Israel/Palestine

The protests were BILLED as solidarity with the hostage families and an end to the war in order to bring them home. Israelis want Netanyahu to prioritize bringing the hostages home over his other war goals.

I did not characterize the protesters as self-serving liars as you described. They did not lie about their goals, they were upfront. It is you who ascribe goals to them which they did not have and which seems to allow you to put words in my mouth I did not say and would never say. I applaud the protesters for taking a stand for what they believe and which I happen to believe too - the sanctity of life trumps and political or even ideological considerations. They just have not extended that belief to Palestinians yet.

I'm sure you would agree that a society is represented by its mainstream, not its outer fringes - fringes that are ostracized, persecuted and attacked by the majority. Of course no society is homogenous. But it's not reasonable to assert that because there are a few dissenting voices that the entire mainstream can be whitewashed by the bravery of the few. As we did not whitewash Germany or we do not whitewash Russia, despite the existence of a few dissenters.

Of course there were some protesters - the same few who have been protesting for months - who also prioritize Palestinians. They are the ones who've been showing pictures of burned and maimed babies and emaciated children. And a tiny minority of peace activists who've been at it for decades. One of those protesters told me recently that the protesters have been subjected to violence from the police - horses and water cannon too - as well as the right-wing mobs who attack them viciously while the police stand by and do nothing. Dissent and opposing voices are silenced in Israel and that is an authoritarian reality not many of Israel's supporters seem to have grappled with.

If you need proof of widespread genocidal sentiments, you really don't have far to look. But I'll give you just one. According to a Pew Research poll, 7 months into the war, only 4% of Israeli Jews thought that Netanyahu had gone too far in the response to the Hamas attack. Everyone else thought it was either just right or had not gone far enough. And recently, another poll indicated that nearly half thought that after conquering a city, it was justified to kill all its inhabitants and around 80% believed that ethnically cleansing all Palestinians out of Gaza to another country was acceptable. And now Netanyahu is boasting about Greater Israel and that "we are already there".

You may think all of this is normal and non-genocidal but I don't. I stand by my statements.

There was only one DUer that I know of who is an Israeli who criticized the war throughout. They did not fare well.

I don't know what IDF soldier "who made this video" you are referring to. I do applaud the IDF soldiers who spoke out against the war and detailed the war crimes in Haaretz and +972 magazine - when you have a chance, take a look at what they say. But again, I refer you back to the distinction between a society and its dissenters, who cannot serve to whitewash that society, being on the fringes far from the mainstream.

You wrote:
"Your final paragraph sounds to me like you consider Israel's people to be so morally degenerate that Israel itself should cease to exist."

I called for accountability and consequences. It is bitterly amusing to me that such a call would elicit accusations of wanting to dismantle the state of Israel. Perhaps what you are saying without realizing it is that, with accountability, the state of Israel would cease to exist. I rest my case.