re: #229 BadExampleMan

On one hand one could say - “Why does terminology matter, people are dying while you’re arguing about words!”. But terminology matters and different used terms also imply different consequences (legal or otherwise). Usually one deals a bit differently with “mere” war crimes than with genocide (although some massive war crimes, while they don’t fall under the strict definition of genocide, may reach the status of a genocidal massacre (though it’s not an official term) - e.g. the Katyn massacre).

Also, this is simply stupid and counter-productive to what the critics want to achieve, because it is exactly those who accuse Israel of “genocide” who invite the debate about words. E.g. Israel’s operation in Jenin was called “Jenin genocide” by certain figures, yet it couldn’t be genocide in principle due to the low numbers involved, and this accusation basically shifted the focus to the debate about words rather than about the particular war crimes (as detailed by HRW among others), which are always appalling on their own, even if they’re relatively few.

So now the DailyKos crowd and various such folks accuse Israel of genocide, even though Israel obviously lacked genocidal intent and thus the accusation won’t withstand basic scrutiny and those who made the claim will simply be discredited.

PS: This also reminds me of the shrieking mobs of Russian national-patriots who are accusing Ukraine of a “genocide” of Russians. I don’t have much doubt that the Ukrainian troops have committed some war crimes - even if sometimes unwittingly - due to the complex nature of urban warfare and lack of experience. But again, any claims of “genocide” in this case are specious propaganda.