Biden Administration Faces an Increasingly Unsettled Middle East

 A Seattle paralegal, Noah Genatossio earned his degree in political science with a minor in history at the University of Washington. With a strong interest in international politics, Noah Genatossio has a particular focus on the Middle East.

An early-2022 Foreign Policy article takes a look at looming regional issues faced by the Biden administration, which theretofore had largely avoided entanglements in the Middle East. One issue is that five countries - Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Lebanon - are unstable and in danger of falling into deeper dysfunction and civil strife. At the same time, wealthy states in the Persian Gulf, while still requiring substantial US military support, are acting in ways that are evermore independent from US policy.

The article pinpoints America’s closest regional ally and its major adversary, Israel and Iran, as presenting the largest potential Middle East flashpoint. With the return to power of right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, tensions over Gaza and the West Bank, as well as rhetoric surrounding Iran’s nuclear program, are escalating. The contested West Bank is paramount, with Netanyahu needing the support of pro-settlement hard-liners in his coalition government to pass meaningful domestic legislation.

A Brief Overview of Criminal Trials

 

Noah Genatossio worked as a paralegal at Colvin & Hallett Law, a Seattle-based law practice. Previously, he served as a legislative intern for United States Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who represents Eastern Washington.. Noah Genatossio remains interested in the Middle East, policy, and law, particularly criminal defense.

When a person is accused of committing a crime, they are afforded a right to sufficient legal defense. If the person accused cannot afford an attorney, he will be granted one. These attorneys are called public defenders. Also, in the United States criminal defendants are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. Accordingly, it is the governments job to prove someone's guilt, and in criminal proceedings, this is the government's "case in chief." In such criminal prosecutions, the government must prove their accusations beyond a reasonable doubt. If the prosecutor fails to do so, they have failed to make their case in chief.

The Wonder Film Review

 

Noah Genatossio, a local of Seattle, Washington, is a political science graduate from the University of Washington. Noah Genatossio worked for Colvin & Hallet and L'Fornos and Mondello's Ristorante as a line cook and sous chef, respectively. Outside of work, he enjoys reading and going to the cinema.

In 2022, a few popular and less-known movies hit theaters with high ticket sales. The Wonder, a 2022 film directed by Sebastian Lelio, has caught the attention of many movie fanatics, garnering high fan ratings on both Rotten Tomatoes and the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).

The Wonder, a Netflix original, is based on Emma Donoghue's 2016 novel of the same name. The film, shot in Ireland and echoing 19th-century Ireland, features an English nurse, Lib Wright (Florence Pugh), who is sent to a small town to investigate a situation of a young girl reported to have lived for months without food. In what some see as a miracle or medical abnormality, this situation attracts tourists to the young girl's cabin, and a journalist comes to cover the story.

Notable casts besides Florence Pugh include Kila Lord Cassidy (Anna O'Donnell), Toby Jones (Dr. McBrearty), Ciara Hinds (Father Thaddeus), Elaine Cassidy (Rosaleen O'Donnell), Tom Burke (Will Byrne) and Niamh Algar (Kitty O'Donnell). The movie is a joint venture between House Production and Element Pictures, with Tessa Ross producing via House Productions and Ed Guiney through Element.

A Quick Glance at Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers

Residing in Seattle, Washington, Noah Genatossio graduated with a bachelor’s degree with an emphasis in political science from the University of Washington and then went to work in politics. He served as a campaign intern for Bill Bryant and later a congressional intern for U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Noah Genatossio is especially interested in foreign policy as it relates to the Middle East.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers serves as Washington State’s current 5th Congressional District representative. Originally from Salem, Oregon, McMorris Rodgers first got into politics in 1994 and has worked her way up into the U.S. House of Representatives. There was some speculation in 2016 that former president Donald Trump was considering McMorris Rodgers to be the nation’s next Secretary of Interior, but he ended up selecting Ryan Zinke, a congressman from Montana.

While in office, McMorris Rodgers’ top priorities are providing the best healthcare and benefits to America’s veterans, better support for people with disabilities, and developing a clean renewable energy solution that is innovative and affordable for Americans.

