To wish those in Israel safety in these coming times

Well I’d encourage you to look at the google maps recent update of Gaza which is still a year old and shows complete towns and areas absolutely flattened. 70% of buildings are destroyed or damaged, 90% of people are now homeless. Many roads and farmland has been damaged or wiped out?

What do you call destruction on this scale?

It boils down to intent basically. ISIS targeted Yazidis with a planned intention of wiping them out. It’s very specific.

The other mass killings in Syria, for example, were for political reasons. The intent was to win or punish the other side. There were certainly war crimes and many other human rights abuses but it doesn’t meet that specific legal definition of a genocide.

Are you saying that although Israel is committing crimes against humanity, you don’t think it is genocide ?

Me too, its a dead giveaway.

Are you using AI to write these answers? Because they're always just slightly missing the point and oddly devoid of human phrasing.

A lot of word salad but no actual points being made.

Words like genocide, apartheid, and carpet bombing are not just emotive terms pulled out for drama. They are legal and political designations, many of which are being used by international experts, human rights organisations, and international courts, not just activists online.

Genocide is not about how people feel. It is a legal term defined by the UN Genocide Convention. In the case of Gaza, the International Court of Justice has ruled that South Africa’s claim that Israel may be committing genocide is plausible, and it has ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide. That is not an opinion. It is part of an active legal process.

Apartheid is the term used by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Israeli group B’Tselem to describe the system of governance between the river and the sea. This is not about emotion, but about the existence of two separate legal systems based on ethnicity, with one group enjoying full rights and the other living under military rule.

The use of “Zionist” instead of “Jew” is often done precisely to avoid being antisemitic. It refers to political ideology and state policy, not religion or ethnicity. Conflating the two, and accusing anyone who criticises Israeli policy of antisemitism, is itself a misuse of the term that weakens genuine efforts to fight hatred.

As for carpet bombing, the phrase has been used informally to describe the scale and intensity of the bombing in Gaza. Whether or not Israel uses B-52s is irrelevant to people on the ground who have seen entire neighbourhoods flattened and civilian infrastructure destroyed.

Language does matter. But dismissing well-documented human rights violations just because you dislike the terms being used does not make the suffering or the abuses any less real. If you object to the language, take it up with the international legal and humanitarian bodies that are using it, not just with the people drawing attention to what is happening.

The minute anyone uses the term carpet bombing I assume they know nothing about history or war and I stop finding their posts credible.

@HellsBalls

Or the false but emotive term of carpet bombing to describe the dropping of any bombs on Gaza. When Israel doesn't even have the type of aircraft required to perform mass bombing (B1,B2,B52)

Or the false but emotive term of apartheid to describe the relations between Israel and the West Bank.

Or replacing the word of "Jews"
with "Zionists" (which is then defined as however they wish), in order not to be seen as anti Semitic.

It can’t be different. But the word ‘genocide’ was never bandied about for these other conflicts, despite the terrible death tolls.
But for Gaza, the word has been used because it’s emotive, not because it’s accurate.
Like torture used to describe Greta being asked to watch the Oct 7th evidence.
Or kidnapping to describe the arrest of that illegal boat attempted incursion.

I don't understand how taking out mass civilians can be treated differently according to its respective war.

it’s fairly accepted there was a genocide against the Yazidis in Iraq which was related to Syria.

But no neither the Syrian civil war nor Yemen is not considered a genocide by anyone. that’s not to say that there weren’t many human right abuses and war crimes committed.

Do you feel that there are war crimes in Gaza but not genocide?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/1/what-is-behind-the-violence-in-syria

Admittedly this was in May, but there is unrest and violence in Syria as the new leadership 'settle in'. It's perhaps very little compared to their experience in the last couple of decades.

OK, what happened then, until fairly recently.

In Syria right now? Very little conflict at all.

Even in Yemen the fighting between the main players has largely subsided.

Are you talking about a different time?

Thank you for your civil post. If Isreal is committing genocide, what do you call what is happening in Syria and Yemen?

@PaxAeterna ”Would you value an independent investigation at this stage?”

Not at this stage during a war, no.
After the war, by independent, experienced investigators, not hand wringing do gooders, yes.

@UnderFloorboards you did not just say I’m glad I’m not full of hate. You also insulted another MN user and that is why your post got deleted.

@Tillytir I didn’t see your post that got deleted. But logic tells us you did more than just saying you were against Israel’s actions in Gaza.

People say things a lot stronger than that against Israel on MN and their posts remain visible - hundreds of them.

Personal opinions are allowed to be expressed. Personal attacks are not.

Very strange. I had messages deleted for saying I was against Israel’s action in Gaza a few
months and was accused of anti semitism for saying that. Think clueless moderators mostly and this put me off MN

Civilian fatalities. Obviously there are Hamas operatives on top of that.

30, 000 fatalities? Thats a lie. 55,600, according to media reports. Over 50, 000 has been the number for months.

I am quite surprised my message saying I am glad I was not full of hate was deleted. Did you report it? This place puzzles me sometimes. What’s allowed to stay and what goes.

is your comment saying you don’t gaf about Palestine still standing do you know?

Strange place MN.

But do you and @Dangermoo honestly feel confident and comfortable with the conduct of the Israeli administration during the war?

You don’t consider it a genocide, ok. But do you query why Gaza has the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world? When you hear about Palestinian’s dying via Israeli fire when they are trying to get aid - what do you think? When you see that children have started to starve to death or hear about the lies that the IDF told about the death of the paramedics? Or the reports by doctors of snipers shooting children ? Does any of it concern you or are you confident of this approach?

Would you value an independent investigation at this stage?

@Kakeandkake
You have to give some posters credit.
Not only do they make up definitions for genocide, they also decide all men killed are Hamas. This seems like such an old argument that is so obviously incorrect. How can all Gazan men by Hamas?

They don’t take into account indirect death and suffering from IDF actions, and destruction of their infrastructure. They haven’t quite fully grasped the different categories of genocide.

I agree.

2 million Gazans. Approx 30,000 civilian fatalities.
So that’s 1.5% of the population.

Not. A. Genocide.

You should learn the definition of a genocide as your understanding of it is completely incorrect.