Biden: What's happening in Gaza is not genocide

eldavi@lemmy.world to World News@lemmy.world – 259 points –
Biden: What's happening in Gaza is not genocide
gmanetwork.com

"What's happening in Gaza is not genocide. We reject that," Biden said at a Jewish American Heritage Month event at the White House.

I can't tell if he's pandering or trying to lose the election

143

You are viewing a single comment

Who cares what the specific charge is? Attempting the crime is still illegal. That's the point. And those 5 ways are the definitions of Genocide.

Lawyers, judges, fact checkers. I'm not the first two, but I like to play at the third.

If you're going by the Geneva convention and not something from the Lemkin school of thought, it's easier to talk about. There's an effort to create conditions of life which will kill Palestinians, and limited success, but calculated to destroy in whole or part is the sticky bit, since the body count is still low compared to the population. I don't know, it's like a drunk that beat someone severely. Was it a poor attempt to kill, or just a successful attempt to maim? The standard of proof required is usually beyond reasonable doubt.

If you were to put using starvation as a weapon or collective punishment to them, there wouldn't be much doubt, but those are (slightly) lesser charges. Just like you could indict the drunk for aggravated assault or similar fairly plausibly.

How is a man made famine not calculated to destroy them at least in part? This isn't a case of aid just having trouble. Israel refuses to let the vast majority of it into Gaza.

If they stopped now, no significant part would be destroyed. They won't, but that's a matter of prediction, not fact.

Okay? And that's a bad thing? Again, the goal is to recognize it happening and stop it in time to save people. Not to sit back and declare it after it's done.

No man, the goal was to comment on the factual veracity of the claim made, as a form of contributing to the discussion. I've been trying to tell you that's all I'm doing.

It's possible, and often desirable, to talk about a specific idea without immediately connecting it to anything else.

No. You said Biden was right because most of the population isn't dead yet. That is categorically wrong. No part of the definition of Genocide requires waiting until some magic number of people have been killed.

Alright, well, I think I've said what I need to about that. I let the exchange as it stands speak for itself.