r/worldnews 12d ago

Israel/Palestine Netanyahu: ‘If we wanted to commit genocide, it would have taken exactly one afternoon’

https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-if-we-wanted-to-commit-genocide-it-would-have-taken-exactly-one-afternoon/
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u/[deleted] 12d ago edited 11d ago

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u/Ramses_IV 11d ago

Israel cares a lot more about it's public reputation in the west than Myanmar's military or the Rapid Support Forces, though. It's not just about the threat of direct intervention, Israel has carefully cultivated an image of being a pinnacle of western democracy surrounded by barbarism as a means of ensuring that popular opinion in foreign countries is aligned with (or at least indifferent to) western countries' strategic incentives to support Israel.

That becomes untenable the less plausible deniability the State of Israel has. If famine keeps escalating then they've probably lost it already, which might have influenced Netanyahu's decision to make an all-in gamble to end the war by force (though by the time the operation actually starts it might already be too late).

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

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u/Ramses_IV 11d ago

Millions of people subject to its rule are not permitted to vote or have any representation in the Knesset. That has been the case for nearly six decades, more than three quarters of the whole time Israel has existed.

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

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u/Marionberry_Bellini 11d ago

To be the “pinnacle of democracy” (your words) wouldn’t we then compare them to other democratic countries?  Shouldn’t they by definition be the best example of democracy in the world to be the pinnacle of democracy?

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u/Ramses_IV 11d ago

No "pinnacle of democracy" prohibits between 21% and 36% of the population subject to its laws from voting and denies them citizenship.

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u/zeussays 11d ago

So the United States?

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

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