On Thursday 21 November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) finally issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, Israel’s prime minister and former defence minister respectively, for ‘war crimes’.
This merely confirms what has been clear for over a year – that Netanyahu and his murderous regime are a gang of criminals with blood on their hands.
The real significance of the warrants, however, lies in their exposing of the utter hypocrisy of the western imperialists, and the impotence of ‘international law’ to bring about real justice.
Embarrassment
The warrants claim that during the period from 8 October 2023 to 20 May 2024, there are ‘reasonable grounds to believe’ that both Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for:
- “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and
- “the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.
This charge sheet is putting things mildly, considering the scale of the genocide being committed against the Palestinians, and now the extension of the war into Lebanon and beyond.
Nevertheless, the ICC warrant is extremely embarrassing for the Israeli regime and its imperialist backers. It is indeed the first time that leaders of a state aligned with western imperialism have been charged by the court.
Predictably, the Israeli regime responded with outrage to the suggestion that their leaders’ actions could be called into question. Netanyahu’s office quickly dismissed the warrant as “antisemitic”, which is of course their term for anyone that dares to criticise Israel’s murderous exploits.
In fact, ever since the ICC announced in May that it was seeking an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, the Israeli state has pulled out all the stops to have the court stopped in its tracks. Indeed, the US House of Representatives even passed a law that seeks to block the entry into the US of any ICC official involved in the case.
The court’s credit is pressing ahead with the case, despite the overwhelming pressure to have it dropped. Yet really it was a case of damned if it did, and damned if it didn’t. To do nothing would have made a mockery of the idea of the court as an ‘independent legal body’, in light of the overwhelming evidence of Israel’s crimes.
Hypocrisy
US President Joe Biden was quick to declare that “the ICC issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous”. “Whatever the ICC might imply”, Biden thundered, “there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas”.
The ‘implication’ that Biden refers to is presumably the fact that the ICC warrant also calls for the arrest of Hamas’ military leader, Mohammed Deif, who Israel claims to have killed in an airstrike. The court likely included this precisely in order to diffuse the anticipated claims of ‘antisemitism’ against it from the Zionists and their friends.
It’s true that there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas, but not for the reasons ‘Genocide Joe’ imagines.
The former possesses one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world, and is armed to the teeth and financed by western imperialism. The latter stands at the head of an impoverished people subject to decades of ethnic cleansing, armed with only the most basic of weapons.
“We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security”, Biden continued. Indeed Biden’s ‘ironclad’ support for Israel is precisely why Netanyahu and his gang feel they can act with complete impunity against the Palestinians.
Despite Biden’s bleatings about ‘protecting civilians’ and ‘humanitarian aid’, he continues to provide the Israeli regime with all the material support it needs to continue its wars in Gaza and now Lebanon.
Note also that when Vladimir Putin was accused of war crimes in Ukraine, Biden eagerly called for the ICC to issue an arrest warrant with the maximum haste, which it of course did.
Now, when it is an important ally of US imperialism facing trial, the court is accused of ‘rushing’ the process, and its jurisdiction is called into question.
As always, it is a case of one rule for the allies of US imperialism, and another for its enemies.
In any event, the arrest warrant will change precisely nothing in terms of the relationship between the US and Israel. The US – given its long and continuing history of crimes against humanity – is not a member state of the ICC. It is therefore outside the court’s jurisdiction, and has no obligations to carry out its warrants.
Not only that, but the US passed a law in 2002 colloquially known as ‘The Hague Invasion Act’. This allows it to pursue any action – including military – to bring about the release of any US or ‘allied personnel’ being detained by the ICC, anywhere in the world.
US Senator Tom Cotton, in true gangster fashion, wasted no time in taking to X to give any would-be enforcers of this warrant a ‘friendly reminder’ of this provision.
The ICC is a kangaroo court and Karim Khan is a deranged fanatic. Woe to him and anyone who tries to enforce these outlaw warrants. Let me give them all a friendly reminder: the American law on the ICC is known as The Hague Invasion Act for a reason. Think about it.
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) November 21, 2024
Key partners
Things are a little more awkward for the western imperialist powers that are members of the ICC.
The British, French, German, and Italian governments have all sought to distance themselves from the court. Unwilling to upset their allies in the Israeli regime, they have all either refused to comment on the appropriateness of the warrant, or gave evasive responses when questioned.
For example, when British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman was asked whether Netanyahu would be detained by UK authorities, he replied that he “refuses to comment on hypotheticals”. When pressed, he coyly added that the UK government would fulfil “its legal obligations”, but that Israel remains “a key partner across a range of areas”.
In plain language this means ‘why let a few war crimes get in the way of good business among friends’.
Indeed we can confidently predict that the ICC’s arrest warrant will make no impact at all to the imperialists’ provision of weapons and support to their key strategic ‘partner’.
It does however help expose the rottenness of bourgeois democracy, where wanted criminals are praised as ‘key partners’, whilst those who stand in support of its victims are wanted as criminals.
For good measure, US Senator Lindsay Graham warned that the US will “crush” the economies of any states that enforce the ICC’s warrant. “To any ally, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, if you try to help the ICC, we’re gonna sanction you”, threatened Graham.
In a remarkably frank admission, Graham then stated “We should crush your economy because we’re next…Why can’t they go after Trump or any other American president?” Indeed!
Lest we forget, this is the same Graham who in 2023 stated:
“The decision by the ICC to issue an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin is a giant step in the right direction for the international community. It is more than justified by the evidence. I hope the international community will continue to support the ICC in their endeavours to hold Putin accountable for the brutal invasion of Ukraine.”
Of course, to such ‘defenders of democracy’, invasions are only ‘brutal’ if they’re carried out by those outside of the ‘international community’, i.e. states in conflict with US imperialism. Such is the reality of the so-called ‘rules-based international order’.
Justice
Whilst the ICC warrant against Netanyahu is somewhat of a blow to his already shady reputation, unfortunately it will not lead to him being held to account for his crimes. At the end of the day, the ICC possesses no means to actually compel his arrest.
Indeed, the entire history of Israel proves precisely the impotence of so-called ‘international law’ when it conflicts with the interests of imperialism.
Decades of UN resolutions, orders, and judgements have been routinely ignored by the Zionists in their brutal oppression of the Palestinians. We should be under no illusions that this arrest warrant will be any different.
Whilst Netanyahu and his government are clearly guilty of the most heinous crimes, we must point out that he could only carry these out with the direct support of the imperialists of the West.
Missing from this arrest warrant are the names of Joe Biden, Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak, Emanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz, and all the other imperialists who aid and abet the Zionist regime. Without their support, Netanyahu’s war machine would collapse within weeks. They should all be indicted!
Ultimately, the only way to bring all these gangsters to account is for the working class and revolutionary youth of the world to overthrow imperialism – which is the root cause of all these crimes – and establish a worldwide socialist federation.
