The United States is adamantly opposed to Benjamin Netanyahu's arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court; this should forever expose US hypocrisy when it comes to international laws of war.
The apartheid government of Israel is committing genocidal war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant. An ICC prosecutor requested the arrest warrants in May then a panel of three judges examined their legitimacy before officially issuing those warrants on November 21st. Specifically, the panel of judges said;
“the Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu…and Mr 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…
The Chamber…found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare…the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and specific medical supplies, created conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the civilian population in Gaza, which resulted in the death of civilians, including children due to malnutrition and dehydration…
The Chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity,... The Chamber found that their conduct led to the disruption of the ability of humanitarian organizations to provide food and other essential goods to the population in need in Gaza. The aforementioned restrictions together with cutting off electricity and reducing fuel supply also had a severe impact on the availability of water in Gaza and the ability of hospitals to provide medical care…
In addition, by intentionally limiting or preventing medical supplies and medicine from getting into Gaza, in particular anesthetics and anesthesia machines, the two individuals are also responsible for inflicting great suffering by means of inhumane acts on persons in need of treatment. Doctors were forced to operate on wounded persons and carry out amputations, including on children, without anesthetics, and/or were forced to use inadequate and unsafe means to sedate patients, causing these persons extreme pain and suffering. This amounts to the crime against humanity of other inhumane acts.
The Chamber also found reasonable grounds to believe that the abovementioned conduct deprived a significant portion of the civilian population in Gaza of their fundamental rights, including the rights to life and health, and that the population was targeted based on political and/or national grounds. It therefore found that the crime against humanity of persecution was committed.
Finally, the Chamber assessed that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant bear criminal responsibility…for the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population of Gaza…
Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant, despite having measures available to them to prevent or repress the commission of crimes or ensure the submittal of the matter to the competent authorities, failed to do so.”
Predictably, President Biden as well as many US Senators strongly opposed those arrest warrants, even threatening sanctions against ICC officials.
Senator Lindsay Graham said he wants to sanction US allies into economic oblivion if they dare to comply with the ICC arrest warrants and uphold international law on Israel;
“I’m working…to sanction any country that aids…the arrest of any politician in Israel….
So, to any ally — Canada, Britain, Germany, France — if you try to help the ICC, we’re gonna sanction you.”
Some US Senators have even threatened to use our military to attack the ICC in order to free Israeli war criminals from accountability;
“the American law on the ICC is known as The Hague Invasion Act for a reason. Think about it.” -Senator Tom Cotton
The only arguments offered against the arrest warrants rest on challenges to the jurisdiction of the ICC and alleged process errors in creating the arrest warrants.
The actual merits of the case are indisputable since Benjamin Netanyahu’s guilt is obvious and undeniable as I explained in Arrest Netanyahu. The real reason the United States opposes these arrest warrants is because the majority of our elected officials would be convicted war criminals if our nation upheld international law. As Lindsay Graham argued on Fox News, if international law were to be upheld in regards to Israel;
“We should crush your economy, because we’re next. Why can’t they go after Trump or any other American president under this theory?”
The problem for them is, the ICC can and should go after every single US President of the 21st century. From George Bush’s illegal and offensive War on Terror, to Obama’s drone strikes of civilians, to Trump’s increasing drone strikes while aiding & abetting Saudi war crimes, to Joe Biden aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, every recent US President would fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC and would almost certainly be convicted if they faced trial. The problem isn’t the ICC; the problem is us. Our Presidents repeatedly commit war crimes with a total lack of accountability in the United States; we allow our own war criminals to roam free. The ICC only goes after those who’ve committed war crimes or crimes against humanity with impunity in their home country. Israeli and American leaders have long committed war crimes and crimes against humanity with total impunity and therefore absolutely fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC.
explained in Genocide Arms Dealers, the entire Republican Party and most Democrats vote over and over to continue aiding & abetting Israel’s ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity, making them complicit;
Many of those votes occurred long after the International Court of Justice issued their finding that Israel is an apartheid state engaged in the illegal annexation and occupation of Palestinian territory. In that case and in another ICJ case analyzing South Africa’s accusation of genocide, the court reiterated that all states have an obligation to prevent the crime of genocide by taking all necessary steps to not aid and abet it.
So after the ICJ told members states to end their complicity in Israeli crimes as outlined under the Genocide Convention, the US Congress rushed bill after bill to give Israel more money and weapons. Additionally, Incitement of Genocide is also a war crime, so Senator Tom Cotton would undoubtedly be convicted if the United States upheld international law.
