Certain phrases are used for effect, which intentionally or not, you did with the choice of carpet bombing. This is not semantics. Israel is not an apartheid state, though yes, the West Bank resembles some aspects of apartheied. Israel is not engaged in genocide, another term tossed around indiscriminately, including by dissolusioned and delusional jews on the far left (I am Jewish by birth, culture and ethnicity--I reject all religion as dogma but not God as I understand it--I take what I will and leave the rest, as some say). If anyone is engaged in an attempt at genocide, it is Hamas. Just read their charter.

I truly feel for the civilans in Gaza and Israel is not without fault--far from it--but read this simple story by Henya Drescher for root cause reality that the world does not want to accept because the world has always hated the Jews and thus we will always eventually lose in the kangaroo court of public opinion https://medium.com/@henyadrescher/is-standing-in-the-middle-the-most-moral-place-to-be-be375cd0fb2e. But I don't feel enough for the innocents in Gaza to demonize Israel which you do with what you call semantics (though I have recently criticized the recently barely elected govt and the theocrats Bibi sided with for his own personal reasons in my one Pitfall submission https://medium.com/pitfall/the-world-especially-the-middle-east-reflects-more-shades-of-grey-than-any-box-of-crayola-crayons-50dca751d2db). The fact is that for whatever reason for 1000s of years the world has hated Jews and sadly, even wonderfully caring and smart people such as yourself cannot see that their opinions are swayed by undercurrents of antisemitism that are insidious, often subtle, and subliminally persuasive.