Nate, this is a brilliant contrarian argument, and I agree with nearly every word.
As unproductive as disputes about rhetoric can be, I’m glad you criticize misuse of the word “genocide” — I believe that mistake harms the pro-Palestinian movement.
I wonder, however, if we can count Biden’s humanitarian aid policies as fully successful given that the worst levels of food insecurity are reported to be rife throughout large area of Gaza. Have the extremists with true genocidal intent against Gazan civilians been thwarted only partially?
Also, does US military support for Israel really matter as little as you suggest? It seems to matter a lot politically to folks on all sides, and I was truly surprised to learn that that may be insignificant militarily. Is this truly correct? Like you,‘I picked up on the genocidal extremism some members of government pushed at the start of the war, but the images of American-supplied 2,000 l pound bombs dropped on civilian buildings containing civilians and civilian shields horrified me. I read yesterday that we supplied Israel with 13,000 of those bombs. Could they really have carried out the mass bombing campaign of the start of the war without them? I think those weapons constituted a shockingly large percentage of the early war bombing.
Nate, this is a brilliant contrarian argument, and I agree with nearly every word.
As unproductive as disputes about rhetoric can be, I’m glad you criticize misuse of the word “genocide” — I believe that mistake harms the pro-Palestinian movement.
I wonder, however, if we can count Biden’s humanitarian aid policies as fully successful given that the worst levels of food insecurity are reported to be rife throughout large area of Gaza. Have the extremists with true genocidal intent against Gazan civilians been thwarted only partially?
Also, does US military support for Israel really matter as little as you suggest? It seems to matter a lot politically to folks on all sides, and I was truly surprised to learn that that may be insignificant militarily. Is this truly correct? Like you,‘I picked up on the genocidal extremism some members of government pushed at the start of the war, but the images of American-supplied 2,000 l pound bombs dropped on civilian buildings containing civilians and civilian shields horrified me. I read yesterday that we supplied Israel with 13,000 of those bombs. Could they really have carried out the mass bombing campaign of the start of the war without them? I think those weapons constituted a shockingly large percentage of the early war bombing.