States Watch Political Parties to Determine Self-Direction

 Noah Genatossio, a resident of Seattle, Washington, is a graduate of the University of Washington (UW).

In August 2022, a Seattle Times article discussed a shift in the rationale for how states make legal/legislative decisions. The discussion was a part of a book UW professor Jake Grumbach wrote regarding this change.

Previously, states looked to other states for precedence to create and establish policies that were designed to fit the needs of the residents. In this way, states became laboratories of democracy, as Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote in his opinion about a case regarding the right of the state to tax two ice salesmen.

However, Grumbach argues that today’s federalism has exchanged this strategy for one where states look to national political parties for policy, ideology, and objective guidance. According to Grumbach, the only problem with this is that it makes the government less representative, responsive, and democratic.

The Kansas 2020 race illustrates this point. During the campaign, the Senate leader was taped promising donors to draw congressional districts to get more Republicans elected at the national level. However, he said donors first needed funding to elect more Republicans at the state level. Furthermore, 19 states passed laws making it more difficult to vote in 2021, only two of which were not Republican controlled.

This year Democrats have become more proactive in Illinois, Oregon, and Nevada by drawing their own gerrymanders to offset the work of Republicans. This is another example of how party action in one state can facilitate party action in other states.

Ultimately, this type of policy does threaten the traditional democracy practiced in the US. With pressures at the national level, state legislatures working at the ground level with residents might not be representing their interests if they are too in tune to party activity.

Holocaust Hero Saved over 600 Children

A graduate of the University of Washington, Noah Genatossio is currently a legal assistant at Colvin & Hallett in Seattle. He also served as a campaign intern for Bill Bryant for Governor and a diamond summer intern at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Additionally, Noah Genatossio is interested in history and taught Holocaust history at the Temple Beth Am in North Seattle.

The Holocaust continues to remind people of the tragedies during the second world war. Fueled by anti-semitism, which represents hostility and hatred toward Jews, Hitler killed over 10 million people because of their race and political inclinations. During these events, multiple people tried to save people from concentration camps and lived to tell the stories, one of which is Johan van Hulst. Johan van Hulst was a dutch teacher who saved over 600 Jews children during the second world war.

While serving as a teacher at the Reformed Teachers’ Training College, Johan van Hulst turned the school into an anti-Nazi resistance center. Just across the school, in a theater, the Nazis were preparing a deportation center for Jews, and Johan van Hulst managed to smuggle children from the theater with the help of his colleagues by arranging cargo transports for food. Instead of food, the teacher hid and transported children out of Amsterdam, which was German-occupied at the time.

Strategies Against Criminal Charges

A resident of Seattle, Washington, Noah Genatossio is an alumnus of the University of Washington, where he majored in political science. He currently serves as a legal assistant at Colvin & Hallett, where he helps lawyers with criminal defense. For legal professionals like Noah Genatossio, part of their research involves finding information for defense strategies.

For a person to be convicted of a crime in the US, they have to be found guilty beyond reasonable doubt; as such, one of the most common defense strategies is to establish reasonable doubt. The lawyer’s objective is to find arguments for why the prosecutor’s claims are not viable. Some approaches they use include finding errors in police evidence or questioning a witness’ credibility and intention.

Another typically used defense is the alibi. If a lawyer can find and reveal evidence that showcases the fact that their client was somewhere else, doing something else during a crime, there is no basis upon which to accuse them. As such, all criminal charges are withdrawn.

Depending on the offense and the individual’s medical history, a lawyer may also consider an insanity plea. This is an option only when the defendant can produce psychiatric records that indicate that their actions were a result of not being able to tell right from wrong. If the court accepts this defense, the defendant does not receive jail time; instead, they undergo treatment at a psychiatric facility.

What is Foreign Policy?

A legal assistant at Colvin & Hallett in Seattle, Noah Genatossio graduated from the University of Washington with an undergraduate degree in political science and has worked in various fields over the years. Noah Genatossio’s professional interests include foreign policy.