The United States government is filled with would-be war criminals who would be held accountable if the United States were to ratify the Rome Statute and submit our war criminals to the ICC for prosecution. That’s why our elected leaders oppose international law being applied on our allies, because then it might come back to us. We are being led by people who are trying to cover their own asses. And this mainstream American opposition to the ICC started with George Bush. Under his leadership the United States made clear that we do not support the International Criminal Court and we would even use our military to attack our allies in order to free American war criminals from accountability if ever prosecuted. Here is some background from my post The Dream of an Anti-War America Part 1;
As a result of Bush and Cheney committing war crimes and not wanting to be held accountable, they officially declared their opposition to an international rules-based system of law and order. They strongly advocated for America to reject the legitimacy of organizations like the International Criminal Court which could have held them accountable for war crimes. Many members of the American government, military, and intelligence agencies became war criminals too, so Congress officially ratified our nation’s opposition to international law with the Hague Invasion Act of 2002. That law clearly stated that any American or US ally found guilty of war crimes by the International Criminal Court would be rescued from accountability through military force from The Hague in the Netherlands where the ICC is located. Bush and Cheney vowed to use US military force against an ally to free those guilty of violating international laws of war. Since that law was passed, the American government has been willing to go to war to prevent international laws of war from being enforced fairly on all nations including ourselves…
Since George Bush served in office the United States of America has been on the wrong side of world history. Just a few years earlier when the Rome Treaty established the ICC, President Bill Clinton said;
“The United States should have the chance to observe and assess the functioning of the Court, over time, before choosing to become subject to its jurisdiction…
I believe that a properly constituted and structured International Criminal Court would make a profound contribution in deterring egregious human rights abuses worldwide, and that signature increases the chances for productive discussions with other governments to advance these goals in the months and years ahead.”
Bill Clinton helped to design the ICC but then advocated for an observation period before US entry into the court’s jurisdiction. Instead of becoming a signatory or impartial observer of the court, the United States made itself an enemy of the ICC under Bush. That bad precedent from the American government continues in policy and action to this day. In rhetoric, the US is a staunch supporter of the ICC when it suits a President’s political narrative then they become fierce opponents of the ICC when international law conflicts with their narrative. Our national flip-flopping on a rules-based international system of law and order is immensely hypocritical as pointed out by both Russia and Palestine. It is about time the United States ratify the Rome Statute and become a signatory of the International Criminal Court. One common argument against that happening is that it would mean Americans could be convicted and imprisoned by the ICC for war crimes. That is exactly what I want. George Bush and Dick Cheney should be in prison for life for what they did. Not only do I want them held accountable for the millions of civilians in foreign countries killed, I want them held accountable for the tens of thousands of Americans killed who were ordered into illegal and offensive wars. I want American officials guilty of torture to be imprisoned for that heinous and immoral war crime. If American officials including Presidents were held accountable for war crimes, then they would stop committing so many and it would be a good thing for the entire world.
George Bush is a war criminal who deserves to spend the rest of his days in a prison cell. Everyday he is free is a miscarriage of justice and its about time he stands trial in a world court; the ICC. Maybe then when we criticize Putin for his offensive and illegal war in Ukraine it would have some legitimacy behind it. Maybe when we criticize China for their treatment of Uyghur Muslims we would have some real credibility. If we actually want an international system of law and order where even world leaders are held accountable for war crimes, then it is time for the United States to sign onto the ICC and submit our war criminals for prosecution. That is just one of many necessary steps to bring about true and lasting world peace.
It is clear beyond any reasonable doubt that Israeli leaders including Netanyahu & Gallant have directed military attacks against civilians. The ICC arrest warrants are totally justified. It would actually be morally outrageous for Israeli leaders to not be arrested for war crimes they’ve clearly committed. Israel’s use of starvation as weapon of war against civilians is clear beyond any reasonable doubt, so America should endorse the ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. In a truly just world, all war criminals would be held accountable for war crimes...
The United States of America is still the world’s most powerful country, and we are at an inflection point in world history. Will we allow our international rules-based order to fully devolve into illegitimacy, or will we lead by example and truly live up to the ideals we’ve espoused for so long? Lindsey Graham recently opined, “we must not forget…the ICC threatened to bring action against American forces in Afghanistan” as an argument for why we should oppose the ICC arrest warrants for Israel (X). Let’s not forget, Bush and Cheney proudly bragged about their approval of the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” or torture for short; “Hundreds of people were held…for years without charge and subjected to torture…being waterboarded, deprived of sleep, subjected to constant blasting music and freezing temperatures, or forced into stress positions” (Amnesty). In a shocking report on the CIA use of torture, the frequent and unnecessary use of “rectal rehydration” was exposed. So what this means is, without due process, the CIA would kidnap people, illegally keep them prisoner, then stick tubes up their anus and force water up into their bodies for hours at a time. That would sometimes even continue till death, all in the failed attempt to extract information about terrorism. There is a movie I recommend called The Mauritanian Man depicting the gruesome treatment and conditions prisoners were subjected to. It is truly sickening that still to this day “No US government officials have been held accountable for creating, authorizing, or implementing the CIA’s secret detention and torture programs” (HRW). Instead of abiding by international laws of war, the United States exposed our hypocrisy in the war on terror through The Hauge Invasion Act which promised US military force to liberate any American charged by the ICC with war crimes. George Bush and Dick Cheney are war criminals responsible for nearly 5 million deaths including millions of civilians on top of their use of torture. America and Israel should end our double standards for military conduct. I for one would absolutely love for the United States to become a signatory of the International Criminal Court and allow for the prosecution of American War criminals. Maybe if we practiced what we preach as a nation, then we would have actual standing in the world when we criticize and call for the prosecution of foreign war criminals. Maybe what it will take to actually usher in an international system of law and order where even world leaders are held accountable for war crimes is to start living by that ideal ourselves.
