Washington Post Calls For Selective (Non-)Prosecution Of War Crimes
The Washington Post editors are trying to exceed the immense hypocrisy 'western' leaders usually display towards against the rest of the world.
The Post declares that the International Criminal Court is the wrong place to hold Israel, and its leaders, to account for war crimes.
Opinion - The International Criminal Court is not the venue to hold Israel to account (archived) - Washington Post
The ICC is needed to help resolve war crimes in Russia, Sudan, Myanmar. Targeting Israel makes that harder.
The argument the piece tries to make is irrelevant and has nothing to do with the courts judgment:
Israel is not a member of the ICC, and the warrants will have limited practical effect, except possibly preventing Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant from traveling to countries which have pledged to enforce it.
The war crimes Netanyahu and Gallant are accused of are happening Palestine, outside of Israel's recognized borders. Palestine is a state party of the Rome Statute. The ICC thus has jurisdiction over what happens on its ground. The (im-)practicality of the court's decision is not an argument against it.
But the arrest orders undermine the ICC’s credibility and give credence to accusations of hypocrisy and selective prosecution. The ICC is putting the elected leaders of a democratic country with its own independent judiciary in the same category as dictators and authoritarians who kill with impunity.
The prosecution and the pre-trial court have found a strong likelihood that Israel is committing war crimes and genocide. To not prosecute those crimes against Israeli citizens because the country claims(!) to be democratic and to have its own independent judiciary would be "hypocrisy and selective prosecution".
By doing the opposite, by prosecuting Israeli citizens, the court is attempting to apply justice equally. The Post defies logic when it claims otherwise.
The Post editors go on to willfully misunderstand the Rome statute which forms the courts legal basis.
Israel needs to be held accountable for its military conduct in Gaza. After the conflict’s end — which is long overdue — there will no doubt be Israeli judicial, parliamentary and military commissions of inquiry. Israeli’s vibrant, independent media will do its own investigations.
...
The ICC is supposed to become involved when countries have no means or mechanisms to investigate themselves. That is not the case in Israel.
The highlighted claims is false. Israel has used the argument that its own courts would, somewhere down the road, handle the issue when it tried to prevent the arrest warrants and to get the cases deferred.
The court's ruling explicitly referred to that:
The Chamber ruled on two requests submitted by the Israel on 26 September 2024. [...] In the second request, Israel requested that the Chamber order the Prosecution to provide a new notification of the initiation of an investigation to its authorities under article 18(1) of the Statute. Israel also requested the Chamber to halt any proceedings before the Court in the relevant situation, including the consideration of the applications for warrants of arrest for Mr Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Yoav Gallant, submitted by the Prosecution on 20 May 2024.
The court found that the Israeli request to defer, in effect an attempt to shut down the proceedings, is premature:
Furthermore, the Chamber considered that pursuant to article 19(1) of the Statute, States are not entitled to challenge the Court’s jurisdiction under article 19(2) prior to the issuance of a warrant of arrest. Thus Israel’s challenge is premature. This is without prejudice to any future possible challenges to the Court’s jurisdiction and/or admissibility of any particular case.
The Washington Post editors do not even try to refute the courts argument. They can't.
They admit though that Israel, acting with impunity, is deliberately causing a famine:
Israel also has a responsibility to allow humanitarian aid to reach the millions of Palestinians displaced and suffering from an acute food shortage bordering on famine. On this, the Israeli government has fallen short.
...
[A] Post analysis found that Israel has largely failed to comply with the U.S. government’s three main demands — a surge of humanitarian aid, not a trickle; access to Gaza for commercial trucks; and an end to Israeli’s siege of populated northern Gaza.
Despite acknowledging Israel's culpability for that war crime, the editors ignore its relevance for the court's case.
They, instead, threaten the court with presidential actions:
The ill-considered arrest warrants against Israel only give Mr. Trump a new reason to halt American cooperation with the court, at a time when it’s needed for Russia, Sudan, Myanmar and conflicts elsewhere that atrocities are being committed with impunity and the victims have no other recourse.
The Post, despite its hostility to Trump, seems to welcome any action he might take against the court.
Pointing to other cases that may deserve (or not) the attention of the court is not an argument, but whataboutism writ large.
Posted by b on November 25, 2024 at 15:48 UTC | Permalink
next page »Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham threatens to sanction US allies if they enforce the International Criminal Court’s issuance of arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, as many of them have pledged to do.“To any ally, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, if you try to help the ICC, we’re going to sanction you,” Graham tells Fox News in an interview.
“If you are going to help the ICC as a nation enforce the arrest warrant against Bibi and Gallant… I will put sanctions on you,” adds Graham, who has turned on the court after backing its decision to issue an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Posted by: Apollyon | Nov 25 2024 15:57 utc | 3
Democracy does in darkness! What a bunch of fucking lying Zionazis. Thanks for keeping the light on, B.
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Nov 25 2024 15:58 utc | 4
Ok, ICC warrant will not be enforced.
But the most important is narrative control.
This article is nothing but a damage control to keep the narrative.
All the western political spectrum used the 7th Oct. event as a base to state that everything they do is justified.
