To have reservations about a friendship with a woman who refers to Israel's actions in Gaza as a genocide?

[Oodiks]

I like this woman a lot, but we have very differing world views, specifically her belief that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

We work at a university and were coming back from lunch together when she commented that she was pleased the protestors hadn't come back. I agreed, noting how nerve wracking it must have been for Jewish students on campus to run the gauntlet of pro-Palestinian / anti-Zionist posters in the encampment.

We'd been talking about the American election over lunch, and I thought we'd agreed that Kamala Harris was the better candidate for her views on climate change, if nothing else, but then my 'friend' commented on Biden/Harris sending arms "to support the genocide" and I was left kind of speechless.

Am I being unreasonable to feel unsure about continuing this friendship?

Absolutely the opposite

The protestors clearly had more sense than you then.

So the mass evacuation and convoys of aid that went out to Ukraine a couple of years back never happened?

Thank you, yes, where are the protests against Putin, against Assad, against the Iranian Regime?

I think OP can cope with a different opinion, I think it's this friend who likely can't! People who believe the genocide line are unwilling to even listen to those who don't.

You understand that conflict is ongoing and people are dying every day?

Everything she said is 100% right. I would not be your friend. Anyone who lacks basic empathy would not be someone I could be friends with.

Well actually now that I think about it the other posters has a point. If you care so much why did you start the thread today in AIBU? 🤔

WWII took place before international law governing conflict was created. The bombing of Dresden would now be considered a war crime.

Genocide is defined by intent to destroy a group in whole or in part. Israel invaded Palestine while clearly saying they wanted to completely destroy it. They also held meetings to discuss driving the population into Egypt which is ethnic cleansing.

Watch today's BBC 10 o'clock news on iplayer, OP, and then come back on here.

I work in an area where I have friends and colleagues whose family and nationality are on various sides of the conflict. Many are very quiet on social media, and some are quite loud in ways I find inadvisable, and some utter opinions that are very polarised, on various sides. Knowing the complex ways in which media and familial or national ties and ideology shape beliefs, and how easily people can post inadvisable things on social media in the heat of the moment, and knowing that all these people are hurting in one way or another, I am trying to engage with them purely in terms of our immediate shared concerns. There are friends who hold opinions that I personally find very ill-informed and potentially damaging in the long term. But I know them well enough to understand that they don't hold these opinions because they are bad people. So if I want there to be a future of friendship, it's sensible to hold my tongue and wait, unless I were to see an acute danger of causing actual harm.

You realize that Hezbollah has been bombing Israel every day since last October 7th? And Israel is only just now responding?

People in the UK are utterly batshit on Israel/Palestine issue. The handwringing and protests, it’s all very obviously antisemitism - how do I know? Because the other atrocities happening across the globe (Ukraine, North Korea anyone??) never register in their moral outrage.

Huh? What a load of nonsense. I'm very vocal in my support for Ukraine and appalled at widespread atrocities in North Korea. I am not anti Israel or antisemitic but I do firmly believe Israel's ongoing actions at present amount to genocide and will be judged thus in future. It's just my opinion, no handwringing needed

I think 40'000 + deaths by being carpet bombed and at least 902 whole family generations being wiped off the civil registry from grandparents to grandchild and beyond in your local area wouldn't amount to a genocide? Aid workers helping, ambulances helping, hospitals trying to heal being wiped out with food, journalists wiped out and food and supplies being stopped to help you and your family doesn't account to a genocide? I guess when they are Arab and Muslim of course it doesn't but for one second, imagine this happened in your city and someone like yourself tells you on mn it's not a genocide. Fuck me.

There have been protests in London against Putin.

Thanks, that's been my experience on the whole. Once you buy into the 'genocide' lie, you've bought into the whole lie.

I noted that in our brief conversation she indicated that this was an issue going back to 1948, as if there was no history before that.

People in the UK are not protesting against Putin and Assad because the UK government is not supporting Putin or Assad, indeed it's the opposite.

The UK government has been selling arms to Israel and not pressing hard enough for restraint, ergo protests to try to change those stances

WTF go back to Google. The (few) bombing sites I quoted were certainly NOT all military targets. A lot were aimed at demoralising the population - in fact the bombing of Warsaw was, simply, pure spite.

You don't know your onions.

I mean, the UN literally said they found reasonable grounds to believe Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza — but no, OP, you know best.

The UN you say - laughs in cynical.

Yes. And after the war the international community got together and said let's never be that evil again, hence the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions, the Genocide Convention and decades of human rights law.

But well done for pointing out that Israel is ignoring all of that.