“To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support--to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective--to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak--and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.” -JFK
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So, we are at a point when the Israeli government has been found guilty of apartheid, the illegal annexation and occupation of Palestinian territory, has been found by a UN special committee to be committing the crime of genocide, the ICJ has found that Palestinians need to be protected from the crime of genocide, and still Donald Trump is saying that isn’t far enough for him. On his social media website Truth Social, he said;
“Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity. Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!”
Sadly Trump’s comment is not a criticism of Netanyahu for consistently rejecting a release of the hostages in exchange for peace.
Instead its a promise. When Trump takes office, he will finish off the genocide that Netanyahu and Biden started. The GOP in America does not believe that Palestinians are human beings entitled to human rights. They do not believe in the 2 state solution but instead are adamant that Israel should control the entire territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Trump’s Ambassador to Israel said;
“There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It's Judea and Samaria. There's no such thing as a settlement. They're communities. They're neighborhoods. They're cities. There's no such thing as an occupation. The only occupiers were the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Turks, the Brits, the Romans. They were occupiers. The Jews are the occupants.”
Trump’s UN Ambassador Elise Stephanik has long maintained that the United States must supply Israel with the weapons to “achieve total victory” with absolutely no conditions or red lines whatsoever. Total victory for them is a euphemism meant to describe exterminating all Palestinians in Gaza & the West Bank in order to enact Israeli sovereignty over the entire territory. They sometimes also use the phrase “Finish the Job” to cheer on Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.
Biden facilitated Israel’s genocide, but Trump will be even worse. Donald Trump will become an active participant in Netanyahu’s war crimes, if the world lets him. A solution to this conflict will not come from the United States, instead international actors need to stand up for the ICC and the international rules-based order.
France initially agreed to enforce the ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu with their Foreign Minister saying “France will always apply international law,” only for their government to publicly oppose the warrants days later. France later claimed that Netanyahu was immune from prosecution since Israel is not a signatory of the court, even though Palestine signed up for the ICC in 2015. Instead of caving to pressure, every member of the ICC depicted below must remain firm in their commitment to uphold the rulings of the ICC.
Whether the pressure comes from the United States threatening sanctions or the long history of Israel’s intelligence agency blackmailing ICC officials and foreign leaders, the commitment to uphold international law must be ironclad. In addition, its time for the ICC to issue arrest warrants for George Bush for his war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan. Afghanistan became a member of the ICC in 2003; just in time for Bush to be subject to ICC jurisdiction. A second ICC arrest warrant for Joe Biden is absolutely necessary for his intentional, active participation in Netanyahu’s genocide of Palestinians. Biden’s unwavering support for Israel with no red lines whatsoever has been absolutely vital for Netanyahu’s genocide of Palestinians. Biden is deserving of an arrest warrant and by taking that significant, necessary step the ICC would set a strong precedent for Trump to avoid earning one of his own over the next 4 years. Both aspects are vital; the ICC must not shy away from American war criminals and the world needs to be absolutely clear that there is no exemption to international law for America and Israel. The alternative is Trump helping Netanyahu Finish the Job, meaning to exterminate or ethnically cleanse all of Palestine.
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So as the international rules-based order is at a breaking point, its important to look back at how Netanyahu earned his ICC arrest warrant in the first place. As I explained in Arrest Netanyahu,
he and Gallant have publicly admitted, even bragged, about their use of starvation as a method of warfare against Palestinian civilians.
Gallant said Israel would cut off food, water, medicine, and electricity to the human animals in Gaza,
Then using Israel’s preexisting land, air, and sea blockade of Gaza they enacted a siege to restrict the amount of food, water, medicine, and fuel allowed in,
Then Palestinians in Gaza faced rising food insecurity eventually amounting to a famine while much of the population relied on water unfit for human consumption, leading to the deaths of children from dehydration and malnutrition,
and Palestinians suffering from all sorts of injuries like severe burns from Israeli bombing campaigns were forced to seek treatment in overcrowded hospitals which lacked pain medications, even for children in need of amputations.
