₦airaland Forum

IjeBos:
You literally brought up the CIA and Iran in the same sentence where you are trying to deny that the CIA does things like back/push coups to overthrow leaders.
You could have use tons of other countries and not the one where the CIA literally backed a coup that overthrew the government.
Really?
You're a grown up, time to start reasoning like one.

bayelsaowei:
you forgot the fact Epstein also died under Trump..

Why Mr man?

In his New York Times op-ed titled “I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It,” Omer Bartov accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. As a professor of genocide studies, he should know better. Genocide is not defined by a few comments taken out of context, by estimates of casualties or destruction, or by how war looks in headlines or on social media. It is defined by specific intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group in whole or in part. That is a high legal bar. Bartov did not meet it. He did not even try.
I am not a lawyer or a political activist. I am a war expert. I have led soldiers in combat. I have trained military units in urban warfare for decades and studied and taught military history, strategy, and the laws of war for years. Since October 7, I have been to Gaza four times embedded with the Israel Defense Forces. I have interviewed the Prime Minister of Israel, the Defense Minister, the IDF Chief of Staff, Southern Command leadership, and dozens of commanders and soldiers on the front lines. I have reviewed their orders, watched their targeting process, and seen soldiers take real risks to avoid harming civilians. Nothing I have seen or studied resembles genocide or genocidal intent.
Bartov claims that five statements by Israeli leaders prove genocidal intent. He begins with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s comment on October 7 that Hamas would “pay a huge price.” That is not a call for genocide. It is what any leader would say after the worst terrorist attack in the nation’s history. He also cites Netanyahu’s statements that Hamas would be destroyed and that civilians should evacuate combat zones. That is not evidence of a desire to destroy a people. It is what professional militaries do when fighting an enemy that hides among civilians.
Bartov presents Netanyahu’s reference to “remember Amalek” as a smoking gun. But this is a phrase from Jewish history and tradition. It is engraved at Israel’s Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, and also appears on the Holocaust memorial in The Hague. In both places, it serves as a warning to remain vigilant against threats, not as a call for mass killing.
He also highlights Defense Minister Gallant’s use of the term “human animals” to describe Hamas fighters. That is not a war crime. After the slaughter, rape, and kidnapping of civilians on October 7, many would understand or even share that reaction.
Unable to find intent among those actually directing the war, Bartov turns to far-right politicians like Bezalel Smotrich and Nissim Vaturi. These individuals do not command troops, issue orders, or shape battlefield decisions. I have studied the actual orders. They focus on destroying Hamas, rescuing hostages, and protecting civilians whenever possible. Their rhetoric is irrelevant to the legal case.
Israel has taken extraordinary steps to limit civilian harm. It warns before attacks using text messages, phone calls, leaflets, and broadcasts. It opens safe corridors and pauses operations so civilians can leave combat areas. It tracks civilian presence down to the building level. I have seen missions delayed or canceled because children were nearby. I have seen Israeli troops come under fire and still be ordered not to shoot back because civilians might be harmed.
Israel has delivered more humanitarian aid to Gaza than any military in history has provided to an enemy population during wartime. More than 94,000 trucks carrying over 1.8 million tons of aid have entered the territory. Israel has supported hospitals, repaired water pipelines, increased access to clean water, and enabled over 36,000 patients to leave Gaza for treatment abroad.
The IDF has coordinated millions of vaccine doses, supplied fuel for hospitals and infrastructure, and facilitated the flow of food and medicine through the UN, aid groups, and private partners. The U.S.–Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation alone has delivered more than 82 million meals—one to two million a day—while weakening Hamas’s control over aid. This is not genocide. It is responsible and historic mid-war humanitarian policy.
Bartov cites death tolls from Hamas health authorities without question. He says 58,000 have been killed, including 17,000 children. But these numbers come from a terrorist organization. They mix civilians and fighters and count anyone under 18 as a child, even though Hamas uses teenagers and younger children as combatants. The figures are not independently verified and have been shown to contain false details, including names, ages, and sex. Civilian deaths are tragic, but in Gaza, they are also part of Hamas’s strategy.
No military operation is judged solely by body counts or destruction figures. If we used Bartov’s logic, every major war would be called genocide. Two million civilians died in the Korean War, an average of 54,000 per month. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars killed hundreds of thousands. The fight against ISIS leveled multiple cities and killed tens of thousands. None of those wars were considered genocidal. Gaza is not either. War is evaluated based on the actions of commanders, the goals set by leaders, and how well the military follows the laws of war, not by statistics taken out of context.
War is hell. It is inhumane, destructive, and ugly. But it is not automatically a crime. Nations must not target civilians. They must follow the rules of distinction, proportionality, and take all possible care to avoid civilian harm. Israel is doing that. I have seen it.
In Rafah this summer, Israel spent weeks preparing evacuations. It opened new safe areas and waited until civilians had moved before striking Hamas targets. That operation killed Hamas’s top commander, recovered hostages, and kept civilian deaths very low. It was a clear example of Israel’s extraordinary intent and actions to protect civilians while targeting only Hamas, a part of the story ignored by those who reduce war to headlines and numbers.
What is happening in Gaza is tragic. But it is not genocide. And it is not illegal.
Genocide requires clear, provable intent to destroy a people through sustained, deliberate actions. That burden of proof has not been met. Bartov and others have not even tried.
Likewise, the laws of war do not prohibit war itself. They require that military operations distinguish between combatants and noncombatants, that force be proportional to the objective, and that commanders take all feasible precautions to protect civilian life. I have watched the IDF do exactly that. I have seen restraint, humanitarian aid, and deliberate compliance with legal standards, often at tactical cost.
This is not a campaign of extermination. It is a war against Hamas, a terrorist army embedded in civilian areas by design.
The law matters. So does precision. And above all, truth matters.
John Spencer is chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute and host of the Urban Warfare Project Podcast. He served twenty-five years as an infantry soldier, which included two combat tours in Iraq. He is the coauthor of the book Understanding Urban Warfare.
Learn more at www.johnspenceronline.com
You can also follow him on 'X' at: @SpencerGuard

