Over the however many years of the Donbass conflicts and the Russia-Ukraine war, less children died than in a few weeks of bombings by Israel. Russia has oriented their invasion primarily towards regions that are ethnically Russian. Israel has oriented their invasion primarily towards regions that are ethnically Palestinian Arabs. Today, the civilian death toll in Gaza (~7000) after less than three weeks of fighting is approaching that in the Russian War in Ukraine (~9500) after almost two years and already exceeds that of the Ukrainian War in Donbass (~3500) after 7 years of fighting.

The Russia-Ukraine war is a war, and it reflects in how it’s been conducted. No single strike throughout either war caused 500+ civilian casualties. Neither side has tried to level the others’ cities entirely (though both sides have struck civilian targets and used disproportionate force). Neither side has sought the eradication of the others’ peoples. Both sides are, to a significant degree, similarly equipped and armed. Both sides could enter into peace negotiations at any time and those peace negotiations won’t involve the complete removal of either people from their country. The closest comparable is maybe Ukraine on Donbass, but the same still holds: neither side came even close to the level of disregard for human life that the IDF is exhibiting.

Israel isn’t Russia-lite, Israel is worse. They’re not even close to comparable.