The week after October 7 was way too premature to know anything for sure. Some kind of military response was absolutely justified. But two years of occupation, carpet bombing, systemic starvation, and explicit plans to form concentration camps and/or expel the Palestinians make it unambiguous
It’s all horrible. And I don’t trust Netanyahu’s judgment about what’s best for Israel or the region. But I also think your terms are exaggerations (words that are hyperbolic more than literal truths - carpet bombing, concentration camps, systematic), and real genocides do not require hyperbole.
And things like documented casualty figures (eg, civilian to combatant ratio) and Israel’s simple demands to stop the war (return of hostages and for the party that started the war to surrender; echoed by world leaders including Carney and the 22 nation Arab league) look like war, not genocide.
There’s much more I could say (and much I already deleted bc this is a hard format for this topic). I’d be happy to discuss in-depth back channel if you saw value in that. But I’ll end on this. I was happy when Israel left Gaza in 2005 — removing their living and even dead — in exchange for nothing
but the promise of peace. What happened? Hamas was elected, militarized the infrastructure including billions $ on tunnels beneath civilian infrastructure, started this war, and won’t stop. Hamas could literally end the war tomorrow without Gaza losing a single square inch of territory. The war
only continues because Hamas chooses for it to continue. Gaza would lose nothing, and gain everything — the world would rally to rebuild Gaza! — if Hamas simply agreed to free civilians and not seek Israel’s destruction. But as long as the progressive world blames Israel, Hamas has no reason to stop
It’s often presented as a given that if Hamas just released the hostages that this would all stop, but I don’t think there’s any evidence of that. At this point I don’t think that anything else other than complete occupation and displacement will satisfy Netanyahu/Halevi etc.
Just want to add I greatly value your contributions to Jiu Jitsu and political discourse, and I have a lot of anxiety and discomfort over this issue. I apologize for any mistakes in tone or content.