FWIW, per
Spiked Magazine - Bias and Credibility
View attachment 992686
Also, building on
@SmokyPeat "I'm not sure how this devolved into whose religion or lack of religion is better, but let's not be children here."
Please let's try to be balanced in this discussion. Because some posters understand the complex causes (and misinformation) around Palestinian suffering doesn't mean they condone or agree with Hamas or its history of terrorist acts. Because some posters understand how extremists in Israel have exacerbated that suffering doesn't mean they don't support Israel's need to defend itself. Remember that many Israelis were demonstrating against extremists, and many American Jews were supporting the anti-extremist point of view as well.
Israel did exactly what Hamas wanted them to do and now they are being condemned by the world for it. Hamas had shaped things to such an extent that Israel was screwed one way or another no matter which course they chose to take. Hamas knows Netanyahu well and figured he was most likely to take one of the most aggressive courses of action and they had their PR primed and ready to go in the west.
An Academic (even an Israeli?) accusing Israel of genocide? I never!
What is the legalistic and academic analysis that explains how virtually every non-Muslim religious minority has been booted out the "Muslim/Arab World" in the last 50 years out of fear of repression, imprisonment or even death? Ancient Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Yezidi and Baha'i communities completely wiped out since the founding of the UN, but nary a single UN condemnation let alone charges of ethnic cleansing or genocide.
Timothy Snyder has talked about genocide and what it is quite a bit. He came up with a list of markers:
1) Denying the statehood of the people a colonizer wants to control
2) Declaring that a historic people or nation is neither
3) Denying the humanity of others
4) Refusing to admit that one has previously committed genocide against a certain population
5) Propagating “replacement” theories claiming that “others are taking our space so we’re going to take it back”
6) Overloading the world’s conceptual circuitry by committing so many acts of cruelty that those not directly affected, stunned, ask whether what’s going on is really “genocide
The list is in this article, but he's talked about it in many places
Genocide in Ukraine? | George Weigel
From lectures I've seen he has stated that not all of these have to be there, but the more that are, the more clear the actions are genocide. I have seen him talk about this list in the context of the Ukraine war and Russia pretty much ticks every box.
The Middle East situation gets more murky. Israel has denied statehood to the Palestinians (#1). Quite a few Israelis, and not just the far right will talk about Arabs being animals(#3). And Israel may be a bit guilty of #4 and #6.
The Palestinians aren't in a dominant role so they can't actively deny statehood to the Israelis, but at least Hamas would like to. #2 is tricky because both sides have a historical claim to the territory that is Israel today. The Israelis were moved out of the territory almost 2000 years ago, but it's the world's oldest historic claim to land. But the Palestinians were there much more recently. The Palestinians definitely are guilty of #3 and #4, #5, and #6 are also in play.
There is, to some degree, an attempt at mutual genocide going on. Palestine ticks more boxes, though they are the underdog power in this situation, which is unusual for genocide. Pretty much unique.
The whole situation is just locked in a loop. There are no permanent solutions that both sides are going to agree to. If an agreement looks close, there are enough people who can't accept compromise on both sides who will blow up any tentative deals. It looked like Israel was going to make peace with Saudi Arabia just before Hamas attacked. The October 7 attack probably had, as one of its goals, blowing up any deal with the Saudis.
Israel will probably root out most of Hamas' current leadership and destroy a lot of Hamas assets this round. But Gaza is going to be left with severe scars and no money to fix them and a lot of civilians in Gaza will be killed and even more displaced. Joe Biden has asked for money to help the refugees and he will probably ask for money to help rebuild Gaza after the fighting stops, but the House of Representatives is so dysfunctional right now the US is going to be lucky if it can keep the government funded until the 2024 election. Extras for foreign aid might happen, but, unfortunately, humanitarian aid to Gaza is going to be lower on the priority list.
Then if aid is allocated, or charities come up with money, watchdogs need to ensure the money doesn't get stolen and end up rearming Hamas.
The destruction of Gaza that comes out of this war is an ideal recruiting tool for Hamas. This generation of Hamas fighters will likely be killed, but the next generation are being recruited right now. I don't see much changing after the shooting stops.
