Imagine I send you a bill for fixing your computer. I didn't make it work, didn't tell you what to do, didn't show you the exact component where the problem is. But I solved the question "in principle".
Like saying Gaza is a "concentration camp". People are not in uniforms, forced to do things, like the Jews in the actual Concentration Camps, the ones that originated the term. People have cars and homes. There are streets and commerces in Gaza. So, wait a minute... Maybe it's something else. Let's think of what it actually is.
The same way, Israel does not have, in its Constitution, a discriminatory device like the "apartheid" in South África. So, whatever the problem is, and I am not saying problems don't exist, it is something else.
Or "genocide". Israel states that they are fighting to dismantle Hamas - and Hamas did attack them first, bloodly. The war does not have a high proportion of civillian casualties for combatent casualties, compared to other wars. And Hamas didn't surrender yet. Also, as tragic as the casualties are, the number is not even close to the historically undisputed genocides.
But people say Gaza is kind of the same as a concentration camp "in principle", Israel has kind of the same as an apartheid "in principle". Genocide "in principle".
Israel is not saying Hamas is kind of like a terrorist group "in principle". They are affirming Hamas strictly fits all the commonly accepted definitions of terrorism, and then following on with the job of showing facts to prove it.
So if you are saying Israel is an "abusive state", then call it an "abusive state" if you want, but then go and show facts to prove it. Call it "unnecessary war casualties" if you want, them go to the hard job of arguing about it. Don't scream slogans and act like the conversation is over.
But it is always easier to go around borrowing the feelings generated by different situations.
When Israel talk about October 7th, it's a thing in itself. Not a symbol of something else.