What ICC has done is destroying this narrative, and remind that Israel is just a colonial outpost.
Posted by: W | Nov 25 2024 15:59 utc | 5
thanks b...
the usa is rubber stamping israels crimes, as are a number of other countries and i am not even going into the usa's war crimes over the past 75 years which amount to a huge stain on the usa... the wapo is garbage and reflects the same garbage coming out of the usa at this point..
Posted by: james | Nov 25 2024 16:02 utc | 7
Who is this "we" that Lindsay Graham says is going to sanction our allies for enforcing a warrant against the worst war criminal in decades?? Inquiring people want to know.....
Posted by: Pyrrhus | Nov 25 2024 16:04 utc | 8
" Israeli’s vibrant, independent media will do its own investigations. "
An article I read indicates that the Knesset wants to ban/censure Haaratz (founded 1918) for not towing the official line. I'll try to find it and post it.
Posted by: Angelo | Nov 25 2024 16:07 utc | 9
@angelo
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-government-sanctions-haaretz-severs-all-ties
Israeli government sanctions Haaretz, severs all ties
The decision comes in response to comments made by the newspaper's publisher referring to Palestinian 'freedom fighters'
Posted by: motorslug | Nov 25 2024 16:16 utc | 10
@ motorslug | Nov 25 2024 16:16 utc | 10
thanks for that.. israel is so full of shit, it is getting ready obscene..
Posted by: james | Nov 25 2024 16:20 utc | 11
Apollyon@1557
Linda Graham is a well-known closet queen and is despised by all original gay liberation activists for his hypocrisy in support of his Epsteinators. ($)he's just another J. Edna Hoovervac...a self-hating drag quean who desperately desires for his South Carolina "Born Agains" to never realize and acknowledge his pathetic status.
Posted by: aristodemos | Nov 25 2024 16:25 utc | 12
Remember that ICC "convicted" Puting after barely two weeks of western barking about "child trafficking" bullshit. At that moment any credibility it had was out of the window either way.
In comparison it took over a year of genocide streamed live 24/7 for them to go against us/israeli lobby.
Posted by: mspl | Nov 25 2024 16:26 utc | 13
Look old boy, don't you understand that the ICC and ICJ are for wig wogs, towel heads and Slavs?! The great Europeans, like Milekowski (nee Netanyahu) are not to be touched for the unfortunate acts they carry out in the great name of European civilization. Also, not the allies of the Europeans, no matter the nasty businesses they need to do as they carry out the Godly pursuance of the Whitish Person's Burden across the world.
Grow up man! You are a German, much more important than these untermenschen you so sadly care for! The Zionists need their lebensraum to help quell the annoying towel heads and bring on The Glory Of The Lord (copyright Israel and Pat Robinson).
/sarc
Posted by: Roger Boyd | Nov 25 2024 16:27 utc | 14
In any sane world Lindsay Graham would be in a secure psychiatric unit, Blinken and Sullivan doing life sentences.
Posted by: Nick J | Nov 25 2024 16:27 utc | 15
perimetr@1600
The WaPo rag has long been outed as the primary media mouthpiece for the Agency. One wonders how much gelt was provided for the current owner of that buttwiper by said agency's "black budget"...primarily based upon dirty money accumulated by their control over the ill-eagle drug rackets.
Posted by: aristodemos | Nov 25 2024 16:29 utc | 16
pyrrhus@1604
The "WE" to which Linda refers is his agitated colonized colon.
Posted by: aristodemos | Nov 25 2024 16:31 utc | 17
Would be fun a seal team crashing The Hague to release them.
Would put a nice dent on the whole nato thing and politicians role as mere capos.
For those thinking that’s impossible, remember bojo considered raiding the Netherlands to get their vaccines
Posted by: Newbie | Nov 25 2024 16:34 utc | 18
Obviously doing owner Jeff Bezos’s bidding, Bezos whose Amazon Web Services had contracts to put the IDF and overall Israeli government on the cloud. Currying favor with Israel and Zionist forces in general, not the least of which is the ardently Zionist incoming Trump Administration. And the CIA’s house organ might also be serving that Axis of Covert Evil, the closely aligned triad of CIA-MI6-Mossad. Puss from the Post. Consider the source.
Posted by: Patrick Mazza | Nov 25 2024 16:37 utc | 19
The Post, despite its hostility to Trump, seems to welcome any action he might take against the court.
Italics added, because it is entirely unclear that this isn't obeying Trump rather than opposing him! Making excuses for Trump because you're getting what you wanted is not a good look I think. Lindsey Graham is not an anti-Trumper, by the way. He's quite loyal to his class and his superiors in his class, and I doubt this loyalty is driven by any self-hate whatsoever. Trump is ruling class. The real Trumpers, the rich ones and their long time servants and acolytes, don't care about the neurotics who want to roll back the world to the illusions of their childhood. They are above your petty moralizing. They are your betters and your rules don't apply to them.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 25 2024 16:44 utc | 20
From the Washington Post. My, how the mighty have fallen. Beyond the hypocrisy and irrationality, it is simply incompetent. That is the intellectual apogee of American political thought? Is it any wonder that the world finds American claims and threats increasingly, well, not even incredible but embarrassing? Ironically, WaPo finally reports the state of the USA honestly by accident, working as frantically as an ageing hooker to sustain the national facelift with Botox and a thick coating of concealer and rouge.
