*****The term is intentionally a pointed one, but what is happening in Gaza is not a genocide. Genocide is the wanton mass killing of an ethnic group with the expressed intention of wiping it out. Israel does not intend to go to war and eliminate every Palestinian in Gaza and elsewhere.
[...]
To be sure, what Israel as lead by Netanyahu has done here has been pretty diproportionate, resulting in a lot of innocent collateral deaths and casualties and has continued under suspect and illegitimate motivations. It is a humanitarian disaster. Israel has conducted a horrible, mass killing, unjustified and outragous in a number of ways, but calling it a genocide cheapens the word.*****
.
As a technical matter, the point is well taken. One ought not cheapen words by misusing them. I am, however, less inclined than PurpleAmerica to elevate this particular linguistic issue. That activists efficiently deploy the pointed term "genocide" rather than go on more wordily about a "humanitarian disaster" involving "horrible, mass killing" that is "unjustified and outrageous" seems not much of a crime in the context in which the activists use it.
There is a parallel here from another vantage point. Many of these same activists were/are heavily invested in disputing the charge that Hamas had committed rape or that it had done so "systematically." The activists were outraged that Israel would, purportedly, invent such a charge to smear the purportedly noble resistance action. The manufactured outrage over the rape allegations masked what was truly outrageous – the barbaric assault that Hamas perpetrated against civilians on October 7 (and continuing afterward in the case of the hostages it took, many of whom Hamas horrifically mistreated and likely continues to mistreat).
May the spirit of Mo Husseini and that of those like him of all backgrounds some day prevail.
"I am, however, less inclined than PurpleAmerica to elevate this particular linguistic issue. "
I DO get it, but have to say that current use of the term has frustrated me. As a pre-teen I had a friend who's father had been with the U.S. troops that first "stumbled" upon an SS-run extermination camp. We didn't know (much) about PTSD then, but sometimes he would start talking about shit that horrified me. Later, given the fortunate opportunity to study in London I met the Jewish husband of our most cheerful housekeeper. He had an almost terrifying gaze and a number tattooed on his arm. He was a man of few words, exhibited none of his wife's cheerfulness, but never ducked a question if we were brave enough to ask. His shit was also horrifying.
Time passing I learned about Pol Pot's horrific shit, and then that in Rwanda. More recently it's China and the Rohingya. And of course along the way I found myself horrified and embarrassed after a youth of playing "Cowboys and Indians", and the Soviet dedication to killing off all manner of ethnic groups. I have a hard time not thinking of U.S. enslavement of various citizens of African kingdoms as a well-advanced genocide ultimately thwarted by economic success.
There are too many RECENT (last 100 years) examples of real genocide to put up with casual appropriation of the term. Horrific? Yes. Unforgivable? Depends upon your faith, I guess. Can we table the "genocide" classification and just use PURE FUCKING EVIL instead?
Now to lay down my religious cards: Come Lord Jesus, come. (Cuz we got this thoroughly FUBARED.)
PurpleAmerica footnoted:
*****The term is intentionally a pointed one, but what is happening in Gaza is not a genocide. Genocide is the wanton mass killing of an ethnic group with the expressed intention of wiping it out. Israel does not intend to go to war and eliminate every Palestinian in Gaza and elsewhere.
[...]
To be sure, what Israel as lead by Netanyahu has done here has been pretty diproportionate, resulting in a lot of innocent collateral deaths and casualties and has continued under suspect and illegitimate motivations. It is a humanitarian disaster. Israel has conducted a horrible, mass killing, unjustified and outragous in a number of ways, but calling it a genocide cheapens the word.*****
.
As a technical matter, the point is well taken. One ought not cheapen words by misusing them. I am, however, less inclined than PurpleAmerica to elevate this particular linguistic issue. That activists efficiently deploy the pointed term "genocide" rather than go on more wordily about a "humanitarian disaster" involving "horrible, mass killing" that is "unjustified and outrageous" seems not much of a crime in the context in which the activists use it.
There is a parallel here from another vantage point. Many of these same activists were/are heavily invested in disputing the charge that Hamas had committed rape or that it had done so "systematically." The activists were outraged that Israel would, purportedly, invent such a charge to smear the purportedly noble resistance action. The manufactured outrage over the rape allegations masked what was truly outrageous – the barbaric assault that Hamas perpetrated against civilians on October 7 (and continuing afterward in the case of the hostages it took, many of whom Hamas horrifically mistreated and likely continues to mistreat).
May the spirit of Mo Husseini and that of those like him of all backgrounds some day prevail.
Fair point.
"I am, however, less inclined than PurpleAmerica to elevate this particular linguistic issue. "
I DO get it, but have to say that current use of the term has frustrated me. As a pre-teen I had a friend who's father had been with the U.S. troops that first "stumbled" upon an SS-run extermination camp. We didn't know (much) about PTSD then, but sometimes he would start talking about shit that horrified me. Later, given the fortunate opportunity to study in London I met the Jewish husband of our most cheerful housekeeper. He had an almost terrifying gaze and a number tattooed on his arm. He was a man of few words, exhibited none of his wife's cheerfulness, but never ducked a question if we were brave enough to ask. His shit was also horrifying.
Time passing I learned about Pol Pot's horrific shit, and then that in Rwanda. More recently it's China and the Rohingya. And of course along the way I found myself horrified and embarrassed after a youth of playing "Cowboys and Indians", and the Soviet dedication to killing off all manner of ethnic groups. I have a hard time not thinking of U.S. enslavement of various citizens of African kingdoms as a well-advanced genocide ultimately thwarted by economic success.
There are too many RECENT (last 100 years) examples of real genocide to put up with casual appropriation of the term. Horrific? Yes. Unforgivable? Depends upon your faith, I guess. Can we table the "genocide" classification and just use PURE FUCKING EVIL instead?
Now to lay down my religious cards: Come Lord Jesus, come. (Cuz we got this thoroughly FUBARED.)
Pure fucking evil is an apt description
Quoting PurpleAmerica again: Fair point!
I have that book too!