Society & Politics

Do you think the conflict in Gaza would be better described as a war or a genocide?

I've noticed a lot of people taking issue with it being called a war given the rate at which civilians are dying. For some perspective, the rate of recorded civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip are greater than those in Iraq between 2003 and 2005 despite the fact that the population of Iraq back then was ~10 times that of Gaza. Because of this, some argue that it should be called a Genocide.

But here's the elephant in the room: a conflict being a war and genocide are not mutually exclusive. I mean the Palestinians aren't simply rolling over and accepting what's happening to them. Going back to the Iraq comparison, the IDF is losing soldiers at a greater rate than the US did in Iraq during the first two years of the conflict (and again, Gaza only has ~1/10th the population does now).

Also,

-When the US military first invaded Iraq, they went up against fighters, tanks and helicopter gunships while Hamas has none of those.

-The US was able to occupy all of Iraq in less than two months while the IDF has yet been unable to occupy the entirety of the Gaza strip; they not only failed to defeat Hamas ideologically, they also failed to do so on the battlefield.

Given that pretty much all the governments who could have done anything have abandoned them, Hamas is now the only thing that stands between the Palestinian people and annihilation. So let's call it for what it is: a war for survival.

Do you think the conflict in Gaza would be better described as a war or a genocide?
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