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As an Israeli political scientist, I resisted thinking this war was a genocide. Here’s what changed my mind

an interesting article, from this one liberal Jewish Israeli political scientist:

The destruction of Gaza, including the killing of thousands of children and the restriction on humanitarian aid is undeniable. The incitement for genocide and ethnic cleansing in the Israeli public sphere — from the government, in the pro-government media, and in everyday speech is also undeniable. Then why are so many of us liberal Jews still reluctant?

I’ve thought about my colleague’s words every day since we spoke, and I think there are several reasons for many liberal Jews’ tremendous difficulty in seriously confronting the question of whether Israel is committing genocide, including a misunderstanding of what genocide can look like. None of these, however, if we are truly honest with ourselves, justify turning away from it.

As I read about Myanmar, where the USHMM determined in December 2018 that genocide had been committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority, I was struck by how similar the incitement against the Rohingya sounded to what I constantly heard in Israel. The Burmese officials called all Rohingya “terrorists” and a threat to the nation. Israeli ministers say that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza. They say Gaza should be flattened and burned and they outline exactly how they are preventing humanitarian aid from entering. In March 2025, the government’s security cabinet formally approved setting up an agency to direct the expulsion of Gaza’s residents.

The more I learn about genocide, the more shocked and embarrassed I am by my own ignorance. Once I actively tried to be better informed about genocide, the picture in Gaza became terrifyingly clear.
 
Palestinian clans backed by Israel acting as shooters, looters, bandits

JERUSALEM — Yasser Abu Shabab is all over Israeli news and Palestinian social media.

He describes himself as a humanitarian and a liberator. International aid workers allege he was behind the systematic looting of aid entering the Gaza Strip last fall.

Some Gazans — including analysts, residents and members of his own tribe — say he is a gang leader aligned with the Israeli military. “Yasser Abu Shabab doesn’t represent us. He only represents himself,” said Adel al-Tarabin, a leader in the Bedouin Tarabin tribe to which Abu Shabab belongs. He went on to describe him as a looter and a bandit.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the beginning of June that Israel was arming members of clans — large, influential extended families — in Gaza as counterweights to Hamas. “Based on advice from security officials, we supported clans in Gaza that oppose Hamas,” Netanyahu said in a video posted to his X account.

Abu Shabab claims he's not backed by or supplied with weapons by Israel, and it's all hamas propaganda to make people fear his power. However:
the base that the militia leader said he has set up is in a part of southeastern Gaza under the control of the Israel Defense Forces. And in recent months, Israeli forces have refrained from interfering when Abu Shabab and his men, armed with AK-47s, patrolled a central artery in the area and stopped U.N. and Red Cross vehicles at makeshift checkpoints, according to several aid workers in Gaza.

His is not the only clan being given special treatment; while it might seem a good idea to raise power amongst Palestinians in a way unaffiliated with hamas, Israel's protecting/supplying them and permitting them to loot/raid/shoot/steal aid at the expense of the civilian Palestinian population is not. It also calls foul on some of the stories spread about it being all hamas that's doing what this guy (and other, Israeli-supported clans) is doing. Having "local" Palestinians behaving as bandits lends a cover story to the IDF to shoot and bomb starving civilians just trying to survive.
 
Palestinian clans backed by Israel acting as shooters, looters, bandits







Abu Shabab claims he's not backed by or supplied with weapons by Israel, and it's all hamas propaganda to make people fear his power. However:


His is not the only clan being given special treatment; while it might seem a good idea to raise power amongst Palestinians in a way unaffiliated with hamas, Israel's protecting/supplying them and permitting them to loot/raid/shoot/steal aid at the expense of the civilian Palestinian population is not. It also calls foul on some of the stories spread about it being all hamas that's doing what this guy (and other, Israeli-supported clans) is doing. Having "local" Palestinians behaving as bandits lends a cover story to the IDF to shoot and bomb starving civilians just trying to survive.

Sounds like an “enemy of my enemy” situation.

Certainly not optimal, but at this point the Israelis are obviously in “anyone but Hamas” mode (and I would submit the Israelis have good reason to take that tack).

I take it Abu Shabbab and his clan are not holding hostages, and they didn’t participate in the Hamas 10/7 rape, torture, murder, and kidnapping operation???

IF that ^ is the case, then Israel SHOULD be making cautious overtures to Abu Shabbab & his clan (gang?):

If an alternative to Hamas could establish themselves as the de facto power in Gaza, then Israel will no longer have reason to continue the war based on the “Hamas is still in power” sticking point.

And all that ^ would leave is the hostage situation.

This all may be a sign that things are approaching an inflection point in the crisis.

We shall see.

🤔

We. Told. Them. So.

🌷
 
I leave the forum for a few weeks, I come back to find - yep, still the same psychopathic and frankly lying assholes in this thread coming up with new forms of hasbara.

Fuck the lot of you genocide enablers.
 
I leave the forum for a few weeks, I come back to find - yep, still the same psychopathic and frankly lying assholes in this thread coming up with new forms of hasbara.

Fuck the lot of you genocide enablers.
I figured you had your hands full dealing with the U.K.’s Muslim problem.
 
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the UK doesn't have a 'muslim problem.' The only people in the UK claiming they do are the UK equivalent of maga and just as wrong, just as racist, just as despicable.
 
I figured you had your hands full dealing with the U.K.’s Muslim problem.
You really are a racist piece of shit.

We don’t have a “muslim problem” in the UK.

Muslims, and Islam, are not the problem that genocidal hasbarists like you make them out to be.

You know what is the problem? Zionism and Zionists.

Do us all a favour and fuck off with your racist hasbara.
 
You really are a racist piece of shit.

We don’t have a “muslim problem” in the UK.

Muslims, and Islam, are not the problem that genocidal hasbarists like you make them out to be.

You know what is the problem? Zionism and Zionists.

Do us all a favour and fuck off with your racist hasbara.
What are the Zionists doing in the UK?
 
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