bayelsaowei:
you forgot the fact Epstein also died under Trump..

Why Mr man?

benalvino3:
UN won't do its thing.

https://fxtwitter.com/EYakoby/status/1947734598076522782

Then they blame Israel.

IjeBos:
You literally brought up the CIA and Iran in the same sentence where you are trying to deny that the CIA does things like back/push coups to overthrow leaders.
You could have use tons of other countries and not the one where the CIA literally backed a coup that overthrew the government.
Really?
You're a grown up, time to start reasoning like one.

Ibime:
Translation of the bold - you don't know, have no proof and are forming Conspiracy theories to fit your anti-West world view.

The West is not reacting to situation they found on ground to achieve a stable outcome like everyone else is doing, instead they are doing "covert operations" which harms their Kurdish allies and with Jolani whose motto is "First Damascus, then Jerusalem"

Ibime:
Can you search my moniker with CIA and tell me if I've mentioned CIA in the last 2 years? Are you seeing things? It is people who like to build conspiracy theories like Nateevs who like to use words like CIA as staging ground for their conspiracy. Such things are hardly in my vocabulary

nateevs:
Reacting to a situation. Obfuscation of mega proportions. Even Iran had intelligence of what was about to happen and warned Assad, but you are here telling me that with the expanse of the CIA and MI6 efforts over the region, they were only reduced to "reactionary" moves.

IjeBos:
You literally brought up the CIA and Iran in the same sentence where you are trying to deny that the CIA does things like back/push coups to overthrow leaders.
You could have use tons of other countries and not the one where the CIA literally backed a coup that overthrew the government.
Really?
You're a grown up, time to start reasoning like one.

Ibime:
Stop talking 🗑️

The whole world has intelligence. Having intelligence of troop movements is not supporting, arming or training any dog in a fight except to a Conspiracist. Not their fight.

benalvino3:
As I said, 👇

Ibime:
Can you search my moniker with CIA and tell me if I've mentioned CIA in the last 2 years? Are you seeing things? It is people who like to build conspiracy theories like Nateevs who like to use words like CIA as staging ground for their conspiracy. Such things are hardly in my vocabulary

Ibime:
Or claim USA worked with Iran to topple Saddam?
If he is not mad.

happney65:
Good Morning America

IjeBos:
My fault.
I forgot you don't know what you are talking about, yet still talking.



