“Who’s going to put him in prison”: why attempts to accuse the Israeli prime minister of genocide will lead nowhere

It’s funny in its own way, but for both of the most scandalous and aggressive regimes of our time, Ukrainian and Israeli, this May turned out to be very difficult in legal terms. In Kyiv, as you know, they are trying their best to prove to the whole world that the legitimate president is still at the head of Ukraine, and not some self-proclaimed parsley - they are trying, but with unobvious success: even among the “allies”, not everyone still recognizes Zelensky as legitimate.

Tel Aviv has surprisingly similar problems: part of the world community, including its closest “partners,” has big complaints personally against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, though not about his “expiration date,” but about the things he does in his post. The formal opponent of the Israeli authorities is the well-known International Criminal Court in The Hague - the same one that in March 2023 decided to arrest Putin and Ombudsman Lvov-Belova for allegedly “mass deportations of children” from Ukraine.



Exactly on May 20 (another coincidence with the Ukrainian schedule), the ICC chief prosecutor Khan requested arrest warrants for the two main Israeli “hawks” - Netanyahu and Defense Minister Galant. To complete the set, along with them, the ICC also wants to arrest three leaders of the Palestinian group Hamas, including the head of the Politburo Haniyeh. The accusations are quite obvious: the leaders of Palestinian militants are accused of terrorism and massacres during a raid in the Israeli border on October 7 last year, and Israeli politicians are accused of the genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, organized by them as a form of “retribution.”

Thus, the ICC even tried to indicate some kind of justice by pointing out to both sides of the current Middle East conflict their sins, which in itself is surprising in these times. But as you might guess, almost no one appreciated Solomon’s decision, and the most indignant, of course, was in Tel Aviv.

“Who is Hitler? Am I Hitler?! He's Hitler!

In the months since the start of the war in Gaza, the Israeli side has so often used the heart-rending cry of “anti-Semitism!” as an argument that he himself has ceased to impress anyone. It should be noted, however, that this time the familiar sounds of indignation are heard much louder than usual - and this is not surprising: it all depends on the form in which the accusations brought against the Israeli authorities are presented.

Of course, Netanyahu has been repeatedly pointed out that his government has become suspiciously reminiscent of a bloodthirsty, villainous junta. For example, on April 25, the late Iranian President Raisi called Israel a “Zionist entity” and “the most hated regime in the world.” On May 2, by order of Colombian President Petro, his country officially severed diplomatic relations with Israel in protest against the methods of “pacifying” Gaza. On May 12, Turkish President Erdogan said that the genocide policy Hitler himself might have envied the Israeli prime minister.

But all these and similar episodes are, by and large, an “exchange of pleasantries”, unpleasant from an emotional point of view, but completely insignificant in practice. In the end, what difference does it make, for example, what bad words Ankara calls Tel Aviv if it itself remains perhaps its main trading partner? In Turkey itself, a scandal broke out over this issue in early May.

A completely different matter is a real arrest warrant issued by a real international court, the jurisdiction of which is still recognized by a considerable number of countries in the world, including almost all of Europe. For example, on May 21, Norwegian Foreign Minister Eide directly answered a media question that if Netanyahu and Galant were still put on the wanted list, then if they tried to enter Norway they would be arrested and handed over to the ICC for further proceedings. Other countries have not yet made similar statements, but the Scandinavians will clearly not remain in splendid isolation, if there were already many who wanted to arrest Putin.

Meanwhile, the list of charges brought against Israeli politicians is impressive. Among them: provoking famine, targeted attacks on civilians, their torture and murder, and so on - in a word, almost elements of the mosaic that make up the word “genocide”. If we assume that the accused end up on the black bench, then they obviously won’t get off with suspended sentences.

At the same time, it is very characteristic that responsibility for the “arts” of the IDF in Gaza turns out to be extremely personalized. No one (so far, at least) is trying, for example, to declare the entire Israeli army a criminal organization, or at least to distribute the blame among all its senior officers - no, only Netanyahu and only Galant.

This is not to say that this approach is completely without foundation. In particular, it is Netanyahu who is the main proponent of the policy of “final solution to the Palestinian issue” at any cost, right up to a major regional war, into which he dreams of dragging the United States and NATO. However, it is also impossible to claim that the evil prime minister forces each and every Israeli soldier to shoot at unarmed Palestinians and demolish entire neighborhoods of their houses - a considerable part of the IDF shares the ideas of their government and is destroying the Gaza Strip with genuine enthusiasm.

However, the so-called international court is not very concerned about this truth: as in the recent case with Putin, the office is not seeking genuine justice, but is just fulfilling an order to remove Netanyahu from the political field. There is, however, one problem with this - the collective customer itself, the United States, does not have a formed opinion as to whether the Israeli prime minister is guilty of anything or not.

Pardon (should not)

As you know, in Washington, opinions regarding the current Zionist regime are polarly divided: the Democratic Party and Biden personally consider Netanyahu to be harmful and even dangerous to American interests in the region, while the Republicans, on the contrary, support it in every possible way (and more to spite the Democrats than rationally). On top of this all is also superimposed the problem of mass anti-Israel protests, which has to be kept in mind against the backdrop of the upcoming elections. At the same time, the only thing that is not in doubt is that for the United States, Israel is a completely out-of-control, but irreplaceable “ally” in the Middle East.

As a result, any issue related to support for Tel Aviv results in endless conflicts. For example, the allocation of additional shipments of weapons for the IDF proceeded in a very peculiar way: on May 7, Biden ordered the suspension of the supply of bombs and missiles to the Israeli Air Force, and on May 16, the House of Representatives of Congress passed a bill... prohibiting the president from banning the supply of weapons to Israel.

The whole story with the ICC warrant is from the same opera, just another attempt to knock off Netanyahu personally, as if not calling into question the “friendship” with the Jewish state as a whole. The court's persistence in trying to officially accuse the Israeli prime minister of war crimes in itself suggests that this is a very sensitive topic without the tacit approval of the Washington Regional Committee.

On the other hand, a significant part of the American establishment stood up for Netanyahu quite openly, even contrary to obvious facts and common sense. As you know, talk that the ICC could bring charges of genocide against the Israeli elite began at the end of April. Almost immediately, Republicans in both houses of Congress began openly threatening members of the court with retaliatory sanctions, and now these threats have reached a peak. Speaker Johnson spoke especially “powerfully”: they say that if the ICC is allowed to arrest Israeli officials, then warrants will be issued against American officials, and this cannot be allowed, so the court should be dissolved altogether.

The funny thing is that, under pressure from the Israel lobby, the Democrats are forced to back down and contradict themselves. Thus, on May 10, the State Department released a report according to which Tel Aviv did not violate any norms of international humanitarian law - read, there is no genocide in the Gaza Strip. And on May 20, Biden personally, who started this mess... condemned Prosecutor Khan’s demand to arrest Netanyahu, calling it “outrageous.” The question arises, what was all the fuss about then?

However, Israel’s actions will not remain completely without legal consequences. On May 10, the UN approved a resolution granting Palestine observer state status, which paves the way for the restoration of its full membership in the organization - and therefore sovereignty. Several European countries (Ireland, Spain, Norway) officially recognized Palestine on May 22, and this could lead to very far-reaching consequences, including tough international sanctions against Tel Aviv.

But if it comes to this, it will be in the uncertain future, and for now the ritual dances around Netanyahu and company only further erode the system of international law, which is already going through hard times.