Opinion: International Criminal Court threat against Netanyahu

Editor’s note: Peter Bergen is a national security analyst for CNN, vice president of New America, professor of practice at Arizona State University, and host of the Audible Podcast.In Peter Bergen’s room” is also published apple and spotify. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own.view more opinions On CNN.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could soon join a rogue gallery that includes the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, as prosecutors at the International Criminal Court seek an arrest warrant. .

The ICC is a criminal court that prosecutes individuals, similar to the Nuremberg trials after World War II. The ICC, established in 2002, has only convicted 10 people of war crimes. The wheels of justice at the ICC are slowly but surely honed.

The move to indict Prime Minister Netanyahu could significantly change the course of the war in Gaza.

This development has far more significance for Netanyahu personally than the genocide allegations against Israel that South Africa filed in December with the International Court of Justice, which hears cases against states.

The court’s interim judgment ruled that Palestinians had a “plausible” right to protection from genocide, Joan Donoghue, then president of the ICJ, told the BBC at the time of the decision. Israel vehemently denies committing genocide in Gaza in the ongoing incident.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that the court’s charges against Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant include “causing extermination as a means of war, including denying humanitarian relief supplies; These include causing famine and intentionally targeting civilians in conflict.” In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced Khan as one of the “great anti-Semites of our time.”

The ICC is also simultaneously seeking arrest warrants for three of Hamas’ top leaders, but as a practical matter, doing so will not have much of an impact on an Islamist group that is already designated a terrorist organization by many countries, including the United States and both member states of the European Union.

Meanwhile, Yahya Sinwar, one of the Hamas leaders whom Israel accuses of masterminding the October 7 attack on the Jewish state, is thought to be hiding underground in tunnels beneath Gaza.

There are 124 countries that are signatories to the ICC, but that doesn’t include the United States or Israel. If the court issues an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, those 124 countries would be obligated to arrest him. A panel of ICC judges is due to make a decision on Khan’s application for an arrest warrant.

Many of Israel’s closest allies, such as Britain and Germany, are parties to the ICC and would be bound by the court’s decision if a warrant is issued. That would greatly complicate relations with Prime Minister Netanyahu, as he would effectively become an international pariah unable to travel to most countries. France and Belgium have already issued statements supporting the ICC’s request for an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

If approved, the arrest warrant against Prime Minister Netanyahu would threaten Israel, a sovereign state acting in self-defense, with Hamas, the terrorist group that incited the war in October, even though it has led to the deaths of thousands of Palestinians. It would put them in the same position. Approximately 1,200 people were killed in seven attacks on Israel.

In the United States, there was a predictable backlash against the ICC’s move to issue an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Netanyahu. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was furious, saying, “The ICC has only succeeded in further discrediting itself as a corrupt kangaroo court with no connection to morality or justice.” US President Joe Biden called the request for an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Netanyahu “outrageous.” ”

But you can’t have it both ways. When the ICC and its chief prosecutor Khan issued an arrest warrant for President Putin on war crimes charges in Ukraine in 2023, there were hosannas on both sides of the aisle.

Biden declared that the ICC arrest warrant against Putin “makes a very strong case,” adding: “He clearly committed a war crime.” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina praised the court’s decision, saying: “The ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin is a major step in the right direction for the international community. That is more than justified by the evidence. ”

The possibility of an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Netanyahu may make Israelis more aware of what is happening in Gaza. Self-censorship in the Israeli media means Israelis see the war in Gaza very differently than the rest of the world does. As The Wall Street Journal reported this month, Israeli media has barely covered the images of the massive destruction and thousands of civilian casualties in Gaza.

The possibility of issuing ICC arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas leaders could also complicate the already tricky task of negotiating a ceasefire and the return of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

I’m attending the Global Security Forum, a security conference in Qatar. As is well known, Qatar is working with the United States, Israel, and the Qatar-based Hamas political leadership to release more than 100 hostages still held captive in Gaza, including eight Americans, and bodies in Gaza. played an important intermediary role between About 30 more.

The consensus among conference delegates, including security experts from around the world, is that those talks have largely stalled.

The ICC’s move to seek an arrest warrant for Netanyahu may only harden his resolve to continue the war in Gaza seemingly indefinitely. In an address to the nation on Monday, Netanyahu said, in a translation of his remarks by The Times of Israel, that the ICC would not prevent Israel from achieving a “total victory” over Hamas.