The US organization that would be working with Iran to topple Saddam would be the CIA.
So when you say the "USA worked with Iran to topple Saddam", you were really referring to the CIA but didn't know it.
.

nateevs:
Our country of citizenship backed Sadam to invade Iran, and subsequently, Quate, and then we went to back Iran to remove Sadam from government.

nateevs:
Meanwhile you are accepting that they might have had intelligence of things moving, but claiming at the same time they were only "reacting".....

Ibime:
Will you keep quiet

Direct your talk to our resident Conspiracy theorist. I never said anything about USA working with Iran, I only asked him where came up with such madness

Stop butting in arguments Felicia

bayelsaowei:
but this is someone's opinion.. even the write up says Opinion by the writer..

Other school of thoughts agree that Isreal is committing genocide..

Its in the eyes of the beholder.. even if international bodies agree it is genocide today, many persons like yourself, Netanyahu and others wont agree with it..

nateevs:
Meanwhile you are accepting that they might have had intelligence of things moving, but claiming at the same time they were only "reacting".....

You don't know where you stand. You are all over the place.

basilico:
Reminder… Trump did these things:
2004 - Banned Epstein from
Mar-a-Lago
2005 - Reported Epstein's Behavior to Authorities
2009 - Cooperated with Epstein Victims' Lawyer
2017 - Signed Executive Order Targeting
Human Trafficking
2019 - Epstein Arrested During Trump's
Presidency
2019 - FBI Raid on Epstein's Island

Joe Biden didn't release the files because he wanted Trump to do it after defeating Kamala?

Ibeme:
Are you sure you are alright?

Everybody saw troop movements

What do you want them to do, bomb the HTS troops or start bombing Assad or warning Assad when it's not their fight?

They wait for the outcome and make the best out of the outcome.

Right now they can see troop movements in Sudan and Congo, does that make them a participant in what is going on there?

Everyone has satellite and can see what's going on, but the West is not allowed to observe, they must weigh in to defend Assad before Nateevs absolve them of complicity

Stop talking like a 👶🏽

nateevs:
Except by agreeing with me now, you are essentially saying that a group that was proscribed as a terrorist unit was moving on to topple Assad and they allowed it happen.

IjeBos:
You emotional child, you are writing nonsense on a public forum.
You see the bolded word there? Public
If you want to have a private conversation where you can empty the non-contents of your mind do it do it in a private way, but it if you do it on this platform, I'll call you out when you write nonsense (which you seem to do whenever you try to show depth in something).

Again, the CIA is the arm that would be facilitating the overthrow of Governments that the US has interests in.
And speculating if a countries leader was overthrown by the US (CIA), is not conspiratorial, esp. for a country like Syria.

feedthenation:
---Felon 47 also used Epstein's former plane during the 2024 campaign period---can't he lease a jet from his other billionaire friends---

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/13/trump-jeffrey-epstein-plane

---Felon 47's former Labor Secretary Acosta, during his first term resigns because of Epstein plea deal----you can connect the dots---

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/12/us/politics/acosta-resigns-trump.html

bayelsaowei:
you forgot the fact Epstein also died under Trump..

Why Mr man?

basilico:
Was it arkancide or suicide in your opinion?

Ibime:
You childeeesh fowl

Did they ever sign contract with you that they are Assad's defender or does that mean they installed Jolani?

What does "they allowed it to happen" mean and how does that equate to installing Jolani?

What sort of childish anti-Western fowlishness is this?

Assad knows they are coming for weeks and has his defenders. See me see trouble. I dey my dey dey watch fight between my enemies with popcorn, one
Gianluigi Buffon say I allowed it to happen.

basilico:
Was it arkancide or suicide in your opinion?

benalvino3:
How desperate are you?

nateevs:
I gave you the answer earlier but your continued languish in dumbland is what is causing this knowledge gap. Once you understand that a known terrorist organisation will never be allowed to take over a government right on the border of Israel, unless the US and Israel signed off on it, then you can live in peace.

How many scenarios do you want me to spell out for you?

You've gone from..... "they knew nothing about it" ....... to "they were only reacting to it"...... to "they knew, because .. well, everyone has intelligence" and back to.... "but they didn't install the government".

If you are silly enough to think that the US and UK will allow a known terrorist (Alqaeda and ISIS for that matter) take over Damascus only 200 miles from Israel (and I dare add Jordan sef) without a sign off, an okay, with concessions and agreements, then you are a lightweight and should not be having this discussion.

Gerrarahia Ibime. Which kain tin be dis?