It’s strange to me when otherwise intelligent people call this genocide. Genocide is an attempt to exterminate an entire people. Israel is a nuclear armed nation fighting against the equivalent of Dayton, OH.

If genocide were the goal this war would have lasted one day.

Collective punishment, or a long term ethnic cleansing would be much more accurate, but you’re just repeating what you read unthinkingly if you say genocide.

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padjo 9 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

So by your logic if you slowly exterminate a people its not genocide?

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5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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zorked 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Your are using an argument similar to the repugnant logic of Holocaust deniers. They use claims that Germany could have easily killed Jews /even faster/ as an argument to claim that they didn't commit genocide /at all/.

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erezsh 3 hours ago | parent [-]

It's a ridiculous argument. The Nazis went through a LOT of effort and resources to gather Jews from all the corners of Europe, and even more effort into exterminating them as fast as they could, within the logistical and economic constraints of fighting a 3 front war.

There's no comparison at all to the ease with which Israel could just drop a couple of bombs on Gaza, had it decided to do so.

	▲	manyaoman 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The fact that I just spent five minutes thinking about it proves that it's not ridiculous at all. The scale is different (so far), but I’m not convinced there’s a qualitative difference.
	▲	sosomoxie 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The only thing stopping Israel from doing that is international outrage. Israel is entirely dependent on its benefactor states like the US and, while it pushes the limits to the extreme, must at least contend with world opinion.

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khazhoux 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

“Your honor and members of the jury: my client could have easily committed way worse crimes!”

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superb_dev 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

How is long term ethnic cleansing different from genocide?

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propagandist 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_humanitarian_and_human...

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wayeq 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> If genocide were the goal this war would have lasted one day.

You can't infer intent that way. Nuking Gaza isn't free, it would introduce an existential threat to Israel. They are toeing a dangerous line already, and using WMDs would align other countries against them really quickly.

Putin isn't avoiding using nukes on Ukraine because he's a nice guy.

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neoromantique 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Why does israel use expensive precise munitions wherever possible rather than their stockpiles of much more deadly "dumb" ones?

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wayeq 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

maybe because they are trying to act ethically toward a murderous neighbor that is conducting asymmetric warfare and those are the best tools to accomplish that.

or, maybe because they came to the conclusion that the repercussions on the world stage of even more horrific media coming out of Gaza is too steep of a price to pay.

i don't know which, but i do know it is naive to conclude that because they COULD end the war in a day and did not, they are driven by morality and ethical concerns rather than pragmatic ones.

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NickC25 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

because it would be admitting to the world that it has said weapons.

Israel has always said it doesn't have nuclear weapons. They would have absolutely zero sympathy going forward from any major nation if they decided to drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza, and they want that land so rendering that land uninhabitable might not be a good idea.

	▲	neoromantique 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		by dumb munitions I mean older bombs vs JDAM and alike. Anyone who seriously speaks words 'nuclear weapon' and 'gaza' together is basically admitting he has 0 clue about the situation and is uninformed larper for either side.
	▲	thenaturalist 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The argument conveniently always goes such that Israel is the baddie. Curious how that goes, especially since Israels ulterior motives are always implied, they're not taken by their word. And Islamists, who share their motives openly with anyone willing to listen are ignored.

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yosamino 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yes, there is a long term effort by the State of Israel to remove Palestinian life from Palestinian land.

The term "genocide" noes not mean "kill every single member of a group", it refers to the destruction of the group itself by whatever means.

> you’re just repeating what you read unthinkingly if you say genocide.

Your policy of deeming everybody who does not have the same opinion as you to be too stupid, is smug, self serving and lazy.

See, I could just also go ahead and tell you that you are too "unthinkingly" to know that "ethnic cleansing" is a euphemism for "genocide" and that "long term ethnic cleansing" is exactly congruent in meaning with "genocide" (look it up).

Instead of doing that, I would like you to consider that when I say that the state of Israel is committing a genocide against the Palestinian people, I have thought long and hard about whether that is the appropriate term, and without taking it lightly, I have for myself concluded that that is actually the correct term.