I’m in the US.

I haven’t discerned a pattern, by the media, in the titling of the horror currently underway.

I’ve seen Al Jazeera use both phrasings. I haven’t determined that other media sites are hardlining their terminology either, but I notice the difference as I browse.

Maybe it doesn’t mean anything, but these days people seem extra sensitive about names.

  • weeeeum@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    27
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    To me it’s who’s trying to kill who. Hamas (the group) wants to destroy Israel, Israel in turn wants to destroy Hamas, not Gaza (this part is actually very subjective)

    • silicon_reverie@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s a good way to frame things. As an outsider, the subjectivity of the IDF’s target is why I wonder if people are choosing one term for the war over another. Some see the intentional bombing of refugee camps, ambulances, and aid convoys as targeting the civilians of Gaza in what amounts to a systematic extermination of Palestinians. The casualty numbers seem to heavily favor that interpretation. So could this be one reason for some news outlets to frame the conflict as Israel vs Gaza itself? Or is the word choice more nuanced than that, given how it seems as though the two names are being used interchangeably on both sides of the line?

      • boredtortoise@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Israel is definitely attacking Gaza, but Gaza isn’t an entity with the ability to fight back. Thus ‘Israel–Gaza war’ is a false equivalence.

        Similarly, ‘Israel–Hamas war’ is troublesome because both are also attacking people not part of the conflict.

        Maybe it’s ‘a series of Israel & Hamas terrorist attacks in the region of Gaza’ 🤷

      • redballooon@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        15
        arrow-down
        12
        ·
        1 year ago

        Whoever thinks Israel purposefully targets civilians ignores how Hamas operates. It has been documented for years by the UN and human rights organizations that they use civilians as shields.

        Getting Palestinian civilians dead is part of their strategy.

        • squirmy_wormy@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          17
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          That’s also entirely unfair to the long standing apartheid state Israel has run against Palestinians. Push anyone long enough and they push back.

          Kids throw rocks? Fuckin execute them, according to the IDF.

          • redballooon@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            8
            arrow-down
            6
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            I’m not defending Israel settlements in the West Bank.

            But that’s largely independent from Hamas actions or intentions. Hamas was founded before the first intifada, and it existed at relatively peaceful times when the talks about a two state solution were meant serious on the Israeli side. Their intentions then were not different from today’s.

            Hamas never wanted peace, and they never wanted to peacefully coexist.

            (*) edit: wait did you say me pointing out how Hamas uses civilians as shields is unfair against the Hamas??

            • squirmy_wormy@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              10
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              I had a problem with your opener:

              whoever thinks Israel purposefully targets civilians…

              They have for a while, and currently they are. And it’s well known and historically proven that behavior like that results in backlash eventually. And then nothing good happens.

              • redballooon@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                4
                arrow-down
                3
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                they currently are

                You didn’t read the follow up after my opening that you had problems with.

                Or you are ignoring how Hamas operates.

                The claim that Hamas reacts to anything that Israel does in the West Bank is a myth.