I think I have to push back against comment #79 a little bit.
1. Israel not using nukes implies Israel is not committing a genocide:
Israel’s nuclear weapons are primarily a deterrent against well-armed nations like Iran, and certainly not something to use to shoot fish in a barrel. Moreover, the proximity of Gaza and the West Bank to Israel would mean any fallout would also affect the areas around the strip that are literally Israel, so…
Another point about the genocide argument is this – one does not need nuclear weapons to commit genocide. In fact, never has any WMD been used in the commission of genocide, not in Darfur, not in Bosnia, not in Rwanda, not in Bangladesh, and not even in the Holocaust. One does not need weapons that can level a city or poison a county to commit genocide, when machetes will do the trick.
Moreover, I would urge you to carefully consider the arguments made by the likes of Omer Bartov [1] and Aryeh Neier [2], who are the world’s leading experts on the topic.
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2. Comparisons to other conflicts:
There are two parts here. Firstly, Assad’s war in Syria has made that nation a pariah in pretty much every sense of the word. The only thing that stops the same from happening to Saudi Arabia for Yemen is base greed for oil and investment. One hopes Israel is better than that!
Moreover, in many ways, the conflict in Gaza IS worse than the above. For instance, more children have died in Gaza as of this March (5 months ago now!) than in the previous 4 years of conflict everywhere else in the world [3]. The number of dead children might actually be a severe underestimate, as noted by SaveTheChildren [4].
Another factor to consider is genocide requires specific intent, and incitement. I comment on this a little bit more in point 5 below.
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3. Comparisons to Allies/Nazis in world war 2:
I also question the comparison to World War 2 players. Hamas is not an industrially advanced nation, they’re a (mostly) ragtag terrorist organization reluctantly conjoined with an administrative body. Similarly, Israel is not the Allies fighting against an enemy of mostly comparable means either. And, as others have pointed out, the conduct of the war by the Allies was, at times, quite awful, all of which led to the establishment of the Geneva conventions.
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4. Hamas’ Intentions:
While Hamas is an antisemitic organization, we do need to be clear-headed about what they actually are. Are they a terrorist organization? Yes, of course. Can they be defeated in battle? No, according to the IDF [5]. Can they be negotiated with? Possibly, as noted by the changes in their charter, neatly summarized here [6]. Are they rational actors when they need to be? Probably. As awful as they are, it does not do to make Bond villains out of real-world actors.
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5. Calls for genocide by Israeli politicians:
Come now, there has been clear incitement to genocide, or at the very least, ethnic cleansing. What else must we think about the debates around torture at Sde Teiman, or the accelerationism in the West Bank? What of Smotrich talking about how it would be moral to starve 2 million Palestinians [7]? What of all the examples listed in this article [8], which clearly points to an incitement to genocide by members of the Israeli government?
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6. Likud’s platform and Palestinian control of the West Bank:
It should be mentioned that Likud have always, firmly been against the existence of a Palestinian state. Rabin died because of that belief held by Likudniks. Moreover, Israel has never acknowledged the Palestinian right to a state, not even in Oslo [9]. There’s a great deal of nuance here, but I think Shlomo Ben Ami’s article (from September last year!) [9], and his book, “Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy” for a more detailed look into things.
Edit: As concerns Comment #81: Fair enough, point well made. However, just as we saw in Ireland and even in Rwanda now, it is possible for people who warred violently (genocidally, even) to come to an accord of sorts. Naturally, as mentioned in my earlier comments, no true peace can be had without aa Good Friday style agreement, as well as a genuine truth and reconciliation commission. This would mean both sides abandoning the wish to expel the other permanently, perhaps codified in a real constitution with real teeth.
References.
[1] Bartov, Omer. “As a former IDF soldier and historian of genocide, I was deeply disturbed by my recent visit to Israel”. link:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/artic ... mer-bartov
[2] Neier, Aryeh. “Is Israel Committing Genocide?” link:
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2024/0 ... yeh-neier/ (alas, this is paywalled).
[3] Clarissa Jan-Lim. “More children killed in Gaza in four months than in four years of war globally: report”. link:
https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/lates ... rcna143269
[4] SaveTheChildren. “Gaza’s missing children:
Over 20,000 children estimated to be lost, disappeared, detained, buried under the rubble or in mass graves”. link:
https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/news ... st-in-gaza
[5] Da Silva, Chantal. “Can Israel defeat Hamas? Its own military doesn’t seem to think so, clashing with Netanyahu”. link:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/isra ... rcna157991
[6] The Wilson Centre. “Doctrine of Hamas.” link:
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/doctrine-hamas
[7] The Guardian Staff and Editors. “Israel minister condemned for saying starvation of millions in Gaza might be ‘justified and moral’”. link:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/artic ... e-comments
[8] Sharon, Jeremy. “Rights group demands probes of potential genocide incitement in light of ICJ orders”. link:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/rights-gr ... cj-orders/
[9]. Ben-Ami, S. “The Slow, Tragic Death of the Oslo Accords”.
https://www.project-syndicate.org/comme ... mi-2023-09