The International Criminal Court today endorsed and enforced terrorism. There is simply no other way to describe their absurd decision to issue arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant in the war Hamas launched against Israel on October 7, 2023, with a wave of atrocities that deliberately targeted thousands of unarmed civilians.
Rather than issue arrest warrants for Hamas leadership for those atrocities, the ICC has chosen to go after the Israelis for fighting Hamas where Hamas hides out -- among civilians.
Under the terms of the warrants, Netanyahu and Gallant risk arrest if they travel to any of the 124 countries that are members of the court.
While the court is keeping the full warrants confidential, a statement from the ICC pre-trial chamber says that it “found reasonable grounds to believe” that from Oct. 8, 2023 until May 20, 2024, at least, Netanyahu and Gallant “each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts” as well as “the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.”
That inversion is not just absurd, it amounts to an explicit endorsement of terrorist strategies to use civilian populations as human shields against the consequences of the wars they start. It also ignores the massive efforts that the Israelis have made to shield civilian populations in Gaza from military attacks despite Hamas being the recognized government in that territory, even while Hamas hides fighters and command structures in and under civilian infrastructure.
That is the war crime on which the ICC should act. Hamas launched the war with an invasion of Israel that deliberately targeted unarmed civilians, and Israel has every right to prosecute the war to a conclusion that satisfies its national security. Israel has taken great care to minimize genuine civilian populations and has continuously transmitted aid to the Gazans during the entire conflict. The way to fight terrorism is to make terrorists responsible for the consequences of their war crimes, not making their victims responsible for them.
Besides, the ICC comes to the "protect civilians" party pretty late. Hamas has spent the last nineteen years launching rockets and missiles that indiscriminately target Israeli civilian population centers without a single finger-wag from the ICC, and escalated to rape and massacres on October 7. The Israelis have spent a fortune on anti-missile systems to deal with constant attacks from Gaza since Hamas took power in 2006. Where the [expletive deleted] were the terrorist appeasers at the ICC during that period of time?
They spent that time turning a blind eye to war crimes, and now want to punish Israel for fighting back against them. In doing so, the ICC is setting a precedent that would allow terrorist groups to hide behind civilians with no consequences at all, and that would ensure nothing except even more such terrorism in the future. How else can one look at this other than a practical endorsement of Hamas' strategy and tactics?
The Israelis are furious, and rightly so, across their political spectrum. Israeli President Isaac Herzog hardly qualifies as a Netanyahu ally, but he didn't hesitate to rip the ICC for ignoring reality.
“It ignores the basic fact that Israel was barbarically attacked and has the duty and right to defend its people,” Herzog said. “It ignores the fact that Israel is a vibrant democracy, acting under international humanitarian law, and going to great lengths to provide for the humanitarian needs of the civilian population.”
The ICC has once again stoked fury in the US as well. With Senate control shifting to the GOP in January, it looks like sanctions on ICC members will now get a massive boost from this despicable decision.
Issue sanctions on every single member and employee of the ICC. Make it impossible for them to move funds or travel. Bureaucrats who enable and excuse terrorism in this manner need to learn a lesson about international norms and the consequences of their actions. And that should happen now, not after the next session of Congress begins.
