“Huge numbers of Palestinians need something to eat. Can Israel do more to get them some food?
“It’s as if anything that doesn’t qualify as famine isn’t a problem,” one humanitarian organization official told me. A second aid official said the Israelis in particular talk about such hunger crises as if “it’s a binary — on, off — rather than a sliding scale. It’s a sliding scale.”
Words are among the many tools being weaponized by multiple sides in several ongoing global conflicts. “Famine,” “genocide,” “terrorism,” “antisemitism,” “occupation” and “apartheid” are just some of the terms whose definitions inspire public relations, legal and policy fights.
The war of words is increasingly exhausting and alarming to policymakers and others who deal with humanitarian issues. Several told me they worry the semantics — especially in a conflict such as Gaza — could hurt efforts to save lives or forge peace, including by hardening the positions of people accused of wrongdoing.
…
Activists who push to use the term “genocide” often seem to suggest that if any label short of that is used, it means that a group’s suffering doesn’t matter.
This is unfortunate, Malinowski and others say, because other legal terms that could apply, such as “war crimes” or “crimes against humanity,” are still very grave offenses whose perpetrators should be held accountable.
A government’s decision to accuse another country of genocide often comes down to politics.”
Israel is committing war crimes. However horrible a terrorist organization is, whatever that organization will or will not agree to, holding a civilian population hostage is not justifiable. The U.S. makes mistakes in its wars, but has not tried the mass starvation of civilians.
When people say MSNBC is on the left and Fox News is on the right, they are misunderstanding what Fox News is. Fox News isn’t an honest conservative news network, it acts as the propaganda arm of the Republican Party. Its creator cynically created Fox News to spread bullshit in favor of his ideology.
MSNBC had a liberal bent, but its hosts don’t go help a current or running president campaign. Each host has his own thing, but there isn’t an overarching propaganda goal to the organization.
Fox News may be unique in the Western World when it comes to a supposed news network designed as a partisan and ideological propaganda arm.
Israel is preventing baby formula from being brought into Gaza.
Why does Jubilee bring so many openly fascist and anti-democracy people to debate? Do they want a debate about serious policy or about overthrowing democracy? Are such people really fair representations of MAGA and the right?
“The attack on the ship comes as Iranian-backed militias in Iraq are also suspected of numerous drone and missile attacks over the past two weeks.
An attack on a vessel in the Red Sea was reported on Sunday, which was the first attack there in months.
…
The US launched airstrikes on the Houthis in mid-March. The airstrikes ended in April with some kind of a deal, and the Houthis appeared to stop attacks on ships.”