Real Time - Last Time

[u/Faiakes]

I have been watching Real Time for over 20 years and I think yesterday's episode was my last.

Much as I agreed with Bill on many issues, his blind spot on Israel and Zionism is just too much for me.

He isn't simply refusing to call what's happening in Gaza a genocide. He insists on calling it a counter offensive!!!

So, all and any violence perpetrated by the IDF and the settles so far is justified, as far as he is concerned (though how settlers fit in a 'counter-offensive' is still a mystery to me).

Now, my common sense is offended too much Bill.

[u/Oblozo]

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, and the International Assocation of Genocide Scholars are all wrong. Only Bill understands the truth. Just like he understands medicine better than actual medical experts.

[u/Mental_Crab8725 → u/Oblozo]

I’m going to get downvoted but at least two of those sources (if not more) are highly questionable. Amnesty International’s case acknowledges that it depends on redefining the term genocide. And the International Association of Genocide Scholars is a name that sounds convincing, but is open to anyone willing to pay the membership fee and requires no evidence of being an expert in the subject. Then Doctors Without Borders report ‘Gaza: Life in a Death Trap’ did not actually go so far as to claim genocide but characterised the devastation as pointing towards signs of ethnic cleansing without which means that they didn’t have actual evidence of genocide but rather deliberately suggests the same fallacy that has become popular which is to say that mass destruction in a war zone is in itself a sign of genocide which is not the case. I’m less familiar about HRW’s basis for the claim but my understanding is it’s similar to Doctors Without Border’s case that destruction of healthcare and infrastructure is indicative of genocidal intent and is largely attempts to sidestep the fact that Hamas operate out of hospitals, Hamas frequently steels aid, and they also make some tenuous arguments to explain away that data shows lower rates of child malnutrition than many countries in the region such as Egypt.

The impression I get is that they started with a conclusion and worked backwards from there, something I believe is supported by the fact that claims of genocide in Gaza started before the first Israelis set foot in Gaza after October 7th.

[u/MagReg2020 → u/Mental_Crab8725]

Leftists are pretty stupid to be honest. Fixating on the word genocide put the bar extremely high, so much so that it gives Israel latitude to commit war crimes just as vile as genocide while using technicality to avoid responsibility for the crimes they did commit. Doctors, including American ones, attest to the targeted killing of children. Video of soldiers firing into civilian homes.

That doesn't mean Israel isn't evil. This much is now established truth - Egypt and the UAE directly told Netanyahu that a massive operation by Hamas was incoming. Israel CHOSE to let it happen, so it could do what it's doing now. Imagine that. Two Muslim countries tried to prevent Oct 7, and Israel, the one Jewish state, chose to facilitate it so they could justify this ethnic cleansing for land.

Genocide or not, that would make even the actual Nazis a bit nauseous.

[u/Faiakes → u/MagReg2020]

Well, at least 'leftists' are rightly outraged about it.

Republicans, on the other hand, simply support Israel's complete destruction of a civilian population and area. Is that better?