Genocide isn’t a vibe or a headline; it’s a crime defined by intent: “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.”
Lawyers call it dolus specialis—specific intent. Without intent to destroy, you may have terrible war crimes. With it, you have genocide.
Now consider Oct. 7, 2023. Thousands of Hamas Gazans burst across the border, slaughtered roughly 1,200 people—mostly civilians—and dragged about 250 hostages into Gaza. The only reason the toll stopped where it did is because Israel stopped them. Ask the uncomfortable question: what if Israel hadn’t? What if those squads had kept moving community to community for another day? A week? A month?
Scale the numbers. Proportionally, Oct. 7 was the equivalent of more than 40,000 Americans murdered in a single day. Calling it “Israel’s 9/11” actually undersells it.