“What’s happening in Gaza is not genocide. We reject that,” Biden said at a Jewish American Heritage Month event at the White House.

I can’t tell if he’s pandering or trying to lose the election

  • Moonrise2473@feddit.it
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    2 months ago

    Biden stressed his belief that Israel was the victim dating back to the Oct. 7 attack

    Yes, we are not disputing that. Israel definitely was the victim at the time. But that doesn’t mean they’re allowed to kill so many innocent people that we now have lost the count

  • ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Original article: https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-whats-happening-gaza-is-not-genocide-2024-05-20/

    It’s pretty clear to me Biden’s trying to thread the needle on this in a gruesome way. The argument seems to follow the form of: civilian deaths are collateral damage, this is unfortunate but this is war and they are not purposely being targeted and so this is not genocide.

    However that almost willfully ignores the denial and blocking of aid to the same affected civilians, which is a deliberate action that despite the cover story being to prevent it reaching Hamas, falls entirely flat as regardless, it results in direct suffering and death of the civilians. I say almost because some small efforts have been made to push back against the denial of aid, but as is evident to anyone monitoring the situation, these efforts are all far too small to address the widespread suffering and death of the Gazan people.

    This whole semantics game around genocide is simply disgusting. You know those in government know exactly what people mean when they’re calling it that, they want an end to the killing and an end to the deaths of civilians, whether from military strikes or denial of aid.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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      2 months ago

      Him or Trump. Both of them would probably be more popular if they just shut the fuck up once in a while.

      • retrospectology@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        One day I want to see someone get elected based simply on the fact that they just don’t say anything. Like, Mr. Bean their way to the presidency.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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          2 months ago

          That would be Calvin Coolidge, aka “Silent Cal.” Supposedly, he was once bet that he could be made to say three words, and he replied, “you lose.”

          That said, he’s not an especially highly-rated president.

        • WatTyler@lemmy.zip
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          2 months ago

          This is genuinely the current strategy of the Labour Party and I can assure you it is not fun to watch.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Explain then what killing people by coordinated starving, displacement, and exposing to unhealthy and life-threatening situations by the IDF is in your opinion.

  • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
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    2 months ago

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/SantaCruz-Spegazzini-CaidaAnimation.gif

    The neoliberal colonialist stranglehold world order is collapsing so fast it is making my head spin.

    The centrist, austerity minded democrats who have enjoyed power in the US for the last couple of decades are absolutely self immolating, they look like utter absolute murderous clowns when they claim with a straight face that the Palestinian Genocide is not a Genocide.

    Make no mistake this is a turning point, no matter what happens in this election, this kind of democrat who supports whatever Israel does because… well because… to the point of pretending an ongoing genocide being done with your weapons and fighter jets doesn’t exist is toast.

    No matter what happens in this election, the kind of mainstream media that is towing the line Israel by giving them complete diplomatic and narrative immunity towards being the bad guys when Israel is committing a genocide against the Palestinians every day as we speak… it is detonating the strangehold of conservative, ideologically bereft centrist who have been trying to manage the global status quo without actually conceding to progressive changes to it.

    The critical change here is that milquetoast democrats used to be globally regarded as at least somewhat rationale and ethically minded compared to the dumpster that is american conservatism, but this genocide is thoroughly proving to the world that most centrist democrats are just the good cop to the bad cop republicans, and if push comes to shove a good cop has no problem filling in for the role of bad cop when they perceive it will retain their violent power.

    I really don’t think the rich and powerful who controlling basically everything in the US have any idea how deep a majority of US citizen’s revulsion over the pointlessness of the Iraq war has burrowed into their psyche. They really don’t get it, they think we are just going to roll over and accept US imperialism/military industrial complex as “just the way it is honey” like our parents did but we are FAR stronger and more politically aware than our parents were and FARRRRRRR more jaded in a way that makes us suspect of the basic legitimacy of the military industrial complex at every turn we have to interact with it.

    • Knoxvomica@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      While I don’t disagree with what you’re saying, holy FUCK, you need to learn how to break up your thoughts with a period. You have 5 paragraphs and 6 periods.

      • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
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        2 months ago

        Errrr…. you realize the US is one of richest nations that has ever existed and yet ~95% of people living in it are one or two crises away from collapsing?

        There are homeless everywhere and if anything centrist democrats are giddy to criminalize the state of being without a home. Biden was an instrumental part of the crime bills that came to define some of the most vivid failures of neoliberalism. Kamala Harris has a similar history. Have these politicians evolved and changed? Yes of course but that isn’t my point.

