Omer Bartov in NYT: ‘How do genocides end? In most cases, there are two options. Either the perpetrators accomplish their goal, or a military force stops them and accountability ensues.’

And: ‘What we have seen unfold in Gaza, where Israel stands accused in the International Court of Justice of committing genocide in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, appears to portend a new future for the crime.
It is a future in which other nations or leaders may have an incentive to pursue genocidal policies.’

Also: ‘If the plans that are currently being elaborated for Gaza go forward, genocide may come to be seen by some nations as the legitimate and lucrative extension of politics by other means.’

Before World War II, genocide was seen as exactly that. Some would argue that even after 1945, the postwar order did not manage to prevent genocides. (Rwanda, Cambodia, and Bosnia.)

(a sf 2188)