Institutions of International Law Need a Reboot

The Israel Defense Forces, arguably the most moral army in the world, is fighting a terrible multi-front war that Israel did not start against arguably the most immoral armies in the world, and who does the International Criminal Court choose to side with, while that war is still raging?  The answer is as absurd as it was predictable.

I said “arguably” in both cases.  There are other immoral armies in the world, but none has joyously live-streamed themselves committing mass murder, rape, kidnapping and torture, none has so thoroughly embraced the diabolical strategy of using civilians as human shields, and none has so proudly advertised their genocidal intentions.  There are also other moral armies, but none has had to face the kind of adversaries that Israel has to face, enemies with no respect for human life, whether their own, their enemies’, or their own people’s, who openly use rape, kidnapping and torture as tactics of war, and who deliberately embed their military assets among civilians and within and below homes, schools, hospitals, houses of worship and United Nations facilities, both to shield themselves and to maximize civilian casualties for cynical press and “lawfare” benefits.  Military experts like Colonel (res.) Richard Kemp, former British commander in Afghanistan, often note that no army in history has made greater efforts to avoid civilian casualties than the IDF has, notwithstanding their enemies’ deliberate efforts to put civilians in harm’s way. They are not perfect, but the fighter-to-civilian casualty ratio that the IDF has achieved (at great cost) in this dreadful war is far better than any other army has achieved in anywhere close to comparable circumstances.  By some estimates it is close to one-to-one, even though most in the international press choose to gleefully parrot Hamas’ misleading body-counts, often not even noting that their numbers include armed fighters.

And now the ICC has chosen to fulfill and to validate the cynical strategy of Hamas and its fellow terrorist groups by giving them exactly what they wanted when they launched this war on October 7.  Imagine the bloodshed, pain and suffering on all sides that could have been avoided if only the ICC was a serious court seeking to fulfil its stated aims, rather than a political travesty of justice.  If they had issued arrest warrants for Hamas’ leaders after all their flagrant crimes against humanity over the past 20 years, October 7 and its aftermath would never have happened.

As I warned ten years ago (see my post on this blog on November 7), the current Gaza war and the battle against Hezbollah in Lebanon were inevitable because of the abject failure of the international community, principally the United Nations and its affiliated organs – just like the ICC today – to live up to their obligations.  It is only the tactical and technological brilliance of the IDF that has prevented the war in Lebanon from being catastrophic for both countries and peoples.  If Hamas and Hezbollah are allowed to rebuild their destructive capabilities, a unique opportunity to save Gaza and Lebanon (and Israeli lives) will have been squandered by feckless and feeble-minded politicians, dooming the region to future episodes of terrible violence.

The institutions that were designed and intended to promote international humanitarian law and human rights – including the UN Human Rights Council, the International Court of Justice, and the ICC – have proven themselves broken beyond repair, politically motivated and morally bankrupt.  This is not just a problem for Israel (although it bears the brunt of their animus) and other democracies fighting against tyrants and terrorists.  It is a cruel betrayal of the millions of victims of actual human rights abuses all around the world whom these institutions were supposed to protect, or at least try to protect.  The silence and ineptitude in response to the atrocities being committed against the Uighurs, the Rohingya, African ethnic groups in Darfur, and in many other places around the world is deafening, as the United Nations and its legal and so-called humanitarian organs focus their vitriol on the only democracy in the Middle East as it fights for its very survival.  Ivory tower rumpus rooms like the Oxford Union may be venues where the mob rules and facts do not matter, but courts are not popularity contests and the law and the truth should prevail.  Victims of actual war crimes and human rights abuses deserve better.

Whether or not the ICC decision was actually motivated by antisemitism, it is unquestionable that it will feed the raging wildfires of global antisemitism, that most ancient hatred, which has reverted to the mean and again become fashionable after having to hide its face for 75 years.  The “Heil Hitler” salutes and calls for a “final solution” at the massive Concordia University rally the day after the ICC statement are but one example and not a coincidence.

Decent countries should recognize that the ICC’s actions against Israel are a moral and legal obscenity, refuse to comply with their warrants and demand their retraction.  If they truly care about international law, they should withdraw from the ICC and the ICJ and disband the UNHRC until these institutions can be depoliticized and rehabilitated so that they can benefit humanity as they were intended to, instead of being political kangaroo courts that whitewash evil and reward and encourage terrorism and barbarity.