A lawfare bombshell can make a powerful and shocking impact. That was clear from the decision announced by International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan on May 20.
In an abominable act of moral equivalence, Khan declared that he would seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of crimes against humanity, along with warrants for Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed Deif – the arch-terrorists behind the October 7 invasion and mega-atrocity.
Adding insult to a very real injury, Khan ignored standard procedures – as well as evidence – and made his initial declaration during an interview on CNN. Perhaps it was fitting that the international prosecutor should first turn to the media. If you’re going to hold a show trial, put on a show.
With so much attention on Khan for issuing the first-ever warrants of arrest for a leader of a Western, democratic state, another abomination slipped under the radar.
An abomination slipped under the radar
News of the death of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on Sunday met with a telling reception. The United Nations Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency each held a minute’s silence for the late president.
The minute’s silence should have given the members of the international community pause for thought – what had he done to earn his nickname “The Butcher of Tehran”? The moment’s silence would have been better employed to remember Mahsa (Jina) Amini, killed by the Iranian regime for not wearing her hijab correctly.
When UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres extended “sincere condolences to the people and government of Iran,” Iranian dissidents who had fled the regime and those bravely fighting for their rights at home – women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, minority rights – did not join in.
To add to the UN farce, the Security Council only last week – seven months after the horrors of October 7 – finally held a discussion on the fate of the more than 100 hostages but failed to make any declaration or resolution.
That might ruin the Palestinian narrative, that they are the victims, not the perpetrators, of October 7. The more than 1,200 Israeli victims – those of all ages burned to death, beheaded, mutilated, raped, or abducted – are not of concern to the UN.
How safe do you feel knowing that the IAEA, the body entrusted with overseeing nuclear capabilities, officially mourns the president of a state on the threshold of a nuclear breakout, when his country calls to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth, and which just last month launched a barrage of hundreds of missiles and killer drones on the Jewish state?
Keep in mind that Iran is also the main sponsor of Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations – including the Houthis, who threaten international shipping and launch attacks on “moderate” Arab states. Iranian weapons are employed by Russia against Ukrainians.
The European Union also offered “its condolences” for the death of Raisi and foreign minister Hussein Amir Abdollahian “in the tragic helicopter crash on Sunday.”
Double standards and hypocrisy
THE DOUBLE standards and hypocrisy cry out to the heavens (where Raisi has no place). A dotted line connects the response of the international community to the death of the Iranian butcher and the pronouncement by Khan, a repugnant attempt at creating a false symmetry between Israel and Hamas, an acknowledged terrorist organization.
Khan, an Ahmadi Muslim, would do well to consult with members of that community in Israel, the only country in the Middle East where the sect has religious freedom and its own mosque. Actually, Khan would do well to review the facts before instructing the jury how to act.
Instead, he relied on Hamas figures and disinformation that even the UN has discredited. Hamas itself and the UN recently halved the numbers of women and children killed by Israel during the war in Gaza. The 7,797 children (under the age of 18) includes male teens who were likely combatants.
“This is not a genocide,” as US President Joe Biden stated. It is the consequence of a war forced on Israel, and a low ratio of civilian casualties when compared to the numbers killed in warfare by Western armies and NATO. While Israel makes every effort to avoid civilian casualties, Hamas deliberately uses human shields.
As for the charges of systematically starving the Palestinians in Gaza, the data tells a different story. It is not Israel that is preventing aid from reaching Gazans but the Hamas regime.
A look at the figures on the site of COGAT, Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, on May 20 showed that the on previous day alone (May 19), 422 aid trucks were transferred to the Gaza Strip via various Israeli aid routes including the Ashdod port, the Erez crossing, and JLOTS (the maritime and floating pier route); 45 pallets containing tens of thousands of packages of aid were air-dropped into Gaza; there are eight operational field hospitals; 26 bakeries are currently operational in Gaza, “providing close to five million bread loaves, rolls, and pita breads daily”; two tankers of fuel designated for the operation of essential infrastructure entered Gaza on May 19; and two out of three water pipelines from Israel to Gaza were fully operational.
It’s not clear if any of the food and aid is reaching the hostages who are still alive. Israel last week retrieved the bodies of four Israelis from Gaza. The International Committee of the Red Cross has failed to see any of the captives being held by Hamas.
No wonder Israelis are skeptical about the value of international bodies professing to protect Western values.As journalist Melanie Phillips put it: “Doubtless under enormous pressure from both the UN and his former chums in Britain’s radical barrister sets, Khan’s preposterous move is part of the agenda for Israel’s destruction through a pincer movement of genocidal terror, brainwashed street insurrection, and ‘human rights’ lawfare. The beneficiary will be Hamas; the victims will be Israel, the rule of law, and civilization itself.”
In a world that hasn’t yet fully internalized the threat of global jihad, reactions were mixed. Germany and the UK condemned the ICC prosecutor’s false symmetry between Israel and Hamas, while the French Foreign Ministry supported the court in The Hague.
I noticed, by the way, the lack of campus protests and rallies over the deadly events in the pro-independence struggle in the French colony of New Caledonia.
It’s no wonder that after the initial shock of Khan’s announcement, Israelis reacted with derision. Khan, in fact, can take credit for one success.
In the extremely divided political system, opposition and coalition parliamentarians were united in their condemnation of the ICC.
Even opposition leader Yair Lapid called combining arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant with those of the Hamas terrorist leaders “unforgivable.” Israel will “not accept a comparison to Hamas,” he said.
President Isaac Herzog stated on X: “The announcement of the prosecutor at the ICC is beyond outrageous, and shows the extent to which the international judicial system is in danger of collapsing. Taken in bad faith, this one-sided move represents a unilateral political step that emboldens terrorists around the world and violates all the basic rules of the court according to the principle of complementarity and other legal norms.”
In a White House statement, Biden also used the word “outrageous” to describe Khan’s decision, adding: “And let me be clear: Whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”
But Biden is guilty of giving out dangerous double messages to US friends and foes, one minute declaring unwavering support for Israel as its democratic ally, and the next withholding arms; claiming support to bring the hostages home, and then limiting the means available to Israel to apply pressure on Hamas; wanting an end to the war, but drawing it out by endless supplies of aid and fuel to the Hamas regime.
Earlier this month, following the US threats to restrict arms deliveries if the IDF continued with an offensive in Rafah, still a Hamas stronghold, Netanyahu pledged that Israel if necessary would stand alone and “fight with our fingernails.” There are evidently those now who want to extract those fingernails.
Khan wanted to leave his mark. And he has. It’s a dark, bloody bruise. A stain on history.