Okay... and we're off. Welcome back. Like I said. Complicated...
Whether or not you'd describe the situation in Gaza as a genocide largely depends on your definition of genocide. Given that the Palestinian people are Arabs and Israel is attempting to remove the Hamas Government rather than wage war on the Arabic people and given that it has nuclear capabilities (ie could simply flatten the Gaza strip at a press of a button) I'd dispute that a genocide is what they are a going for. Even if you subscribe to the self-identification of the Palestinian people as Palestinian, something I'm 50/50 on given the quasi-recognition of its nation statehood from around the world, even this definition of genocide doesn't hold as Israel have not attempted to engage in warfare with any other subsection of Palestine than Gaza.
So, yes... it is a bit more complicated. It's very easy to throw words like genocide around without considering the implications of doing so. Though, should you wish to discuss genocide more broadly, it may be worth looking at the 1988 Hamas Charter, specifically article 28 which widens the war against Israel specifically to Jews more generally. : “ Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Muslim people: ‘May the cowards never sleep .’” and “ Israel will exist and continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it .”
That, was largely agreed upon at the time as a problem. That (in part) was what scuppered the 1992 Oslo Accords - and was roundly condemned by the UN. https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-182893/
So, yes... if you want, the war can be stopped. It is indeed horrifying and sickening and terrible and indeed repulsive. All of those things I agree with - but what's your long term plan here? Once you've taken the Israelis to court and tried and put them in the Hague, what next? Are you going to cede the entire state of Israel to what is essentially an Islamic Caliphate? It would have no problem executing every LGBTQ+ person it met, subjugating women and continuing the war outside of its borders. Why? Because, as their charter suggests, this is a holy war against infidels.
If you stand on the side of justice and humanity - and I sincerely believe that you believe that - then you have to see the world in a more complicated way than you are. You might want to ask questions like.... why haven't Egypt opened the border? Why does the leader of Hamas live in Qatar and why is he a billionaire? Why in a country which is supposed to be at the pits of desperation have their government been able to build military grade tunnels and amass enough weapons for a sustained war.
More importantly, what benefit does an Islamic military outfit get from starting a fight it knows it cannot win - and then sending pictures of that fight out into a liberal democracy. A tactic so brazenly effective, I have seen people 'on the side of justice and humanity' rethinking Osama Bin Laden's bringing down of the twin towers - because, as he suggests in his letter, this was also done to support Hamas.
War is sickening and, like you, I am pro-peace - but a peaceful coexistence cannot be undertaken with a religious autocracy hell-bent on the wholesale murder of an entire race of people. It is possible to call for a ceasefire and to be on the side of humanity and compassion without simultaneously endorsing the tactics of Hamas. My fear, and I have an article coming out about this fairly soon, is that this tactic has proven so successful that it is likely to repeat. The US will always win a land war - but the Afghans did what the Vietnamese did (holding on and hoping for a withdrawal) and future paramilitary organisations are going to do what Hamas did. Tactical inhumanity followed by shouts of 'we are the oppressed'.
I hope you can see from this argument that I have read a little bit more than my equivocating stance might suggest. One thing has become more abundantly clear as this has gone on - Hamas is not good for the Gaza population, and Hamas needs to be removed. That might be difficult, but it is necessary.
