Israel are going to start WWIII

If you insist on claiming that Vladimir Putin is just "another bloke" then I don't know what more can be said to you.

Except that to you, like the South Africans, "genocide" is only relevant in as much as it can be used as a stick to beat da Joos with. Cyril Ramaphosa's behaviour at the BRICS summit, where he basically spent much of his time there kissing Putler's rear end while pontificating about Middle Eastern affairs, really tells me all I need to know about a lot of critics of Israel.

As well as it does about those who defend Vladimir Putin as just "another bloke."

Why would I? Much as I'm not a fan of Netanyahu, his country is not waging an unprovoked war.

How is calling Putin "just another bloke" defending him?

Do you think its entirely possible that those accusing Israel of genocide are actually concerned with the murder spree the Israelis are on?

Seems to me you think any criticism of Israel is simply just "beating up da Joos" (as you phrase it). Presumably because that simply fits your own narrative.

I'm glad this so-called "concern" didn't exist when the Allies were fighting to save the world from Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire. Plenty of civilians, including children were killed - or in your words "murdered" - in that war. Because Israel is dealing with mortal enemies just as determined as some of those civilisation had to face in the last century.

As for the possibility, I don't know if the video I posted earlier showed it, but there are clips of the South African President's speech at the BRICS summit and what it shows to anyone who is anyway objective, is that at the very least some critics of Israel are guilty of rank hypocrisy of the highest order.

And your characterisation of Cyril R's love-fest with Putler as "a bloke hugging another bloke" seemed very dismissive, if I am being generous.

have you been lying in wait, whiling away the time, waiting for the chance to defend in indefensible?

While likes of S. Africa (or China) are hypocrites when they criticise Israel given their friendship with + support of Putin, it is also the case that as a supposed US/Western military ally, Israel has done insultingly little for Ukraine.

Far less than us (Ireland) even, for example. They really were playing both sides until the Hamas attack. Think they have been more harsh towards Putin & Russia since then rhetorically, but no big policy changes yet as far as I am aware.

Sad thing is, they are air defence system and surveillance drone experts, on the bleeding edge of all that sort of technology, as good if not better than the US in some areas.

They could have done (and could do) so much for Ukraine even by just supplying (selling note, not giving!) "defensive" military gear, but their govt. prefers to sit on the fence, keep Russian oligarch wealth flowing in nicely, try to stay out of it + somewhat on Putin's good side.

Sean, and several others posting on these threads, can live with any number of dead Arabs for reasons nobody can really understand…

If "genocide" didn't exist as a crime until after WWII, then how come (among others) the Armenian genocide is considered by most to have been … checks notes … a genocide, despite also occurring before that crime was defined?

Haaretz now have a new footnote to their reports on "Israel at War". It puts the origins of the war in context of the 10 months beforehand.

The war comes after ten months of the most significant domestic political and social crisis in decades, due to legislation promoted by the Netanyahu government aimed at dramatically weakening Israel's judiciary and potentially rescuing Netanyahu from the three corruption trials he faces – and amid an escalation of violence between West Bank Palestinians and Israeli settlers, the latter empowered by Israel's most right-wing government ever.

The word genocide was coined, as a response to what was done during the Holocaust, as part of the formation of contemporary international law. You're such an expert in all of this maybe you can tell us about the interesting etymology of the word genocide, without googling it. It's the word, not the act, that didn't exist until after WW2. You're the expert though so I am sure you know this.

What was done to the Armenians at the time wouldn't have been classified using the word genocide, given that the word didn't exist then, same as other acts of what we would now view in retrospect to be genocide. You can 'check notes' all you want but you are making it abundantly clear in these posts that you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

It's not #10 standing alone though, is it?

Its in the context of the other steps already occurring:

7 - Preparation – Planning of mass murder and identifying specific victims.

8 - Persecution – Incarcerating groups in ghettos or concentration camps , forcibly displacing groups, expropriating  property, belongings or wealth.

9 - Extermination – Committing mass murder.

israel is doing all of the above right now in Palestine and Lebanon. It is in that context that 10, denial, is a characteristic of genocide.

Stop using the most violent and bloody war in history as a template or even justification for how the Israelis are behaving. Many historians are of the opinion that a considerable number of war crimes were committed against civilians by the Allies in the last two years of the war, especially the fire bombing of Hamburg, Dresden and Tokyo.

More de-escalation through escalation tonight, Israel hitting military targets in Iran

The US leaned on Israel. The "response" so far is spectacularly weak compared to the tough talk in recent weeks.

No US administration was ever going to allow some midget nation to determine oil prices ahead of an election.