Interesting opinion piece. I disagree with the author, who seems to have an axe to grind (arguing that Israel’s “occupation” of Palestine is the problem), and then he misstated the “key” point, which is intent, not in part.

TeamProg

(6,426 posts)

11. All he was saying is that what he is seeing is genocide. Attrocities tend to rhyme. nt

Reply to TexasDem69 (Reply #4)

Wed Apr 10, 2024, 09:44 PM

Apr 10

TeamProg

(6,426 posts)

13. Psyche! He is not. nt

Reply to TexasDem69 (Reply #1)

Wed Apr 10, 2024, 09:45 PM

Apr 10

Passages

(260 posts)

5. Our youth may save us before it's too late.

Reply to malaise (Original post)

Wed Apr 10, 2024, 08:24 PM

Apr 10

Rep. Jamie Raskin:

“I say to the ones who are very upset about Gaza and the Middle East and what’s been going on, you are making a difference every single day.”

“The young people are making a very big difference in terms of the course of events.”

Link to tweet

WarGamer

(12,534 posts)

6. Just change the names and ask yourself if it sounds like war crimes.

Reply to malaise (Original post)

Wed Apr 10, 2024, 08:29 PM

Apr 10

Serbian soldiers shoot innocent Bosnians and bury the bodies with a bulldozer.

Russian troops hit a Chechen hospital, killing hundreds.

After the death of 30,000 civilians, Khmer Rouge denies wrong doing.

malaise

(269,513 posts)

7. Correct is right

Reply to WarGamer (Reply #6)

Wed Apr 10, 2024, 08:31 PM

Apr 10

Rec

Celerity

(43,929 posts)

8. Israel and its supporters contend that what's happening in Gaza is a legal and righteous response to the Oct. 7 attack

Reply to malaise (Original post)

Wed Apr 10, 2024, 08:33 PM

Apr 10

by Hamas fighters. It’s evident that war crimes were committed by Hamas: Israelis were shot in their homes at kibbutzim, and concertgoers at the Nova music festival were massacred. We’ve seen the pictures and videos, and while some allegations have turned out to be false, the evidence of brutal crimes is solid. Hamas is still holding more than 100 hostages.

That does not give Israel a pass to respond as it pleases. An eye for an eye — or a hundred eyes for one eye — is not a thing in international law. A key tenet of the laws of warfare is that an attack that endangers civilians must be militarily necessary, and any civilian casualties that occur must be proportional to the military gain. What that means, in plainer language, is that you cannot slaughter a lot of civilians for a minor battlefield gain, and you certainly cannot target civilians, as appears to have happened in the killing of Hala Khreis and many other Palestinians. So far, more than 30,000 people have been reported killed in Gaza, most of them civilians, including more than 13,000 children.

The victims of genocide — which Jews were in the Holocaust — are not gifted with the right to perpetrate one. Of course, a war-crimes court should be the arbiter of whether Israel’s actions in Gaza qualify as genocide, but sufficient evidence for indictments appears to exist because the legal definition of genocide is “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The key words are “in part.” Holocaust levels of killing are not required to reach the legal standard.

This puts all Americans, not just American Jews, on the spot. The U.S. government is Israel’s principal supporter, by virtue of the bombs and other weapons that continue to be provided to the extremist government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We are all implicated.

snip

malaise

(269,513 posts)

9. He is correct

Reply to Celerity (Reply #8)

Wed Apr 10, 2024, 08:34 PM

Apr 10

Thanks

TeamProg

(6,426 posts)

14. No one has come to any such conclusion! The 'jury is still out'.

Reply to Celerity (Reply #8)

Wed Apr 10, 2024, 09:51 PM

Apr 10

That does not give Israel a pass to respond as it pleases. An eye for an eye — or a hundred eyes for one eye — is not a thing in international law. A key tenet of the laws of warfare is that an attack that endangers civilians must be militarily necessary, and any civilian casualties that occur must be proportional to the military gain. What that means, in plainer language, is that you cannot slaughter a lot of civilians for a minor battlefield gain, and you certainly cannot target civilians, as appears to have happened in the killing of Hala Khreis and many other Palestinians. So far, more than 30,000 people have been reported killed in Gaza, most of them civilians, including more than 13,000 children.

History WILL NOT be kind.

TeamProg

(6,426 posts)

10. It's really bad. It is indefensible. More from the link::

Reply to malaise (Original post)

Wed Apr 10, 2024, 09:41 PM

Apr 10

"""""
I covered the genocide in Bosnia for The Post, wrote a book about it, and reported from Iraq and Afghanistan, among other conflict-ridden countries. Also, my ancestors were key funders of Jewish immigration to British-controlled Palestine. The Warburgs and Schiffs donated millions of dollars to that cause, and during the war between Jews and Arabs that started in 1948, they helped raise vast sums for the new state of Israel. When Golda Meir made an emergency fundraising visit to the United States, one of the philanthropists she met with was an uncle of mine who led the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

As Israeli forces grind through Gaza in what the International Court of Justice defines as a “plausible” case of genocide, my family’s history of philanthropy runs into my familiarity with war crimes. When Israel bombs and shoots civilians, blocks food aid, attacks hospitals and cuts off water supplies, I remember the same outrages in Bosnia. When people in a Gaza flour line were attacked, I thought of the Sarajevans killed waiting in line for bread, and the perpetrators who in each case insisted the victims were slaughtered by their own side.

Atrocities tend to rhyme.
"""""

malaise

(269,513 posts)

12. THIS

Reply to TeamProg (Reply #10)

Wed Apr 10, 2024, 09:44 PM

Apr 10

Rec

Passages

(260 posts)

15. Further information clarified.

Reply to malaise (Original post)

Wed Apr 10, 2024, 10:33 PM

Apr 10

@AkbarSAhmed
NEW: Citing my scoop on USAID officials privately telling Biden admin colleagues famine is already underway in Gaza, ⁦
@JoaquinCastrotx got ⁦@SamanthaJPower
⁩ to confirm that is her assessment (from 2:48:50 on).

Link to tweet

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