Predictably, Benjamin Netanyahu has responded to this decision by shrieking about antisemitism. He’s doing this because he doesn’t have anything resembling a real argument in his defense, and neither does anyone else.
Rep. Tom Cotton of Arkansas speaking at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)
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The International Criminal Court has formally issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
No such arrest warrants were issued for President Biden or any of the other western officials who’ve been backing Israel’s genocidal atrocities, which is a bit like a judge issuing a warrant for a mass murderer but not for the guy who gave him the gun and stood next to him handing him ammunition and drove the getaway car and lied to the police to cover up the crime.
Nothing will come of this new development because it is completely unenforcible and international law is only as real as the U.S. empire agrees to pretend it is, but it is a significant step in the deterioration of international consensus on Israel as the entire world watches the Zionist regime commit atrocity after atrocity right out in the open.
Predictably, Benjamin Netanyahu has responded to this decision by shrieking about antisemitism and calling the ICC’s move “a modern Dreyfus trial”. He is doing this because he does not have anything resembling a real argument in his defense, and neither does anyone else.
We saw this illustrated in a statement from Senator Tom Cotton, who proclaimed that the U.S. would invade The Hague if the ICC tries to enforce its arrest warrants.
“The ICC is a kangaroo court and Karim Khan is a deranged fanatic,” Cotton said. “Woe to him and anyone who tries to enforce these outlaw warrants. Let me give them all a friendly reminder: the American law on the ICC is known as The Hague Invasion Act for a reason. Think about it.”
This is as psychotic a public statement as anything you’ll see from the most far-right extremists in the Knesset. The United States is run by demented zealots with nukes, just like Israel.
The “Hague Invasion Act”, formally known as the American Service-Members’ Protection Act, is a U.S. federal law passed during the warmongering frenzy of the early Bush administration which authorizes the president to use “all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any U.S. or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court.”
That “or allied personnel” bit is why Cotton is able to cite this law in reference to an arrest warrant for Israelis.
Speaking of Israel and U.S. senators, a bill by Bernie Sanders to block a shipment of tank shells to Israel was just killed in the Senate by a vote of 18 to 79.
Sanders framed the bill as an effort to restrict “the sale of offensive arms to Israel”, making a distinction from “defensive” arms like the Iron Dome, which is absurd and obfuscatory to begin with.
All arms to Israel are offensive rather than defensive in nature, in that they are all used to help Israel murder people without experiencing the deterrence they would receive from a retaliatory response.
There’s a reason body armor is regulated in a way that’s similar to firearms; it’s because someone who wants to commit a violent crime can wear a bulletproof vest while doing so to ensure that they can perpetrate the crime without being stopped by police.
That’s exactly how Israel uses its so-called “defensive” weaponry.
And speaking of progressive US lawmakers taking feeble stands on Israel, congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has come under fire for voting to support House Resolution 1449, a bill which purports to simply denounce antisemitism but in reality promotes the false conflation of antisemitic hate speech with speech that is critical of Israel.
Progressive congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who voted against the bill, said in a statement that she did so because “the bill endorses the harmful definition of IHRA that dangerously conflates legitimate criticism of Israel to antisemitism and further harms our ability to address antisemitism.”
Everywhere you look it’s powerful criminals getting away with far too much while the people who are supposed to be resisting them do far too little.
This happens as Russia hits Ukraine with a new type of hypersonic missile, which Putin went out of his way to mention could easily have been equipped with a nuclear warhead. This attack was a warning to Ukraine for using long-range missiles supplied by the U.S. and U.K. to strike targets inside Russia, and occurs as Moscow revises its nuclear doctrine lowering the threshold for when nuclear weapons may be used.
This is unsustainable. It cannot continue. One way or the other, all this madness is going to come to an end.
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The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Cut Bernie some slack. He’s making a for-show attempt to get a minimalist bill passed in the Senate. If nothing else, it reveals which senators have even the slightest qualms about arming Israel.