Netanyahu personally said that Israel would determine how much food to allow in based on the morbidity rate in Gaza, acknowledging their control over the food supply and their use of that control to influence morbidity. So the war crime of starvation as a weapon of war is easily provable by combining their words with their actions and subsequent results. And that starvation campaign was amid Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of Gaza. So, what about the crime of intentionally directing attacks against civilians? Well, as I wrote in The Dream of an Anti-war America; The Netanyahu Narrative
We know…that the Israeli military lies about Hamas using Human Shields to justify targeted attacks on civilians.
If you mistakenly believe that Israel is not targeting civilians, please watch the numerous videos of children being dragged out of rubble caused by Israeli bombs,
Or watch Hind Rajab, her entire family, and paramedics trying to save her be targeted by the IDF,
The Israeli military stated that their “Emphasis is on damage, not accuracy” (Guardian). They are more focused on causing city-wide damage than they are on taking out Hamas. Israeli airstrikes are not targeted at military objectives; instead Israel destroyed more than 42% of residential buildings in Gaza which can be seen in these before and after pictures from the Guardian;
“Journalists in Gaza have been killed at a level unseen in any conflict in modern times. The ongoing ban preventing international journalists from Gaza suffocates the truth even further.”
The truth that Israel is trying to keep out of the public eye by assassinating journalists are the endless stream of videos of Palestinians burned alive by Israeli airstrikes,
or the thousands of Palestinians buried in the rubble from Israeli bombings,
or children being routinely shot in the head by Israeli snipers,
or Israeli prison guards raping Palestinian prisoners to death to then be cheered on by Israeli citizens,
or those Israeli citizens participating in the starvation campaign of Palestinians by destroying food meant for them,
and even Palestinians crushed to death by Israeli bulldozers.
That’s right. Israel used Bulldozers to crush Palestinian civilians to death under the rubble. One IDF soldier committed suicide after being deployed to do just that. In a sadistic case of genocide apologia, CNN tried to humanize those IDF soldiers for having mental health struggles while totally dehumanizing Palestinian victims of those war crimes. CNN wrote about “The Mental Health Toll” it caused the IDF soldiers for running over Palestinians,
“‘dead and alive, in the hundreds’…
‘Everything squirts out,’ he added.
Zaken says he can no longer eat meat, as it reminds him of the gruesome scenes he witnessed from his bulldozer in Gaza”
Whoever wrote that should be ashamed of themselves.
It is also important to remember that this conflict predates October 7th. Netanyahu’s guilt in the current conflict is clear, but so is his premeditated plan to annex all of the Occupied Palestinian territory. As I explained in The Netanyahu Legacy, October 7th and this last year of conflict is a direct result of Netanyahu’s long-term opposition to Palestinian statehood.
“Netanyahu consistently opposed the 2 state solution throughout his career and greatly expanded settlement construction in illegally occupied Palestinian territory. In 2001 Netanyahu bragged "I de facto put an end to the Oslo Accords” and he continues to make clear that his long-term goal has been to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state; “I am the only one who will prevent a Palestinian state in Gaza and [the West Bank] after the war.” In 2019 Netanyahu specifically ran on the promise of illegally annexing more Palestinian territory, vowing to “apply Israeli sovereignty” if he were to win election. Peaceful coexistence with Palestinians has never been an option for Netanyahu and because of that he led Israel to war…
The world should start taking Netanyahu at his word; in September 2023 he presented his map to the United Nations showing Israel in total control of the Occupied Palestinian Territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. October 7th, the war in Gaza, and the wider war in the Middle East are all part of Netanyahu’s long-term plan and he is playing the world like a fiddle…Everybody needs to start asking the question; how did the Israeli Defense Force allow October 7th to happen in the first place?”
Since Netanyahu clearly had the long-term plan to annex Palestinian territory, it left him with 2 options to carry it out; ethnic cleansing or extermination of the people there. October 7th gave him the excuse to start that process. Its almost as if the Onion has been more aware of the history of the conflict than most world leaders, especially those from the United States.
The arrest warrants for Netanyahu come from a Prosecutor and Pre-trial chamber; even if arrested, Israeli leaders would receive due process in a full trial where they could mount a defense. What the Court has decided is that there are reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity were intentionally committed by Israeli leaders, therefore arrest warrants and a full trial for them are justified. It is truly absurd for any world leader to oppose these totally justified charges, but we live in an age of absurdity. I hope that changes.
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As for how things can genuinely get better, I still believe the steps I wrote in The Path to Peace are the best shot at legitimate peaceful coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis.
