Neutralizing the death camps Round II: Will the US impose sanctions against the ICC?
On May 2, six Holocaust survivors who were selected to light memorial torches during Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara.
One of the survivors commented that “the State of Israel is the one and only shelter for the Jewish nation.” Another applied the lessons of the Holocaust by saying that “we cannot count on the world’s nations that make promises.”
Netanyahu responded, “In the Holocaust, great leaders such as [US president Franklin D.] Roosevelt were told what was happening in Auschwitz, Birkenau, and the death camps. He was told! He knew!”
Roosevelt was faced with a proposal to neutralize the death camps, such as by bombing the railway tracks leading to them. Netanyahu recounted Roosevelt’s response: “Over my dead body! I won’t lose a single pilot… [UK leader Winston] Churchill, whom I very much appreciate, tried to act against the death camps. His army revolted against him.”
Indeed, just as Holocaust survivor Michael suggested, the world’s inaction enabled the Holocaust. The Allies had the capabilities and plans for action but, for whatever reason, they decided not to act and to allow the attempted eradication of Judaism to move forward.
The world is faced with the same choice today.
As discussed in this column in recent years, Judaism is under assault. As in all previous large-scale attempts to eradicate Judaism, the assault is being carried out through the most relevant Jewish channel of the time, and in our era it is Zionism and the State of Israel.
In this column, I have described the path to Judaism’s destruction through Israel-bashing and anti-Zionism. That path includes actions by the International Criminal Court, paralyzing sanctions on Israel and Israelis, arrests of Israeli soldiers, settlers, and politicians, and even confiscating financial assets of Israeli hi-tech companies and individuals (for example, see the May 5, 2022, Jerusalem Post article “Israel-bashing is this generation’s existential threat to Judaism”).
Some readers have said that I am exaggerating and that such a path to destruction is merely theoretical. Some said I was focusing on a hypothetical, far-fetched path of destruction that is not likely to happen and that I am diverting attention from the battle against real, present-day antisemitism, such as mobs chanting in Charlottesville, “Jews will not replace us.”
Indeed, I have acknowledged that the path to the destruction of Judaism is not immediate; it is “one day.”
On May 19, The Jerusalem Post headline read: “The day has come: ICC seeks arrests of Netanyahu, Gallant, and Hamas chief.”
Just like after the Oct. 7 attack, Israelis came together to unite against the ICC attack. Nearly all Knesset members signed a letter, saying, “The IDF is the most moral army in the world. Our heroic soldiers fight with unparalleled courage and morality, in accordance with international law, as no other army has ever done… The scandalous comparison of the prosecutor in The Hague between the leaders of Israel and the heads of the terrorist organization Hamas is an indelible historical crime and a clear manifestation of antisemitism.”
Israelis are united, but does the world support us? Or was Holocaust survivor Michael right when he warned that “the world cannot be trusted”?
On May 20, US President Biden reassured us of his support and his trustworthiness. Just like he stood by Israel in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, he called the ICC’s May 19 action “outrageous,” stating, “There is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We stand with Israel against threats to its security.”
Such a threat is coming from the ICC and others who are seeking to sanction Israel, its soldiers, its military units, and its civic organizations, and to demoralize Israeli Jewish society.
This is not a time for words – just like in the 1940s, when it was not a time to merely “condemn” the Holocaust that was unfolding day by day.
Biden must, at the very minimum, impose sanctions against those individuals in the ICC responsible for the ideological attack on Judaism.
From biblical times to the present day, when people want to attack a nation, they go for its head. Like it or not, the world sees the Jewish state’s leader as the leader of the Jewish nation.
ICC vs Judaism
The ICC needs to be unmasked for what it has become: a vehicle to assault the Jewish nation, with a side business of prosecuting war criminals around the world.
The ICC is not alone in this mission. Plenty of other organizations are in the same line of business, such as the UN Human Rights Council, which, in addition to its core business of assaulting the Jewish nation, has a side business of defending human rights around the world.
Similarly, Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, and ISIS have all helped the poor, provided for the sick, and given charity to thousands of people in need. But let us not be blinded as to what their core business is: terrorism.
Biden must choose from a variety of options against the ICC, ranging from sanctions as a minimal response to shutting down the ICC. The US has the capability to do so. For example, it can give The Netherlands a choice: Expel the ICC from your country or lose US support (Choose: “ICC or DC”).
It is important to note that the US, through its own actions, has severely compromised its ability to act against the ICC – not only by its bizarre decision to institute, in the middle of a war, unrelated open-end sanctions against Israeli Jews who engage in anti-Arab violence and organizations that provide for their defense, but also by the ludicrous idea to sanction and defund Israeli military units fighting in Gaza.
Biden’s rendezvous with destiny
In that same meeting with Holocaust survivors, Netanyahu stated that he prefers to have the world on our side. However, he added, “If we need to stand alone, we stand alone... If we do not defend ourselves, nobody will defend us.”
The choice that President Biden faces could not be clearer.
Will he act like Roosevelt and allow the attempt to eradicate Judaism to move forward?
Or will he impose crippling sanctions against the ICC and those assaulting the Jewish state, its leaders, its brave soldiers, and its citizens? ■
The writer is the author of Judaism 3.0: Judaism’s Transformation to Zionism (Judaism-Zionism.com). To read his geopolitical articles, go to EuropeAndJerusalem.com.