Have you heard of the Geneva Conventions? How can you accuse Israel of waging war that is disproportionate and then turn around and say it’s a vague term and international laws of war don’t exist?

Gaza isn’t a country, it’s a tiny enclave. War is very destructive. The best way to avoid it is to not start wars.

Like I said, people were screaming genocide in 2014 when the war lasted 2 weeks and the death toll was miniscule. Meaningless.

They were violently attacked and they have the right to respond with military force, the same right that any sovereign nation has. It’s one thing to question whether Israel could be doing more to prevent civilian casualties, but if your starting point is that Israel just shouldn’t respond at all, then your position is simply unreasonable to begin with.

Oh come on, there are well-established doctrines of internal law related to war - you know, the same “international law” that anti-Zionists love to accuse Israel of violating all the time.

‘Strike’ is the word I chose and may not be the word that actually appears in the documents that outline international law on the matter, but you get the point. This is a silly discussion.

Of course nothing is going to convince me of that because the facts simply don’t support it. By the way, did you know that during the 2014 war in Gaza, when the death toll was around 2500, people were accusing Israel of committing genocide then too? Anti-Zionists deliberately stretch the bounds of these concepts to make Israel a pariah. Just keep throwing accusations around and eventually something will stick. And even if it doesn’t, Israel’s enemies will continue to believe it anyway. This is a longstanding part of their propaganda strategy.

One could reasonably conclude that this means the case is inconclusive. The case hasn’t been dismissed, but it hasn’t rendered a verdict of guilty or acquittal either. The question is still open.>

No, it literally means nothing other than, “We, the ICJ, can hear this case.”

That’s because we’re discussing the definition of proportionality outside the broader context of the laws of warfare. It is a principle applied to specific strikes within the context of military action that is justified under international law. So no, it doesn’t just license a group like Hamas to do what they did on the grounds that it helped them achieve their goals.

LOL, it is not the position of most of the world that Hamas is a resistance movement. It is only the position of radical Islamists and Western leftist anarchists.

They are an organization that formed for the purpose of committing genocide and they have been responsible for the barbaric murder of thousands of civilians. They are as terrorist as you can get.

By the way, there is mounting evidence that support among Gazans for peaceful coexistence with Israel is much higher than previously thought. Evidence, for example, that Hamas has been fudging the numbers on their surveys that show otherwise, recent surveys that show much more positive results, and with the death of Sinwar and damage to Hamas, Gazans are starting to speak out against them. If that is indeed true, it destroys the whole “resistance” and “decolonization” narrative since they wouldn’t actually represent the people for whom they claim to be resisting.

Newsflash: lots of these “experts” hate Israel. Same reason why they seem single-mindedly focused on such a tiny country with all the other atrocities and human rights abuses happening around the world. Did you know that just yesterday the Turkish military was bombing the Kurds?

And no, the ICJ did not rule that it is plausible Israel is committing genocide. This is a popular misconception. The former head of the ICJ clarified the ruling: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-68906919

“Ms Donoghue explained that the court decided the Palestinians had a “plausible right” to be protected from genocide and that South Africa had the right to present that claim in the court.”

In other words, the court basically said the case can move forward. That’s it.

Unfortunately, there is no unbiased information about Israel. Even the so-called experts are biased. Israel is arguably the most divisive country on the planet (which seems odd for such a tiny country of only 9 million citizens) and anybody writing about it does so because they have strong opinions about it.

Most people are painfully ignorant about Israel and soak up the propaganda they see on TikTok.

An accusation of genocide is a pretty serious accusation and the onus is on people who make the accusation to prove the case. You don’t get to call it genocide just because you hate Israel.

First of all, he’s not my president. I’m not Israeli.

Second, comments made by certain people in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic terror attack aren’t proof of genocidal intent. He has clarified his position since then.

Also, have you ever wondered why South Africa of all countries brought the case to the ICJ? Do you think it has anything to do with the fact that they entertained Hamas leaders as visiting dignitaries a month before they submitted the case?

Says international law. https://casebook.icrc.org/a_to_z/glossary/proportionality#:~:text=The principle of proportionality prohibits,and direct military advantage anticipated”.

Hamas wants to make a deal if they can get what they want out of it. That’s the whole reason they took hostages. Terrorists who take hostages shouldn’t get what they want.

And again, Gaza is not a genocide.

That’s not what the principle of proportionality means. It has nothing to do with the death toll on each side. It’s a principle that’s applied to each individual strike and requires armed forces to ensure that any civilian deaths are proportional to the military objectives of the strike. Hamas and Hebollah are terrorist organizations that don’t respect the laws of war, so that’s a pretty big point in favor of Israel.

Second, many military experts have agreed that, given the conditions in which Israel is fighting this war, the civilian-to-combatant ratio in Gaza is among the lowest in the history of urban warfare. You’ve seen what Israel is capable of over the past year - it’s patently obvious that the death toll could have been much, much higher.

Third, the moral judgment of rightness or wrongness in a conflict isn’t determined by the death toll on each side. The winners of a war will typically suffer fewer casualties than the losers because that’s a big part of how winners in war are determined. The fact that very few US civilians died in WWII compared to German civilians doesn’t make the US the bad guys in that war.

There is one side in this conflict that is openly genocidal: the Iranian regime. They have literally admitted their goal is to destroy Israel. They have a doomsday clock in Tehran counting down to the death of Israel in the year 2040. And they are willing to sacrifice every single Palestinian life to make that happen.

What are you, 10 years old?

The Holocaust was unique and when someone feels the need to downplay it, that reflects very poorly on them.

How are the hard numbers devastating to our case?

It isn’t a genocide just because you say it is.

And it is nothing like the Holocaust. Not even remotely similar. There is literally nothing, not a single thing, that is similar.

You missed my point.

The world knows what genocide looks like because we’ve seen it. And it looks nothing like what is happening in Gaza.

I don’t give a crap what has been “discussed” - the facts clearly show that they aren’t committing genocide. The world knows what an actual genocide looks like.

LOL, every time someone provides contrary evidence to your accusation it gets labeled “whataboutism.” I know all the anti-Zionist propaganda tricks.

Russia invaded a sovereign nation to take over their land. Israel is fighting back against a genocidal regime that has sponsored terrorist violence against it for decades, and has promised to destroy it. Big difference.