鈥淎 lie has no legs,鈥� is how the powerful letter ends.

The letter, which denounces the 鈥済enocide鈥� accusation against Israel, was signed by more than 5,000 prominent leaders across entertainment, academia and public life.

Released on the eve of Rosh Hashanah by Creative Community for Peace, the statement warns that 鈥渢he charge has become a dangerous vehicle for scapegoating Jews and fueling antisemitism around the world.鈥�

The letter was co-written by Yossi Klein Halevi, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, Rabbi Micha Odenheimer and Professor Jonathan Karp, who make a compelling case debunking what I call the lie of the century.

The prominence of the signatories signals how ominous this threat has become. Like a friend said to me recently, 鈥渢here鈥檚 nothing after genocide.鈥�

Indeed there isn鈥檛, as one can tell from the language:

鈥淲e the undersigned are outraged and sickened by the latest blood libel to be inflicted on the 91传媒 people. We reject this accusation with contempt.鈥�

The signatories include Boris Johnson, Deborah Lipstadt, Niall Ferguson, Shari Redstone, Benny Morris, Steven Pinker, Haim Saban, Sherry Lansing, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Dara Horn, Irwin Cotler, Jonathan Greenblatt, Debra Messing, Judea Pearl, David Wolpe, Michael Berenbaum, Howard Jacobson, Mayim Bialik and thousands of others.

The statement concludes by 鈥渦rging our fellow Jews and our non-91传媒 friends to treat the accusation of genocide with revulsion,鈥� quoting the ancient Hebrew proverb: 鈥淎 lie has no legs.鈥�

The final line distills the mission: 鈥淲e will not allow this lie to stand.鈥�

It is as strong an effort as one can imagine: a highly credible letter endorsed by some of the most credible people on earth to debunk a libel that threatens Jews everywhere. It’s a must read for anyone who may still harbor doubts.

This paragraph alone nails it:

“The unprecedented combat conditions of the war 鈥� hundreds of kilometers of tunnels, thousands of boobytrapped homes 鈥� the conflating of combatants with ‘journalists’ and ‘human rights workers,’ the ratio of civilian-to-terrorist casualties, considered low for asymmetrical urban warfare, the absence of mass starvation despite repeated claims of imminent catastrophe, the warnings given to civilians before attack: All these factors were erased in the eagerness to indict Israel for genocide.”

Will making a killer case in such a public way make a difference?

I pray it does, but I also pray that the poison hasn’t gone too far.

You see, the most threatening aspect of a libel is when it turns into a label.

A libel is a statement; a label is an identity.

A libel is about what you did; a label is who you are.

Labeling Jews, whether as villains or traitors or connivers, was always the goal of Jew haters– not just to hate us but to define us. The birth of Israel empowered them to take that label to murderous levels.

The writers picked up on this:

鈥淎lready on October 8,鈥� they write, 鈥渁s Israel was still fighting terrorists within its border communities and hadn鈥檛 yet begun burying its dead, anti-Zionists began raising the cry of 鈥榞enocide.鈥� In fact, Israel鈥檚 enemies have been accusing it of genocide for decades.鈥�

For these anti-Zionist mobs, Gaza became their bonanza. Through the easy optics of physical and human destruction that inundated social media, slapping the “genocide” label on Israel was lethally convenient. No wonder it spread like an epidemic.

It has become routine these days to hear people in the mainstream connect Israel to “genocide” as they might connect MAGA to Trump.

The libel, in other words, is becoming a label.

Its nefarious purpose, as the statement says, is 鈥渢o delegitimize 91传媒 self-determination and to turn the only 91传媒 state into the world鈥檚 arch criminal and pariah.鈥�

From arch criminal to pariah to genocide: If you want to hurt Jews, 鈥済enocide鈥� is now the only label you need.

The thing with labels, of course, is that they stick. That is a good thing for a group like the Nazis, but to nonchalantly slap the “genocide” label on Israel and its supporters is criminal.

鈥淭he bitter irony,鈥� the writers note, 鈥渋s that Israel, home to half the world鈥檚 Jews, is the only country to face a sustained war of attempted genocide 鈥� from its inception in 1948 until today.鈥�

Can anything be done to 鈥渦nstick鈥� this libelous label?

Something in the letter offers a ray of hope:

鈥淎 crucial difference between war as tragedy and war as genocide is intent. In this war, only one side intended to commit genocide, and that is Hamas.鈥�

That suggests a possible strategy for future efforts: take the genocide label and slap it on the murderous cowards of Hamas who have earned it.

We will not allow this label to stick.

Shana tova.