Posted on 11/23/24
| News Source: Arutz-7
The Wall Street Journal on Thursday published an editorial warning that the International Criminal Court's (ICC) decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant could negatively impact all democracies.
"This legal assault isn’t only against Israel," the editorial began. "The precedent will harm the ability of all democracies to defend themselves against terror groups or states."
WSJ also noted that potentially, the White House may have been able to prevent the arrest warrants from being issued in the first place: In June, the US House passed a bipartisan bill sanctioning the ICC. However, on instructions from US President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer held up Sanctions in the Senate.
"This is the same Sen. Schumer who loves to tell Jewish audiences that he’s their shomer, or guardian, in Congress," WSJ noted.
Adding that, "On Israel, the ICC has twisted the law and the facts," the editorial notes that the ICC prosecutor "changed the course" of his investigation into Israel just "days" after learning that he himself was accused of possible sexual harassment.
Additionally, the ICC has jurisdiction only over member states: Israel is not a member state, and Gaza is not a member state - just like the US is not a member state. But the ICC created an entity which it named the "State of Palestine," determined its borders as including Gaza, and then allowed for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to sign for the area, even though the PA has not been involved in Gaza since Hamas took control in 2007.
"International 'law' is malleable when it targets Israel," WSJ concluded.
WSJ also noted that the IDF "may have achieved the lowest ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths in the history of urban warfare."
The goal of these arrest warrants, then, is "to disarm any Western democracy that is responding to atrocities from terrorists and rogue states. This precedent will be used against the US, which, like Israel, never joined the ICC."
Regarding the accusations that Israel is starving Gazans, WSJ points out that the "politicized" arrest warrants do not include MK Benny Gantz, Netanyahu's chief rival for the Prime Minister's Office.
The ICC also "conveniently waited" for the lame duck period to issue the arrest warrants, WSJ noted.
It added: "The charge of deliberate starvation is absurd. Israel has facilitated the transfer of more than 57,000 aid trucks and 1.1 million tons of aid, even though Hamas’s rampant theft means Israel is provisioning its battlefield enemy, something the law can’t require."
"This is why President Biden said on Oct. 18, 2023, that if Hamas steals the aid, 'it will end.' The President broke that promise, and Israel has exceeded its aid obligations."
Additionally, the international Famine Review Committee on June 30 concluded that famine is not occurring in Gaza; even the Hamas terror group attributes just 41 deaths out of thousands to have been due to malnutrition.