OPINION:
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, accusing them of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
This is beyond absurd. It’s beyond despicable. It’s evil unleashed, in all its mocking, arrogant glory.
Not only is this the first time the ICC has issued arrest warrants against leaders of a free country — a democratically run nation that was and still is engaged in a war against a brutal, terrorist organization. But the warrants are being issued from the mouth of the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, who is coincidentally, wink, wink, facing several sexual misconduct allegations currently being investigated by a U.N. watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight Services. Adding yet another layer of absurdity to the already absurd issuance of arrest warrants against Bibi and Gallant: Khan’s wife is a former OIOS lawyer — and Khan’s former hand-picked employee is a leading investigator at the OIOS.
Curious and curiouser. Right, Alice?
From the Guardian: “[A] number of [ICC] court officials have raised concerns about Karim Khan’s links to the UN watchdog being lined up to investigate the [sexual misconduct] claims. Some of the concerns … relate to [Khan’s] wife, a human rights lawyer who previously worked as an investigator at [OIOS]. Dato Shyamala Alagendra is also alleged to have acted inappropriately after the claims against her husband had been made, including contacting the alleged victim. Several ICC sources said the concerns about potential conflicts of interest also related to the chief prosecutor’s [Khan’s] links with the OIOS’s head of investigations, whom Khan is understood to have hired as one of his top officials when they worked at the UN.”
Nothing says blind justice like having a wife and good friend driving the investigation from behind the dark curtains.
Nothing says distraction like a couple of arrest warrants against the Jewish nation’s leaders. And this is exactly what Netanyahu’s office accused in an official statement of response to the warrants.
“The decision to issue an arrest warrant against the prime minister was made by a corrupt chief prosecutor who is trying to save himself from sexual harassment accusations,” Bibi’s office wrote.
But that’s not all.
The decision, Netanyahu’s office said, also came by way of “biased judges who are motivated by antisemitic hatred of Israel.”
Indeed. Israel, after all, is engaged in a war — in a war that was begun by a terror organization that wants to eradicate the Jewish people from the face of the earth. And while the ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif for similar crimes against humanity, fact is Israel Defense Forces reportedly killed him in a July air strike.
Curious and curiouser, once again. Why wait until the evil one is dead before trying to arrest him?
The warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant have been roundly criticized by Israeli authorities, and rejected by President Joe Biden as “outrageous.” But there will be a ripple effect nonetheless.
Hamas is already using the ICC’s action for propaganda purposes, pointing to the warrants as proof of the Israeli government’s unjustified response to their own savagery of October 7, 2023. And more importantly are the responses of the 124 states that are parties to the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the ICC.
Of the 124 countries, 33 are African states, 19 are Asian-Pacific, 19 are Eastern Europe, 28 are Latin American and Caribbean and 25 are Western European and the like. The ball’s in their court, so to speak, on how they will handle the ICC’s warrants for arrest.
Detestably, the United Kingdom announced this, as France 24 wrote: “The British government indicated on Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu could be arrested on an International Criminal Court arrest warrant if he travelled to the UK. ‘The UK will always comply with its legal obligations as set out by domestic law and indeed international law,’ said Prime Minister Meir Starmer’s spokesman.”
On social media platform X, the vice president of the European Commission, Josep Borrell Fontelles, wrote: “I take note of the decision of the @IntlCrimCourt to issue arrest warrants for Israel PM Netanyahu, former Minister Gallant, and Hamas leader Deif. Those decisions are binding on all States party to the Rome Statute which includes all EU Member States.”
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, where the ICC is physically located, came this — a statement from the country’s foreign minister, Caspar Veldkamp, as reported by The Jerusalem Post: “[We will] follow the instructions. If Netanyahu or Gallant land [here], they will be arrested.”
And from France — a wishy-washy foreign ministry statement that the warrants would “be in line with the court’s statutes,” but a dodge of a direct question about French authorities arresting Bibi.
“When asked during a news conference if France would arrest Netanyahu, [foreign minister] Christophe Lemoine said it was a legally complicated question,” The Jerusalem Post wrote.
No du’oh.
And that is the whole problem with the ICC’s actions.
Everyone knows it’s absurd. Everyone knows the arrest warrants are being issued to distract from Khan’s alleged sexual misconduct. Everyone knows the ICC is only taking this action as a Hail Mary effort to cause chaos at a time when the White House is in transition and the feckless and weak puppet with an administration that’s been concessionary to Iran and Iran’s proxies is on his way out — and the new man in town, Donald Trump, won’t stand for such absurdities and antisemitic outrages. Everyone knows this.
But the power of the ICC’s action is real just the same.
It gives the terrorists a narrative to spread their antisemitic hate wider. It hands the nations with antisemitic tendencies a bullet point to use as justification for taking more decisive action against the Jewish people, and in so doing, quiets other nations will weaker governments from standing strong on the side of Israel. It affixes a black mark — no matter how ridiculous — on the state of Israel that will forever become part of its history, to be used forever as a propaganda tool by its enemies. It needlessly complicates the future diplomatic and political travels of the leadership of Israel’s government and military. It needlessly compounds the diplomatic and political considerations of the incoming Trump administration, and sets the stage for even more tensions with America’s counterparts in Europe and at the United Nations, and elsewhere.
If chaos is a tool of the devil, Satan’s been busily working at the ICC.
Correction: An earlier version of this column misspelled the name of the vice president of the European Commission, Josep Borrell Fontelles.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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