How Israel Can Fight Back against the International Criminal Court

March 5 2021

On Wednesday, the International Criminal Court (ICC)—following a highly dubious ruling extending its jurisdiction to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip—announced that it will launch an investigation into supposed war crimes committed in those territories since 2014. Given the way in which the body has handled this issue so far, Jerusalem can expect the resulting proceedings to pay little attention to either law or fact. Amnon Lord argues that the Jewish state must respond not by trying to prove its innocence legally, but by going on the diplomatic offensive:

If legal officials do have a role [in responding to the investigation], from this point forward it should be in preparing the legal tools to buttress the political fight on the international stage. This means that . . . the relevant legal experts must prepare cases exhibiting the despicable record of senior Palestinian Authority officials who had a hand in terror. These cases need to be exposed in the international arena and the media. Beyond this, Israel must not cooperate with the ICC, whose authority it doesn’t recognize and of which it isn’t a member.

We mustn’t repeat the mistake of a few years ago when Israel allowed ICC officials into the country to explain Israel’s position on the matter. The ICC, in any event, apparently won’t require any investigations on the ground. Palestinian and Israeli or international organizations, or the Palestinian Authority itself, can submit material to the ICC.

[W]hen the indictments do arrive, . . . the accused individuals will never appear before the court, and it won’t be possible to try them in absentia. The movement of Israeli officials in certain countries will become a permanent hassle, but a tolerable one. What will happen is that the process will open the gates of endless persecution by the international left, the Palestinians, and their helpers in Israel. Anti-Semitism will rise, and along with it Israelis’ sense of being under siege.

Read more at Israel Hayom

More about: ICC, Israel diplomacy, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The Mass Expulsion of Palestinians Is No Solution. Neither Are Any of the Usual Plans for Gaza

Examining the Trump administration’s proposals for the people of Gaza, Danielle Pletka writes:

I do not believe that the forced cleansing of Gaza—a repetition of what every Arab country did to the hundreds of thousands of Arab Jews in 1948— is a “solution.” I don’t think Donald Trump views that as a permanent solution either (read his statement), though I could be wrong. My take is that he believes Gaza must be rebuilt under new management, with only those who wish to live there resettling the land.

The time has long since come for us to recognize that the establishment doesn’t have the faintest clue what to do about Gaza. Egypt doesn’t want it. Jordan doesn’t want it. Iran wants it, but only as cannon fodder. The UN wants it, but only to further its anti-Semitic agenda and continue milking cash from the West. Jordanians, Lebanese, and Syrians blame Palestinians for destroying their countries.

Negotiations with Hamas have not worked. Efforts to subsume Gaza under the Palestinian Authority have not worked. Rebuilding has not worked. Destruction will not work. A “two-state solution” has not arrived, and will not work.

So what’s to be done? If you live in Washington, New York, London, Paris, or Berlin, your view is that the same answers should definitely be tried again, but this time we mean it. This time will be different. . . . What could possibly make you believe this other than ideological laziness?

Read more at What the Hell Is Going On?

More about: Donald Trump, Gaza Strip, Palestinians