Israel and America Rebuke ICC Decision against Netanyahu and Gallant
Noriko Watanabe and Kanako Mita
Modern Tokyo Times
President Joe Biden of America rebuked the decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the leader of Israel and the former Defense Minister. This concerns the ICC issuing an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.
Biden immediately said the decision by the ICC was “outrageous.”
Biden continued, “Whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas.”
Netanyahu pointedly said: “The antisemitic decision of the international court in The Hague is a modern Dreyfus trial, and it will end the same way.”
The ICC said – in issuing the warrants – “With regard to the crimes, the Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu, born on 21 October 1949, Prime Minister of Israel at the time of the relevant conduct, and Mr Gallant, born on 8 November 1958, Minister of Defence of Israel at the time of the alleged conduct, each bear criminal 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.”
Netanyahu – concerning starvation – said, “… we have supplied Gaza with 700,000 tons of food to feed the people of Gaza. We issue millions of text messages, phone calls, leaflets to the citizens of Gaza to get them out of harm’s way – while the Hamas terrorists do everything in their power to keep them in harm’s way, including shooting them, using them as human shields.”
Gallant was also scathing. He said the ICC was placing “…the state of Israel and the murderous leaders of Hamas in the same row – and thus legitimizes the murder of babies, the rape of women and the abduction of the elderly from their beds.”
It should be remembered that the conflict against Hamas and Hezbollah – and other regional Islamic terrorist groups – began after the barbaric pogrom against Jews by Hamas and other Palestinian forces on October 7, 2023. Accordingly, since this period, Hamas and Hezbollah have launched tens of thousands of drones, missiles, and rockets against Israel.
The New York Times (Hamas pogrom against Jews) uttered, “Reporters interviewed witnesses who described seeing women raped and killed along a highway, reviewed photographs that showed a woman’s corpse with dozens of nails driven into her thighs and groin, and spoke with volunteer medics and Israeli soldiers who came across at least 24 bodies of women and girls in at least six houses, some mutilated, some tied up, and many naked and alone.”
Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary said he will invite Netanyahu to visit, “…and in that invite I will guarantee him that if he comes, the ICC’s ruling will have no effect in Hungary, and we will not follow its contents.”
Lee Jay Walker (Modern Tokyo Times analyst) says, “South Africa welcomed the decision – the same nation somehow negates ethnic massacres in Ethiopia, Sudan (Arab Muslims butcher and rape black African Masalits in Darfur), and a host of other nations blighted by war.”
The BBC reports, “South Africa failed to honor an ICC arrest warrant against the Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir when he visited the country in June 2015.”
The Jerusalem Post says, “This means that Netanyahu and Gallant will likely be unable to travel to most European countries and a variety of other nations in the ICC’s 120-plus member states. They will still be able to travel to the US – which is not an ICC member – and various Middle Eastern and other states. There are also some states that have ignored ICC arrest warrants, given that there is no effective enforcement mechanism.”
Israel declared that it would “not recognize the validity” of the ICC decision.
European Union members are mixed. For example, Josep Borrell (EU Foreign Policy Chief) said, “The decision of the court has to be respected and implemented.”
Iran is naturally pleased by the ICC decision.
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