Civil War or Not?

Depends on what agenda you want to push, it seems. As our friend the Confederate Yankee has helpfully posted, the same media who have been telling us for the last two years that Iraq is in a state of civil war are also telling us that the Arabs known as Palestinians are engaging in factional warfare. This despite the fact that Palestinians meet the criteria necessary for a civil war to be internationally recognized. So what are those criteria? Well, according to Global Security,

civil war: A war between factions of the same country; there are
five criteria for international recognition of this status: the
contestants must control territory, have a functioning government,
enjoy some foreign recognition, have identifiable regular armed
forces, and engage in major military operations.

This begs the question of why the same media who want us to believe that Iraq, which meets none of these criteria, is in civil war will also insist that the Palestinians, who meet all of them, are not? Confederate Yankee says,

1. Both Hamas and Fatah control territory.
2. Both Hamas and Fatah have their own political organizations and function (dysfunction) as part of a recognized government.
3. both enjoy some foreign recognition via support from governments such as ours (Fatah) and Iran (Hamas).
4. both have identifiable and mostly uniformed armed forces.
5. both have engaged and continue to engage in major military operations.

By this definition (and others), the Palestinian Civil War in Gaza is clearly underway, and has been for some time.

A supermajority of the world media organizations refuse to recognize this conflict as the civil war that it is.

...

The war in Iraq is widely described in the world's professional media organizations as a "civil war," even though it clearly fails to satisfy the five criteria noted for international recognition as cited by Global Security above, having no formal armies, no functioning governments, nor major battles, instead revolving around kidnappings, bombing, and other random violence.

Couldn't be bias or maybe a particular agenda, could it? Hat tips to the Confederate Yankee, via the estimable Glenn Reynolds.