Foreign policy refers to a country or state entity’s activities and objectives concerning its interactions with other nations, political entities, and non-state actors. These policies primarily protect the country’s national interests, which its government can carry out through diplomatic or aggressive means. A country’s foreign minister, head of government, or equivalent party is responsible for making foreign policy decisions. They also meet with the leaders of other countries to resolve international issues through diplomacy.

Furthermore, decision-makers usually structure foreign policies to support their country’s main goals, such as economic, social, and political agendas. Some objectives might include maintaining global security, fostering world peace, promoting human-rights principles, enhancing foreign trade, or cultivating a balance of power among nations.

Defense Strategies to Criminal Charges

Noah Genatossio serves as a legal assistant at the Seattle-based firm Colvin & Hallett, which he joined after earning a bachelor of arts in political science from the University of Washington. Noah Genatossio also maintains an interest in criminal defense.

In criminal cases that go to trial, defense attorneys employ various strategies depending on their client’s plea. Some of the primary criminal-defense categories include the following:

Insanity

In an insanity defense, the defense attorney aims to persuade the jury that the defendant’s mental state served as the driving force behind the crime and typically involves the testimony of psychiatrists, who attempt to explain how the defendant’s state of mind at the time of the offense impacts their culpability. Calls to revise the insanity defense to a plea of “guilty but mentally ill” have emerged.

Self-Defense

A self-defense plea refers to the use of excessive or lethal force to defend one’s life. Whether or not a person intended to harm the victim, self-defense is justifiable. All that matters with this plea is whether or not the individual perceived the posed or assumed harm in the same way a “reasonable person” would. During a trial, the attorney of a defendant claiming self-defense endeavors to prove that their client killed or injured the victim to protect themselves from the victim’s violent threats.

Innocence

As simple as this plea may appear, asserting innocence of criminal charges requires much time and effort to develop a defense strategy. This approach might entail presenting evidence demonstrating that the defendant is incapable of committing the crime in question or showing that they were not present when it occurred. Additionally, supporting evidence could include witness testimony or surveillance footage.

What Does a Congressional Intern Do?

Noah Genatossio is a legal assistant at Colvin & Hallett in Seattle, Washington. Before taking this position in 2018, Noah Genatossio served as a congressional intern for United States Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers in Washington, DC.

Congressional interns work for senate members or state representatives at their Washington, DC, offices. Interns’ duties include writing memos, answering phones, sorting department letters, performing legislative research, drafting constituent correspondence, making deliveries, and planning events. Congressional interns also attend congressional meetings, briefings, and hearings to understand the legislative issues their senator or congressperson is handling.

Congressional intern positions are competitive and often reserved for recent college graduates or undergraduate students. Anyone who becomes a congressional intern should do all tasks assigned to them to their best, so they can impress other congressional staff members. In addition, their impressive performance will help them build good relationships with the staff, which could help unlock future public service job opportunities for them.

Dealing with Anti-Semitism on College Campuses

Noah Genatossio studied political science at the University of Washington, where he also served as the president of Washington Students for Israel. In August 2016, Noah Genatossio was featured in an article by Jewish in Seattle Magazine, where he discussed growing anti-Semitism on US college campuses.

In June 2016, prior to the article’s publication, the Anti-Defamation League reported a close to 100 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in US college campuses. These were 10 percent of anti-Semitic incidents in the country. The report attributed the rise to condemnation of Israel by activist movements like Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) as well as Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER).

According to Genatossio, the problem was made worse by a refusal by groups like SUPER to engage in dialogue with people of different views. This alienation of students in the pro-Israel community made them feel uncomfortable, creating tension where dialogue would have birthed a better outcome.

The article gave tips to students on handling anti-Semitism on campus. It urged them to distinguish between bigotry and ignorance (identify where someone’s antipathy simply arose from missing the facts) and to separate legitimate criticism from de-legitimization (identify legitimate criticism versus a denial of Jewish people’s right to self-determination). It also urged them to reach out to counselors and Jewish community institutions, work with people motivated to countering anti-Semitic bias, and document cases of anti-Semitism, in case evidence is needed to present to school leadership.