As an Australian I am offended by Tom Cotton’s disparaging reference to kangaroos. He should have some respect. We are compliant minions of Empire and deserve better. Kangaroos deserve better. “Think about it” Tom.
“That “or allied personnel” bit is why Cotton is able to cite this law in reference to an arrest warrant for Israelis.”
Questions: How does US international protocol legally define “ally”?
What country is an ally, and what is not?
Are some defined as sitting on the fence?
If so, how & by whom does that status change?
If this is totally ambiguous, as I suspect, then the Hague Invasion Act is merely a nasty hair-trigger-excuse for aggression. A threat.
Shrieking about anti Semitism??? The Zionists are creating this situation more and more by antigonizing the world and ignoring all international laws. The untouchables??? Not much longer.vv
Wonder what became of the “Guantanamo Invasion Act”?
Oh yeah That invading army is but farmers with pitchforks!
Russia is stronger than the mesthaeds in DC think – tread very carefully DC..
Will our coastal elites ever pause to contemplate how it got to the point that they are cheerleading a indicted genocidal war criminal or will they always be stuck on the “Israel has a right to defend itself!” broken record as they condemn anyone supporting Palestinians as racists antisemites? Or, to put it more succinctly, how can people so smart be so stupid?
the center of global antisemitism is in israel where euro-zionist religious fanatics have stolen a land from semitic people – Palestinians – and murdered them for more than 75 years though it has only been noticed recently…this brutality supposedly avenges what euros did to euros a generation ago…this makes sense to those who believe in virgin births and chosen people.
Former UN Human Rights official Craig Mokhiber on MuskTwit.
“A warning to the US administration and Congress: Under Art.70 of the Rome Statute of the ICC, you can be prosecuted for “impeding, intimidating or corruptly influencing an official of the Court” and for “retaliating against an official of the Court on account of duties performed by that or another official.” If convicted, you can face five years in prison.”
hxxps://x.com/CraigMokhiber/status/1860037583709045249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Lock them up!
Lock them up!
Ironically, Netanyahu is right. It is antisemitism, because to criticize the political leaders of Judaism for wrongdoing is, by the literal meaning of how Jewish leaders require us to define the word, “against Jewry,” and so, it is indeed antisemitic. But that antisemitism is a good thing. It’s always good for people to criticize wrongdoing by anyone. Thus, this kind of antisemitism – criticizing Jews for wrongdoing – should be encouraged. With current events in Palestine, we should all be antisemites in that sense.
So do you see how clever these Jewish leaders are? They conflate the very bad – hatred of individual Jews – with the very good – criticism of Jewish wrongdoers. With their public discourse replete with disinformation, there’s never rational public consideration of such absurdity. We have entered an Orwellian Age where Big Brother is a Jew.
I love music: hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ycj-bQXWRrQ&list=RDYcj-bQXWRrQ&start_radio=1
hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgnClrx8N2k
How to spot the criminals?
They are the ones cursing the courts and the laws. They are the ones hurling insults at judges and prosecutors. Its the criminals who will be asserting loudly that no judge can tell them what to do. Its the criminals who try to assassinate and intimidate the judges and prosecutors. Its the criminals who yell that the law can’t touch them.
Be very careful about associating with criminals.
Since America is now openly defying and disrespecting “International Law”, be very careful about “following orders.” Please realize that a nation that defies international law is increasingly likely to give “illegal orders.” And remember, it is an established principle in the world that following orders is not a valid legal defense.
I have some problems with your comment, mainly due to your innocence regarding courts and laws. Yes, sometimes courts can be legitimate such as the court in Spain and its judgment regarding Pinochet. But this is extremely unusual. Those of us who are poor and working-class have no illusions about courts, which are there to protect the propertied classes. So many judges are thoroughly corrupt, both through actual bribes (a friend in Franklin County, Ohio, USA, actually saw money changing hands in a divorce case) and through their own vicious criminality. From what one reads, the UK is filled with judges who are pedophiles and rapists as they seem to think these are not actual crimes. Who supports pedophiles and rapists? Their own kind.