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Microsoft Israel chief leaves amid ethical controversy

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Re: Microsoft Israel chief leaves amid ethical controversy

#32
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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Honestly it's difficult for me to respond to this comment because the premise is so clearly flawed. A semblance of civilian life does not mean genocide did not or is not taking place. Wholesale population displacement, destruction of a significant percentage of civilian structures, bombings, raids, land and sea blockades, statements from leaders that suggest genocidal intent... these point in the other direction. Wou…

Wholesale population displacement is explicitly not (by itself) genocide under the convention. Genocide is an intent crime, and the intent has to be the eradication of the targeted ethnic, national, racial, or religious group. Kidnapping all the children in an occupied territory and dispersing them so they can't be returned to their families is genocidal. Mass displacement isn't.

The fixation on the term "genocide" has been a major own-goal for advocates of Palestinians. It was deliberately defined to be a difficult bar to clear. "Warm crimes" and "ethnic cleansing" are easy claims to make in the region, and ordinary people don't care about the distinction between "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide"; that term would have served just as well, without the escape hatch "genocide" provides.

Re: Microsoft Israel chief leaves amid ethical controversy

#33

TIL that Microsoft is the least Israel-friendly of the big three clouds: > Among the cloud giants, Microsoft is considered the most vulnerable to anti-Israel protests and allegations of the use made by the Ministry of Defense on Azure, its cloud platforms, since it is the only company among the three major cloud companies that has not signed a special agreement with the Israeli government and the Ministry of Defense.…

> TIL that Microsoft is the least Israel-friendly of the big three clouds This is a good thing. American companies should not be allowing their tech to be used to in the gross ongoing human rights violations in Israel/Gaza/West Bank. Google and Amazon knew their tech could be used for human rights abuses in Israel (their lawyers warned them so) but ignored that in favour of $$$ per the EFF: https://www.eff.org/deepli…

[flagged]

Re: Microsoft Israel chief leaves amid ethical controversy

#34

TIL that Microsoft is the least Israel-friendly of the big three clouds: > Among the cloud giants, Microsoft is considered the most vulnerable to anti-Israel protests and allegations of the use made by the Ministry of Defense on Azure, its cloud platforms, since it is the only company among the three major cloud companies that has not signed a special agreement with the Israeli government and the Ministry of Defense.…

That must explain why the "least" friendly MSFT asked the FBI to spy on employees attending pro-Gaza/anti-genocide protests:

https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/microsof...

Good grief. Let's maybe not parrot out nation state propaganda with zero critical thinking on what's being said.

Re: Microsoft Israel chief leaves amid ethical controversy

#35
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly it's difficult for me to respond to this comment because the premise is so clearly flawed. A semblance of civilian life does not mean genocide did not or is not taking place. Wholesale population displacement, destruction of a significant percentage of civilian structures, bombings, raids, land and sea blockades, statements from leaders that suggest genocidal intent... these point in the other direction. Wou…

Wholesale population displacement is explicitly not (by itself) genocide under the convention. Genocide is an intent crime, and the intent has to be the eradication of the targeted ethnic, national, racial, or religious group. Kidnapping all the children in an occupied territory and dispersing them so they can't be returned to their families is genocidal. Mass displacement isn't. The fixation on the term "genocide" h…

So... "statements from leaders that suggest genocidal intent" ... meets the genocide bar, yes? I'll just quote wikipedia:

The Gaza genocide is the ongoing,[19][20] intentional, and systematic destruction of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip carried out by Israel during the Gaza war. It encompasses mass killings, deliberate starvation, infliction of serious bodily and mental harm, and prevention of births. Other acts include blockading, destroying civilian infrastructure, destroying healthcare facilities, killing healthcare workers and aid-seekers, causing mass forced displacement, committing sexual violence, and destroying educational, religious, and cultural sites.[21] The genocide has been recognised by a United Nations special committee[22] and commission of inquiry,[21] the International Association of Genocide Scholars,[23][24] multiple human rights groups,[c] state governments, numerous genocide studies and international law scholars,[30][31] and other experts.[32]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_genocide

Re: Microsoft Israel chief leaves amid ethical controversy

#36
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly it's difficult for me to respond to this comment because the premise is so clearly flawed. A semblance of civilian life does not mean genocide did not or is not taking place. Wholesale population displacement, destruction of a significant percentage of civilian structures, bombings, raids, land and sea blockades, statements from leaders that suggest genocidal intent... these point in the other direction. Wou…

"Wholesale population displacement, destruction of a significant percentage of civilian structures, bombings, raids, land and sea blockades," These are all things that happen during war. Explain why this war is different. All war is bad. I genuinely don't see how this is not a war but a genocide.

I have questions.

What do you think are the definitions of genocide and war? (why are they different words)

Do they overlap?

Re: Microsoft Israel chief leaves amid ethical controversy

#37
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly it's difficult for me to respond to this comment because the premise is so clearly flawed. A semblance of civilian life does not mean genocide did not or is not taking place. Wholesale population displacement, destruction of a significant percentage of civilian structures, bombings, raids, land and sea blockades, statements from leaders that suggest genocidal intent... these point in the other direction. Wou…

"Wholesale population displacement, destruction of a significant percentage of civilian structures, bombings, raids, land and sea blockades," These are all things that happen during war. Explain why this war is different. All war is bad. I genuinely don't see how this is not a war but a genocide.

You cathegorize that as genocide when it is directed at a very specific group. Like jews in WWII, now it is Palestinians in their own country.

Re: Microsoft Israel chief leaves amid ethical controversy

#38
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly it's difficult for me to respond to this comment because the premise is so clearly flawed. A semblance of civilian life does not mean genocide did not or is not taking place. Wholesale population displacement, destruction of a significant percentage of civilian structures, bombings, raids, land and sea blockades, statements from leaders that suggest genocidal intent... these point in the other direction. Wou…

"Wholesale population displacement, destruction of a significant percentage of civilian structures, bombings, raids, land and sea blockades," These are all things that happen during war. Explain why this war is different. All war is bad. I genuinely don't see how this is not a war but a genocide.

You can think of genocide as a special case of a war, one where the party being genocided has no army or weapons to defend itself.

Re: Microsoft Israel chief leaves amid ethical controversy

#39

TIL that Microsoft is the least Israel-friendly of the big three clouds: > Among the cloud giants, Microsoft is considered the most vulnerable to anti-Israel protests and allegations of the use made by the Ministry of Defense on Azure, its cloud platforms, since it is the only company among the three major cloud companies that has not signed a special agreement with the Israeli government and the Ministry of Defense.…

> TIL that Microsoft is the least Israel-friendly of the big three clouds This is a good thing. American companies should not be allowing their tech to be used to in the gross ongoing human rights violations in Israel/Gaza/West Bank. Google and Amazon knew their tech could be used for human rights abuses in Israel (their lawyers warned them so) but ignored that in favour of $$$ per the EFF: https://www.eff.org/deepli…

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Re: Microsoft Israel chief leaves amid ethical controversy

#40
post #11

Israel consistently flaunts international law, has been accused of war crimes by the Hague, and the UN has found it most likely has committed and continues to commit genocide in Gaza. So I am not surprised that dealing with the country's Defense apparatus would lead to ethical concerns. Every international company should think twice about doing business with the Israeli government or companies rooted in defense and c…

[flagged]

What a bizarre thing to say, concentration camps during the Holocaust also had swimming pools and soccer fields (for the inmates as well), does that prove the Holocaust is a hoax? Swimming pools, soccer fields, and 5k events do not disprove ongoing genocides.
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