Rex, I know you to be a smart man. So I really struggle to believe you're having trouble parsing this completely audible dog whistle.

You're starting from the assertion that Netanyahu wasn't trying to invoke a genocide and then twisting yourself in knots to justify that desired conclusion, instead of parsing the very obvious genocidal content of his easily understood words and going forward from there. That's why your "but then why?" questions are even remotely puzzling to you.

He used a gruesome parallel that involves actual genocide because he wants to commit actual genocide. And is constrained only by the fact that unleashing Israel's full military might on Gaza would spark WWIII.

If you've ever balked at phrases like "from the river to the sea," which don't mention killing anybody, I don't know how you can be struggling to interpret a story that specifically advocates killing children.

Amalek was a nation. Not an army or a group of terrorists. And Samuel told Saul to utterly destroy it, just as Israel is doing and as several members of Netanyahu's government have openly called for him to do. It wasn't about killing the bad people, it was about killing everybody. Even the animals.

How many "infants and suckling" do you think there are amongst Hamas? Or women for that matter. Do you imagine that Netanyahu was unaware of the dehumanising rhetoric coming from other members of his government in public, never mind in private?

Netanyahu doesn't say outright that Gazans are the Amalekites because he has (mostly) been smart enough not to speak openly about his worst intentions. Most politicians, even people like Trump, manage this. But when you have to start suggesting that he was referencing tunnels when he talks about killing oxen and sheep (and let's not forget, suckling babies (!!!!!)), you're reaching in a way that is, frankly, beneath you.