        My point is that is it really disputable at this point that modern centrist leftwing political groups in the US, UK and similar political environments are as associated with austerity policies as rightwing politicians? There are degrees of difference, but it is a contrast of magnitude not of ethics of attitude.

      • inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        True up to a point. Youth at least are very fickle and very demoralized already with the lack of opportunities to be financially screwed.

      • febra@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I’m fairly sure many people will just not go to the polls. I think he’s banking on a very risky and stupid idea here.

      • rammer@sopuli.xyz
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        2 months ago

        They’ll get a hard core fascist with Trump. With Biden they’ll get a fascist-lite. None of the offensive parts of fascism. Just the corruption and special interests dictating policy parts.

        The US administration is so corrupt that it is hard to get anything useful done. Even if it is something that has been obvious for decades.

  • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
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    2 months ago

    Remember, it’s only genocide if it originates from occupied Poland. Otherwise, it’s just sparkling mass extermination.

  • Eyck_of_denesle@lemmy.zip
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    2 months ago

    Where are the Biden boyfriends that call everyone that criticizes biden a Trump supporter? I said multiple times on lemmy that a lot of people go above and beyond to support this horrible person who repeatedly mentioned his fantasies for an israeli state and serving it since he was a kid.

    Trump is worse but that doesn’t mean you can’t criticize this piece of shit.

    And the worst thing is I live far away from the US and still get called Trump supporter for calling this sicko a sicko.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    2 months ago

    Oh, well it’s totally okay then. /s

    He’s might be technically right so far, since most of the population is still standing, but depending on where things go next this line could be remembered along with “peace in our time”.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 month ago

        Technically is doing a lot of work here, that was the point.

        That being said, requirement for success varies by crime (murder charges are only used if it works), and success usually has to be reasonably forseeable in the cases where it isn’t. Genocide would definitely be in the latter category, and as it is it will be very hard for ZA’s lawyers to prove to the ICJ that Israel has attempted to kill all Palestinians in Gaza, given that only a fraction are actually dead, and Israel could do it very easily if they committed to it.

        IANAL

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          You should go read what the UN has to say about genocide. You are wrong. The idea that you have to kill most or all of a group to be guilty of genocide is the biggest misconception there is about it. The entire idea is to prevent it from starting and if it does start, stop it before it gets to the proportions of the Holocaust. At any rate the ICJ just today ordered Israel to halt it’s offensive; allow official access for UN war crimes investigators; and let in all of the aid it’s holding at the borders. Netanyahu immediately refused all three orders.

          How much more clear does it need to be?

          Edit to add - Just because I can’t not. Attempted Murder is the crime they charge for trying to murder someone. So no you don’t get away just because you failed. And Israel is a lot closer to succeeding than it is failing.

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 month ago

            Yeah, attempted murder is a different charge. That was, again, the point.

            Technically is doing a lot of work here, that was the point.

            ^ You’re responding to something other than what I said, so I’ll just repost this.

            The UN has written a lot about genocide, at various different levels with different levels of authority. Not all of it matches, and the only thing that’s definitely included is trying to remove a group one of the 5 ways listed.

            At any rate the ICJ just today ordered Israel to halt it’s offensive; allow official access for UN war crimes investigators; and let in all of the aid it’s holding at the borders. Netanyahu immediately refused all three orders.

            Yep, although that wasn’t a ruling on the charge of genocide itself.

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              Who cares what the specific charge is? Attempting the crime is still illegal. That’s the point. And those 5 ways are the definitions of Genocide.

              • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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                1 month ago

                Lawyers, judges, fact checkers. I’m not the first two, but I like to play at the third.

                If you’re going by the Geneva convention and not something from the Lemkin school of thought, it’s easier to talk about. There’s an effort to create conditions of life which will kill Palestinians, and limited success, but calculated to destroy in whole or part is the sticky bit, since the body count is still low compared to the population. I don’t know, it’s like a drunk that beat someone severely. Was it a poor attempt to kill, or just a successful attempt to maim? The standard of proof required is usually beyond reasonable doubt.

                If you were to put using starvation as a weapon or collective punishment to them, there wouldn’t be much doubt, but those are (slightly) lesser charges. Just like you could indict the drunk for aggravated assault or similar fairly plausibly.

                • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                  1 month ago

                  How is a man made famine not calculated to destroy them at least in part? This isn’t a case of aid just having trouble. Israel refuses to let the vast majority of it into Gaza.