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?

How many hamas do you think were among the 40,000?

For the OPs original question-your 'friend' should be reconsidering her friendship with you.

@pinkoink can we be clear about 1948. You say when the Jewish people returned there to shield?? Very subtle use of language. Returned?

Amd true to your point. But two wrongs don't make a right. And yet they persist in doing to other people what was done to them.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/10/07/the-fight-for-civilisation-is-only-just-beginning/

Say it to Sami Abu Zuhri, the Hamas spokesperson who not only used this term but actively encouraged the use of this tactics. The video is still on YouTube, I won’t link it because it’s too vile.

The biggest genocide in modern history was the slaughter of millions of Jews by the nazis and their sympathisers.

And also the Israeli state was founded. That's too simplistic. You know that.

You dont realise you are the red flag here dont you? Jesus!

Isn’t the onus on you to explain why it is?

things aren’t genocide just because people say they are.
A large number of deaths doesn’t mean something is genocide.
Ukraine has killed half 1 million Russians in the last few years, are they committing genocide?
A large number of civilian death doesn’t mean something it’s genocide.

Why exactly is this genocide and what Russia is doing to Ukraine is not genocide?

Telling people they have to leave their homes and move south, only to bomb the road south is not the moral high ground

Yes, the human shield argument to justify killing civilians is often said by those who do not understand that in a human shield situation, it is not legal to kill the human shields to get to the military target. It’s still a war crime, with only a few rare exceptions.

It greatly saddens me that people genuinely think oh, human shield that makes it ok then, fire away.

Why do you think Judea is called Judea?

Do you think no Jews lived in these lands before 1948?

It was deliberately started only insofar as I happened to have lunch with this woman on this day and she made comments that prompted my query today.

That's it.

There have been genocidal statements made by the members of Netanyahus cabinet. Look it up. There is genocidal intent, how else would you characterise the civilian death toll - specifically, children? A large proportion are children, babies. Is this just collateral damage? Hospitals bombard, forced displacement, no aid or food. Do you really think that the IDF don't have the capabilities to avoid civilian deaths? It's been nothing but indiscriminate bombing for the last year.
read the statements coming from the doctors from the uk who worked in the hospitals out there. They talk about children being maimed left to die in the worst possible way, they observed bullets in children's heads. They have been deliberately targeted.
tell me again this is just a war? This is an annihilation
people can argue about the word genocide but what number of deaths will make it a genocide in to your eyes? What more do the IDF have to do?

The biggest genocide in modern history was the slaughter of millions of Jews by the nazis and their sympathisers.

Yes the Shoah was. However, the definition of genocide and past determinations of genocide by the ICJ sets the bar much lower than the biggest ever example of one.

They don’t kill Gazans with the aim to eradicate a race of people, so they aren’t ’doing the same’.

Unlike Hamas who have repeatedly said they want to destroy Israel and the Jewish people. No Jewish leader has ever said they wish death on all Gazans.

Do you seriously expect Israel to let missiles land on its people because Hamas launches them from places where they deliberately gather civilians as shields? It’s Hamas that should be condemned.

@pinkoink I didn't say that. Prior to the Zionist movement in the late 1800s there were Jews. They called themselves Palestinians. But when was it that Judea was called Judea?? Are you telling me that because the Romans invaded and ruled Britain, then the Italians have every right to come over and establish nee state here and the British have no say. And massacre them and make them stateless. Come on now. It's just ridiculous.

"There are no innocent civilians in Gaza," Herzog said on October 14

"One of the options is to drop an atomic bomb on Gaza. I pray & hope for their [hostages] return, but there is also a price in war," Amichai Eliyahu, Israeli Minister of Heritage, wrote on X.

"Those are animals, they have no right to exist. I am not debating they way it will happen, but they need to be exterminated," argued Yoav Kisch, Israeli Minister of Education.

"Bring down buildings!! Bomb without distinction!! Stop with this impotence. You have ability. There is worldwide legitimacy! Flatten Gaza. Without mercy! This time, there is no room for mercy!," wished Revital Gottlieb, a member of the Israeli Knesset.

....................

I mean this really does sound like they want to destroy an entire nation?!!!!

@pinkoink lots of fangirling for Hanas sadly, some people are very naive.

Then you're wrong. It seems like you're looking for Israel to have a never-ending free pass to do anything they like by claiming that criticising the state is anti-semitic. Nice try, but it isn't. Jews being attacked absolutely is anti-semitism. Israel being criticised absolutely isn't. Conflating the two is disingenuous.

Well I'm actually saying it to you given you uses the term, irrespective of who ever else used it.

Apologies to you on the genocide point. I agree the biggest genocide was of the Jews by the Nazis. For this reason alone however, one would think that Jews would know the definition of a genocide and how what is happening in Gaza is exactly that! Oh yes but 'Israel has a right to defend itself' it doesn't have the right to kill thousands of women and children under the guise of killing Hamas.

you didn’t answer any of the questions

@Vintagevixen Not at all. They see the truth

If it's not antisemitism, why is it that when Israel's actions are perceived as wrong, Jews get attacked?