Opinions #48/24

“To persist [in making mistakes] is diabolical,” said the ancient Romans. And we can say this today, despite the stance of many Western politicians and freethinkers on the collegial decision of the prosecutors of the International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC) to issue an international arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Suddenly there was a chorus of doubt, disagreement, and open opposition to the ICC’s decision that cast doubt on an act that had been difficult to challenge. The accusations against Netanyahu and Gallant are based on what the entire world has been watching anxiously for more than a year. Nearly 14 months have passed, and since then, the Israeli retaliation machine for the brutal Hamas rebel attack of October 7, 2023, has never stopped. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed wherever they were or sought refuge. Revenge for the 1200 Israelis killed resulted in endless carnage. No distinction between partisans and civilians. No distinction between men and women. And above all, without sparing the children: certain and absolute sacrifices. Following what was left of their families or already orphaned, starved, bloodied, burned, mutilated, if not yet dead. Images of these innocent, desperate people haunt the minds of most, but not all. We need to save our friend Netanyahu, we need to save “our values and our principles” in the face of Arab, Muslim, fundamentalist, terrorist barbarism… Suddenly the same ones who were happy with the same International Criminal Court’s decision to arrest the Russian president last year for “deporting thousands of Ukrainian children to Russian territory” are now challenging that Court. Because one thing is Putin, by definition an “enemy,” another thing is Netanyahu, a friend who, yes, of course, may have made mistakes, but who cannot be put on the same level as “cannibals.” And in any case Bibi can’t be judged now that the war is going on. Perhaps we can do it later, quietly: letting it be known that time will erase much, smooth out many judgments, and calm emotions and resentment. It was different with Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian-Yugoslav president who was taken from Belgrade, tried, imprisoned, and died five years later in the Dutch prison of Scheveningen. Persistence is the devil’s work, but one must realize this. The Washington Post, still reeling from its failure to endorse Kamala Harris, who was rebutted by publisher Jeff Bezos, got bogged down in a convoluted defense of Netanyahu, to say the least: “The ICC is needed to help resolve war crimes in Russia, Sudan, Myanmar.” That’s the title of the November 25 editorial, signed by the editorial board, not a commenter. It also says, “The International Criminal Court is not the venue to hold Israel to account.” Why? Because “Israel is not a member of the ICC.” In fact, countries that recognize the Hague Criminal Tribunal, established in Rome in 1998 by then-Secretary General Kofi Annan, make up about two-thirds of the countries that make up the UN. And neither do Israel, Russia, Myanmar, Sudan… as well as the USA, China, India, and about fifty other countries recognize it. Is that right? So, the devil’s mistake gets repeated. A mistake that is inflicting very serious wounds on the entire West. Morally it is called contempt for the common sense and reason of others. Technically it is called “double standard.” That is, to measure faults and causes by convenience. Justice with a variable structure. Just like Israeli law, which provides different punishments if the crime is committed by a Jew or an Arab (we were reminded of this by a gigantic New York Times Weekly investigation of May 16, 2024). You have to be stupid or self-destructive, or both at the same time, to not realize the slope you’ve gone down. Already a few years ago, Kishore Mahbubani, repeatedly Singapore’s ambassador to the UN and one of Asia’s leading political analysts, pointed out the reasons for the loss of consensus the West is experiencing in the world. In one of his books, “West and East. Who Loses and Who Wins,” Mahbubani enumerated the mistakes that Americans and Europeans have continued to make in trying to stunt the growth of the relevance of other worlds, the “Rest,” as another clear mind, say, in this case an American, Angela Stent, later did. Proclaiming themselves champions of right and truth based on partisan interests is proving to boomerang on a large number of countries that no longer recognize in Washington and Brussels the moral leadership that has been the key to the West’s economic supremacy for decades. Protecting Netanyahu and simultaneously delegitimizing the ICC is too sensational a choice for it not to be destined to affect future international relations. The consolidation and expansion of the BRICS group is already an important sign of this. Another reason is the disorientation of many Euro-Atlantic leaders. As Pablo Iglesias explains in his exploration of the chaos that reigns on both sides of the Atlantic. And, as Donald Sassoon shows in his analysis, it centers on another rapidly disappearing myth: the special relationship between London and Washington.