Comment by adriand

Don’t forget that these international laws and treaties were born out of a desire to prevent the horrors of WWII from occurring again. Lots of actors in that war including the Allies did terrible things that are prohibited by those laws. The genocide laws, as I understand, came about as a result of the Holocaust, but the use of WMDs against civilian targets (eg destroying a city with nuclear weapons) would not be legal either.

Given this historical context, we don’t need to “whatabout” with the Allies. Surely we can agree that we do not want a repeat of WWII.

In terms of whether Israel’s actions constitute genocide, we have yet to find out. Are they grossly disproportionate compared to Oct 7, and appalling in terms of their destruction of civilian life and property? I believe yes, and whether or not that is “genocide” is, to me, somewhat besides the point. Making it stop NOW is the point!