Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Gevorg Mirzayan
| Why is Russia helping Iran wage war against Israel? |
[REGNUM] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again turned to the United States for help. This time he does not need a weapon, but protection. And not from an Iranian strike or the actions of the Houthis, but from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“House Speaker Mike Johnson demanded that the International Criminal Court stop its “abomination.” Did you think this was a belated reaction to the discovery of 160 Ukrainian children alive and well in Germany with their guardians? Those same children for whose genocide the ICC accused the Russian President and Children's Rights Commissioner Lvova-Belova? No, you shouldn’t have thought that,” says IA Regnum editor-in-chief Marina Akhmedova.
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The fact is that the Court is seriously considering issuing an arrest warrant against Netanyahu and several other Israeli officials for crimes in Gaza. And not on the trumped-up charge of “stealing Ukrainian children” that he brought against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This time, the ICC accusation has more than 30,000 grounds - exactly the same number of Palestinians who died during the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip, and carpet bombing.
The Israelis did not particularly hide the fact that they treat Palestinian civilians, to put it mildly, with disdain, if not contempt, and intend to spare them.
“Israel, as we see, is leveling everything to the ground and creating a humanitarian catastrophe. The Gaza Strip has been turned into a lifeless zone, now mass graves are being discovered there, where hundreds of people were thrown with their hands tied,” Deputy Director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics Dmitry Suslov tells IA Regnum.
"Leveling everything to the ground:" they're not doing anything the Russians aren't doing
Not surprisingly, the ICC in January described the events as genocide. Israeli leaders tried to defend themselves in a proven way - that is, accusing the accusers of anti-Semitism.
Benjamin Netanyahu bluntly stated that issuing a warrant would be “a scandal and a crime based on hatred of Jews.” However, this scheme did not work.
After those photos and videos of numerous casualties and destruction in Gaza, Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s statement that Netanyahu is the new Hitler is met with understanding in many countries.
Therefore, the ICC has every moral basis for issuing a warrant - as well as legal reasons.
“If Israel does not recognize Palestine as an independent state, this does not mean that the ICC has no grounds to issue a warrant. In 2015, Palestine acceded to the Rome Statute, and the legal validity of this accession was finally confirmed in 2021,” Russian political scientist Anton Khaschenko explains to Regnum.
However, with a high degree of probability, the court will not use this right - simply because the United States agreed to Netanyahu’s request and decided to cover him up.
THREE MOTIVES
The United States had three motives for this. Firstly, image. “ The issuance of a warrant will be a serious blow not only to Israel, but also to Washington, which de facto supported the actions of the Israelis in Gaza,” explains Anton Khashchenko.
Indeed, from the very beginning of the conflict, Washington supported not only Israel's actions, but also its justifications, for example, Tel Aviv's thesis that the attack on the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza was carried out by the Palestinians themselves.
Secondly, there is a political motive. “ It is not beneficial for the United States for its closest ally to be in conflict with an institution in which these same allies participate - and most Western states are members of the International Criminal Court.
Yes, Netanyahu does not currently enjoy much support in liberal circles, but he represents a country that is part of the collective big West,” explains Dmitry Suslov.
In the current situation, when the American administration needs the unity of all allies in the fight against the “world of autocracies” (as US President Joseph Biden calls it ) or the “new axis of evil represented by Russia, Iran, China and the DPRK” (authored by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ), such a split is unacceptable.
Thirdly, Biden cannot afford another foreign policy defeat during the ongoing election campaign.
“Pro-Israel sentiment is stronger among Republicans than among Democrats. So, if we assume that a miracle happens and the ICC still goes to issue warrants, then Biden will come under another barrage of criticism as a weak president who is incapable of anything, who has failed in Ukraine and failed in Israel. Which could significantly reduce his chances of re-election,” says Anton Khashchenko.
"MONSTROUS HYPOCRISY"
Therefore, the Americans have already intervened, and, apparently, there will be no warrant. After all, Washington not only has all the tools to force the ICC to make the right decision, but also the experience of using these tools.
“I remind you that the ICC already wanted to open an investigation against some American citizens in Afghanistan, but threats from the United States to impose sanctions against both the judges and the institution itself stopped this process.
I think that about the same thing will happen again now. The ICC did not dare to enter into a conflict with Donald Trump, and it certainly does not want to deal with the internationalist part of the American establishment, which is represented by the Biden administration,” says Dmitry Suslov.
However, the problem is that if the ICC ultimately refuses to issue a warrant - no matter after direct or behind-the-scenes blackmail from the United States - then this will be a small victory for Israel, but at the same time a big defeat for the West as a whole. And image, and political, and strategic.
“This whole story will have an extremely negative impact on the authority of the ICC, the United States and the collective West. In the eyes of the world majority, monstrous hypocrisy has once again been demonstrated, a blatant example of double standards on the part of the West and those institutions that they control,” explains Dmitry Suslov. Using the example of the ICC’s attitude towards Russia and Israel, this difference will be visible to everyone.
In fact, there is a demonstrative difference in attitude towards Western countries (this includes Israel, which, it turns out, can do anything, including mass murder), and non-Western countries, which can be accused of mythical crimes on political grounds.
“This means that the current events will add arguments to Brazil and other countries considering the issue of leaving this absolutely discredited institution,” sums up Dmitry Suslov.
And if the exit becomes widespread, then the West will lose another, along with the dollar, the IMF and the idea of liberal democracy, instrument of control over the world.
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