Netanyahu is right: Gaza war is ‘clash between barbarism and civilisation’
Friday, July 26, 2024 2:51 PM
Friends + Interlocutors,
More wisdom from the South China Morning Post. See below. My emphasis in red.
It is becoming apparent that Bibi Netanyahoo’s visit to Washington in the midst of a U.S. election campaign was a crazy idea. It was proposed by Christian Zionist Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
The U.S. Senate majority leader, Jewish Zionist Chuck Schumer—self-proclaimed “guardian of the People of Israel”—was at first against it, then back tracked and went along for the ride to avoid being ostracized.
Netanyahoo is coming to Mar-a-Lago today to touch base with Donald Trump who wondered out loud yesterday why “Jewish people” vote Democrat. All this with the backdrop of an ongoing massacre in Gaza and on the West Bank enabled by Prez Joe Biden and his idiot foreign policy team, with the full support of Trump.
Both Democrat and Republican officials are racing to show support for Israel to rake in Jewish money and votes. What a clown show.
Opinion | Netanyahu is right: Gaza war is ‘clash between barbarism and civilisation’
The spectacle of a fiery Benjamin Netanyahu meeting repeated thunderous applause and standing ovations from his obsequious servants in the US Congress was truly something to behold.
Here it was: two of the world’s self-styled leading “democracies” openly and unashamedly embracing and celebrating their mutual criminality and systematic dismantling of international law, while denigrating the common decency and courage of many of their own citizens and the almost universal opinion of humankind on the question of Palestine.
Some 146 countries now formally recognise the state of Palestine, making the United States and a handful of close allies the outliers in their refusal. What could possibly go wrong when it comes to liberty, justice and nationhood as these ideal standards are being twisted and reimposed on – or rather against – the rest of the world? So much for “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind” as famously stated in the US Declaration of Independence.
Netanyahu’s address at the joint session of Congress came less than a week after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered its advisory opinion, at the request of the United Nations General Assembly, on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
The court concluded what everyone has long known, and its judgment has no power of enforcement. Still, it’s useful to have its decision on record as part of a large body of almost unanimous international legal statements on the status of Palestine.
The ICJ concluded: Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem, is illegal; it is obliged to cease all new settlement activities, and to evacuate all illegal settlers from the OPT; Israel has the obligation to make reparation for the damage caused to all the natural or legal persons concerned in the OPT; all states and international organisations are obliged not to recognise the unlawful presence of Israel in the OPT and are required to work towards ending its presence there.
One immediate legal consequence of the ICJ advisory for Israel’s ongoing destruction of Gaza is that it cannot be construed as an act of self-defence, but one of illegal occupation.
Predictably, Washington denounced the court’s opinion. The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, voted for the passage of legislation opposing the establishment of a Palestinian state as an “existential danger”. It’s interesting to observe which side is actually dying by the thousands month after month in what amounts to a deliberate policy of depopulation.
In a separate case, the ICJ has already ruled that Israel has a “plausible” case of genocide to answer in Gaza and is currently examining the evidence, arguments and counterarguments.
Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, has concluded that Israel’s conduct in Gaza indeed meets the “threshold” of genocide under international law.
Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), has asked a panel of its own judges to issue warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and two other senior Hamas officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
These long drawn-out legal proceedings have been further delayed and complicated by blatant – both legal and illegal – interference from Israel, the US and Britain, among other Western allies.
US congressional members have openly threatened sanctions against the ICC chief prosecutor and his staff. Other, more covert threats have been made, leading his office to issue an unprecedented public statement in May calling for an end to what it called intimidation of its staff, and warning that such threats could amount to an offence under international law.
Such intimidation dates back years. According to the UK Guardian, Yossi Cohen, the former head of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, had previously threatened Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, to drop an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territories, well before the current Gaza conflict.
Interestingly, neither Israel nor the US recognise ICC jurisdiction. In fact, the US has a law that has been derisively called the “Hague invasion act”, enabling the US president to order the use of force against the ICC over any detention of US officials and military personnel.
One reason for the delay in the ICC judges’ decision on whether to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant is that the British government has filed a late objection to the chief prosecutor’s warrant application, thereby making sure Netanyahu wouldn’t have an arrest warrant over his head when he delivered his speech before the US Congress. While the current optics are bad enough for America’s global standing, giving a hero’s welcome to a suspected war criminal would have been much worse.
The British objection was filed under the Conservative government of Rishi Sunak. Before the new Labour prime minister, Keir Starmer, took office, he had hinted that the objection would be dropped. Clearly, the purpose of helping Washington and Netanyahu to avoid the embarrassment has been served. But there are now Israeli news reports that Starmer’s government will press on with the objection anyway.
Israel’s war in Gaza would not have been possible without the almost unconditional US diplomatic support and massive military supply. That makes the US wholly complicit – along with a handful of Western allies, including Germany – should any case of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide be upheld under international law.
It may be observed that Netanyahu is now the first world leader to address a joint session of Congress four times, surpassing the previous record jointly held by him and Winston Churchill.
Netanyahu told Congress that the war in Gaza is a “clash between barbarism and civilisation”. Indeed!
When Mahatma Gandhi was asked what he thought about “Western ‘civilisation’”, his reply was, “That would be a very good idea.”
