has been crossed."  (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images) When Russian soldiers and leaders discovered, to their astonishment, that Ukrainian citizens had no desire to be liberated from the Western yoke, Russian thinking shifted from colonial to genocidal. By Eugene Finkel ● Read more » | | | | If the nation had paid attention to the widespread poverty that preceded the pandemic, many deaths might have been prevented. By The Rev. William J. Barber II and The Rev. Liz Theoharis ● Read more » | | | | This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for the ship of state. By Dana Milbank ● Read more » | | | | The leader of their party could become president again, and go right back to kneeling at Putin's feet. By Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent ● Read more » | | | | History is not on the side of those who forecast a soft landing for the economy. By Lawrence H. Summers ● Read more » | | | | You might call the comic's triumph at the Grammys the sign of a healthy new normal. By Alyssa Rosenberg ● Read more » | | | | The problem isn't "hypocrisy." They're showing why they'll never agree to genuinely secure elections. By Paul Waldman ● Read more » | | | | It's time to call out the phony GOP talking points. By Jennifer Rubin ● Read more » | | | | My conversation with the Chicago-based historian and professor on the enactment, at long last, of federal antilynching legislation. By Karen Attiah ● Read more » | | | |
Email 
