Your perspective seems to skim the surface of a deeper issue. Let's be direct: what should a country do when 1,200 of its citizens are brutally killed? This isn't just theoretical; it's a grim reality that demands a firm response. Criticizing from the sidelines is easy when you're not offering solutions.
The claim of Lebensraum is far-fetched. Israel withdrew from Gaza nearly two decades ago. This conflict isn't about land; it's about security. For Hamas, even Tel Aviv is considered a settlement.
Regarding journalists: incidents have occurred, but suggesting systematic targeting oversimplifies the complexities and dangers inherent in conflict zones. Not every unfortunate event is part of a larger scheme.
The genocide accusation often seems politically motivated, used by pro-Palestinian groups. This rhetoric can trivialize historical genocides, which were real and horrific. I'm not denying civilian casualties in the conflict, but to say Palestinians are systematically dehumanized, discriminated against, and persecuted is an overstatement. If Palestinians committed to disarmament and ceased targeting civilians, peace could be achievable very quickly.
Consider what would happen if Israel laid down its arms. We saw a hint of this on October 7th. The situation is complex, and simplistic narratives don't capture the reality on the ground.
> what should a country do when 1,200 of its citizens are brutally killed?
Post people with guns on the borders. Investigate what caused the extremely sluggish response by the IDF, too.
Don't use it as an excuse for war crimes and ethnic cleansing, while talking about the hostages that are paraded around as an objective in public, as "pawns" to be sacrificed behind closed doors.
While IDF soldiers make TikToks literally showing off and bragging about war crimes, in the hundreds by now, given licence by hundreds of people from highest ranks of politicians to generals to "journalist" talking about how there are no innocent people, no civilians in Gaza, just "human animals" and so on. And how everyone who talks back is a Hamas supporter and/or antisemitic.
In a self-righteous fury that gets worse, no less. Which isn't explained by grief over a past event or even a knee-jerk "security" reaction, but rather by the increasing guilt: people painting themselves into a corner by running away from crimes they already committed by doubling down on them, and projecting the guilt as hatred onto those who call it out. That's as old as criminals and mobs, and it leads to war crimes in Gaza just as predictably as it emboldens settlers in the West Bank to up attacks, as it does to attacks on people elsewhere:
That way one can dismiss anything. "brutally killed", "grim reality" on the one hand, "incidents", "oversimplification" and "politically motivated rhetoric that trivializes real and horrific genocides" on the other.
"This is the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area or country."
The last number I heard was that 80% of the catastrophically hungry people in the world right now are in Gaza.
Israeli Holocaust Scholar Raz Segal says it's a "textbook case of genocide". Omer Bartov says it might be genocide, but that there are "clear signs of ethnic cleansing" and likely war crimes. To just shrug them and many more off as politically motivated or skimming the surface seems ironic.
> If Palestinians [..] ceased targeting civilians
What does that even mean? As if all Palestinians, instead of starving and freezing, are still holding a rifle pointed at civilians, while IDF soldiers hell bent on keeping innocent people from getting hurt say "drop the weapon"?
Collective punishment is a crime. Nothing you said and nothing anyone could say justifies it.
The claim of Lebensraum is far-fetched. Israel withdrew from Gaza nearly two decades ago. This conflict isn't about land; it's about security. For Hamas, even Tel Aviv is considered a settlement.
Regarding journalists: incidents have occurred, but suggesting systematic targeting oversimplifies the complexities and dangers inherent in conflict zones. Not every unfortunate event is part of a larger scheme.
The genocide accusation often seems politically motivated, used by pro-Palestinian groups. This rhetoric can trivialize historical genocides, which were real and horrific. I'm not denying civilian casualties in the conflict, but to say Palestinians are systematically dehumanized, discriminated against, and persecuted is an overstatement. If Palestinians committed to disarmament and ceased targeting civilians, peace could be achievable very quickly.
Consider what would happen if Israel laid down its arms. We saw a hint of this on October 7th. The situation is complex, and simplistic narratives don't capture the reality on the ground.