Bibi: Don’t Dismiss the ICC Warrants as Anti-Semitic

Israel defending itself from terrorist groups was not a consideration in the arrest warrants issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. The way they have conducted the war against Hamas was.

The daily TV news coverage of suffering Gaza civilians amidst the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings is largely what the International Criminal Court has used as evidence for its arrest warrants…warrants connected to Israel waging a war without no end in sight when Bibi could have easily declared victory months ago.

But he seems determined to eliminate every single Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist in Gaza and now Lebanon disregarding world opinion and the views of many Israelis, who would prefer having him spend all his efforts at finding and freeing the remaining hostages.

The errors Netanyahu has made in pursuing this conflict are two-fold, first in treating it as a world war with Israel’s existence at stake and second, as his personal battle to salvage his reputation. The facts are it isn’t a world war and Israel’s existence isn’t at stake.

As for his reputation, that was questionable before October 7th, but since the biggest massacre of Jews since WW2 taking place on his watch, his reputation has been completely destroyed.

During World War 2, the Germans regularly used its air force to bomb British cities killing thousands of people. In response, the Brits bombed Germany killing thousands of its civilians.

Using this rationale for waging a war against Hamas and Hezbollah is desperately wrong. Why? Because the sides are grossly unequal.

These terrorist groups don’t have air forces and tank battalions and their soldiers are irregulars. The October 7th massacre aside, the main Hamas weapon have been inaccurate Chinese made rockets which have killed some 40 Israelis and even some Gazans since 2014.

Still, Israel has a legitimate right to defend its citizens from these attacks. Much of Israel’s north has been evacuated since Hezbollah stepped up rocket attacks from Lebanon.

But there’s a limit to what a military can legally do under international law.

Using aircraft and artillery to gradually level entire residential areas killing large numbers of civilians on the grounds that some Hamas troops might be there could be grounds for war crimes charges especially when the practice had been going on for more than a year.

The stock Israeli government response to this practice is that the residents were warned in advance to leave. One can only guess that any terrorist there heeded the warning and left with the civilians.

The less destructive alternative to targetted pinpoint bombing is using troops for ground actions which would possibly be more deadly for IDF troops, but safer for civilians.

The key points in the ICC warrant for Netanyahu and Gallant: They bore 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 court also found reasonable grounds to believe that “each bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.”

Even though Israeli military commanders and independent military experts claim Israel takes more care than any military force to protect civilians in hostile territory, the images of death, destruction and chaos in Gaza going on for more than a year is largely what the ICC has used as evidence of war crimes.

But more than that it senses that Netanyahu, through his former defence chief Gallant, has been carrying on an obsessive campaign to rid Gaza, and now Lebanon of all terrorists, yet killing many more civilians in the process.

I personally am not a supporter of the Palestinian cause. From day one in 1948 until the present, the Arab populations of Gaza and Lebanon have helped set up the terrorist infrastructures that have been battling Israel for decades. And, when they get the kishkas knocked out of them, they cry foul.

Yet, now Israel is crying foul over the charges against Bibi and Gallant. To dismiss this as evidence of blatant anti-Semitism on the court’s part is being blind to the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and now Lebanon. It’s also turning a blind eye to the crusade of one man who will do almost anything to appease the radical coalition keeping him in power.