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“The International Court is putting the elected leaders of a democratic country with its own independent judiciary in the same category as dictators and authoritarians who kill with impunity.”

– The Washington Post, editorial, November 25, 2024

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant for conducting a genocidal military bombardment against the Palestinian residents of Gaza.  The Post argues that these warrants have undermined the ICC’s credibility and given “credence to accusations of hypocrisy and selective prosecution.”  The fact that Israeli Defense Forces have made no effort to limit civilian harm, and that more than 15,000 children in Gaza have been killed is not central to the Post.

Former defense minister Gallant was issued an arrest warrant because he is using starvation as an additional tool in Israel’s genocidal campaign.  President Biden has joined the Post in denouncing the ICC’s request for arrest warrants, arguing that “there is no equivalence—none—between Israel and Hamas.”  But as Nicholas Kristof has noted in the New York Times, there is a moral equivalence between an “Israeli child and a Palestinian child,” and that “they all deserved to be protected.”  An ICC arrest warrant may not have improved the situation in Gaza, but it puts the world on notice regarding the savagery and brutality of Israeli actions.

The fact that Gazans have suffered horrific wounds, but that very few victims have been permitted to leave Gaza is not relevant to the Post.  The fact that nearly all of the 2 million residents have Gaza have been displaced is similarly not mentioned in the Post editorial.  The fact that those remaining residents are being subjected to starvation and continued bombing, even in those areas declared safe havens by the Israelis, seems to have little resonance with the Post.

The Post editorial simply believes that the “ICC is not the venue to hold Israel to account.”  This is reminiscent of the confrontation in the Pentagon in Dr. Strangelove, where the character played by Peter Sellers orders “please, no fighting in the war room.”  The United States is similarly hypocritical.  It has encouraged the ICC to make a case for Russian war crimes in Ukraine, but has regularly used its veto in the United Nations to prevent a resolution  supporting a cease-fire in the Middle East.  The Post seems to be arguing that Netanyahu cannot be a war criminal because he was elected in a democratic election, and therefore the ICC doesn’t have a role to play.

The Post editorial argues that “Israel’s vibrant, independent media will do its own investigations,” and therefore there was no need for the ICC to make an effort to hold Netanyahu and Gallant accountable.  The Post has not reported that the Israeli government approved a proposal that ordered all government-funded organizations to cease communications with Haaretz, and to withdraw advertisements from the newspaper.  The Post seems to be arguing that Israel is supposedly a democracy, so it can’t be committing war crimes

Haaretz, of course, is the only major Israeli paper that has been critical of Netanyahu’s genocidal campaign against the people of Gaza.  In explaining its actions, the Israeli government said the decision was prompted by “many articles that have hurt the legitimacy of the state of Israel and its right to self-defense.”  The government has been particularly critical by Haaretz’s publisher, Amos Schocken, who called for sanctions against Israel.  Schocken previously faced criticism from the Israeli government for referring to Palestinians as “freedom fighters.”

In trying to silence a critical, independent newspaper such as Haaretz, Netanyahu is putting himself in the same camp as his friends in Russia (Vladimir Putin), Turkey (Recep Tayyip Erdogan), and Hungary (Viktor Orban).  And in ordering the genocidal bombardments in Gaza and Lebanon, Netanyahu is putting himself in the same camp as Myanmar (General Min Aung Hlaing), Sudan (General Mohamed Hamdan), and Syria (Bashar al-Assad).  The Post can talk about Israeli self-defense, but the fact is that Israel’s war aims have been achieved.  Hamas’s military structure has been dismantled, and Hezbollah has been forced back from the border with Lebanon.

The Post believes that the appropriate time to hold Israel accountable is “after the conflict’s end,” when “there will no doubt be Israeli judicial, parliamentary, and military commissions of inquiry” to do the job.  It argues that the ICC should only become involved “when countries have no means or mechanisms to investigate themselves,” which “is not the case for Israel.”  There is no mention of Netanyahu’s efforts to continue the wars in Gaza and Lebanon in order to avoid the political and judicial risks he faces when these wars end as well as his continuing plans to undermine the independent judiciary.

The Post doesn’t note that the arrest warrant for Netanyahu begs serious questions about U.S. complicity.  After all, President Joe Biden’s has given complete support to the Israelis for their bombardment campaign.  Moreover, nearly all of the weapons misused by Israel are supplied by the United States without cost.  The Biden administration has threatened to deny such weaponry if the Israelis don’t allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, but Netanyahu has ignored Washington’s so-called demands.  Now, Netanyahu knows that the election of Donald Trump will allow Israel more time to prolong the war, which offers the Israeli prime minister more time to evade any accountability from the Israeli people and their institutions.

U.S. hypocrisy is now a matter of record.  The Biden administration condemns Russian and its president for using weapons to destroy Ukraine’s people and its infrastructure, but it supports Israel and supplies the weaponry that Netanyahu and Gallant used to conduct a military campaign of terror on their borders with Gaza and Lebanon.

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