Perhaps part of the issue is the same people who defined both genocide and ethnic cleansing as crimes in legalistic terms had just engaged in mass ethnic cleansing throughout Europe, which they felt was necessary after WWII. 1/

They then called both these things crimes, but left extermination and murder a lesser thing. 2/

So when we reason about these things, we often fail to notice that ethnic cleansing and extermination are both miserable things, both should be absolutely avoided, but if one has to give, ethnic cleansing is preferable to extermination. 3/

The State of Israel, a miserable ethnonational project, has decided that it can no longer live with or even beside another miserable ethnonational project, the Palestinians. 4/

Given the prohibition of both options to achieve that goal, Israel adopts a superposition, placing the population it will no longer live beside in conditions that will slowly exterminate it unless somehow the other option is made available. 5/

This is the outcome of foolish legalism based on national rights, rather than making hard decisions that privilege the welfare of actual living but perhaps soon-to-be killed humans. /fin