Posted by: Tom Paine | Nov 25 2024 16:45 utc | 21
I am embarrassed for them that they cannot actually manage a rational arguement and yet chose to broadcast this stuff so widely - now everybody can see that they are idiots.
Wapoo is for the dust bin.
Apparently the lobby has it in for Tulsi Gabber - is there no end?
Posted by: jared | Nov 25 2024 16:52 utc | 22
An illuminating article fron our gracious host, who finds a strength I lack to pour over the scribblings of the insipid propagandists. I find the banality of materialist evil and it's manifestations terrifyingly ubiquitous. Those committing these heinous crimes and their enabling sycophants have dispensed with civilization. I suppose they don't feel the need for rationality given they're all whorish warmongering cowards greedily murdering and stealing what they can, or engaged in covering it up for others.
Embarrassing is right. Humiliating even. Whom the gods would destroy..
Posted by: Doctor Eleven | Nov 25 2024 16:53 utc | 23
WP just modeling the rationalization process for the pmc.
Posted by: bongholder | Nov 25 2024 16:59 utc | 24
Similar to Trump ruining their feel-good party, what they hate about the ICC ruling is that it prevents and mocks the leaders of the western garden of rules and order the use of these legal and narrative development instruments to control the unenlightened jungle dwellers of the rest of the world. It just bares the hypocrisy too much.
So they needed an argument for why's this ICC ruling is different from every other ICC ruling ... it is not meant to be taken seriously, just to provide an argument to be amplified by all and sundry, as we'll probably see over the next weeks.
Posted by: Caliman | Nov 25 2024 17:00 utc | 25
What does democracy have to do with criminal prosecution?
Justitia is supposed to be blind. If you are guilty, you must be punished. Regardless of race, religion and whether you think you are doing the right thing. If a court believes to have sufficient evidence to order your arrest, you show up in court. Voluntarily or otherwise. Once there, you get to make your case. As does the other side.
Then the court if they agree with your argument. Or with your opponents.
None of these steps should depend on whether you like being judged. Whether you agree with the process. Or whether you feel that, for some reason, you are above the law.
Posted by: Marvin | Nov 25 2024 17:00 utc | 26
The argument that leaders of "democracies" should be exempt from having to show up in court is critically flawed: The very foundations of democracy is the separation of powers. In particular the separation of Executive - the government - and the judiciary - the courts.
Meaning that a governments' refusal to accept the power of a court to investigate alleged wrongdoings automatically means that said government is not a democratic one.
Either you accept the separation of powers and live in democracy. Or you don't, and you don't.
Posted by: Marvin | Nov 25 2024 17:06 utc | 27
Thanks, b, that was a good catch!
Re: "But the arrest orders undermine the ICC’s credibility and give credence to accusations of hypocrisy and selective prosecution. The ICC is putting the elected leaders of a democratic country with its own independent judiciary in the same category as dictators and authoritarians who kill with impunity."
Who dafunk is to determine whether the judiciary of a "democratic country" is "independent"? As far as I know there are no judiciary elections anywhere in the "democratic world". Instead, judges are appointed by other branches of government and as such are certainly not independent! Hence, Israhell's highest judiciary bodies have been propped with Likudniks obedient to Netanyahoo's ritual genocide...
That is the meaning of article 19(1) of the Statute of Rome, according to which States are not entitled to challenge the Court’s jurisdiction under article 19(2) prior to the issuance of an arrest warrant. It means the ICC has higher jurisdiction because one cannot exclude the posibility that the domestic court's independence.
Posted by: ThirdWorldDude | Nov 25 2024 17:06 utc | 28
Who is this "we" that Lindsay Graham says is going to sanction our allies for enforcing a warrant against the worst war criminal in decades?? Inquiring people want to know.....
Posted by: Pyrrhus | Nov 25 2024 16:04 utc | 8
------------------------------------------------------------------
Lady Lindsay thinks it is the Emperor of America as if it can declare it so, and it is so. For Lindsay Lady, the mineral rights in (Eastern) Ukraine are well worth the lives of 600,000 plus Ukrainians, women, and children who died and will die in the US proxy war for resources and to destabilize Russia.
Posted by: Ed | Nov 25 2024 17:25 utc | 29
Ed @ 29
For Lindsay Lady, the mineral rights in (Eastern) Ukraine are well worth the lives of 600,000 plus Ukrainians, INCLUDING women and children who died and will die in the US proxy war for resources and to destabilize Russia.
OOps.
Posted by: Ed | Nov 25 2024 17:31 utc | 30
For Lindsay Lady, the mineral rights in (Eastern) Ukraine are well worth the lives of 600,000 plus Ukrainians, INCLUDING women and children who died and will die in the US proxy war for resources and to destabilize Russia.
Posted by: Ed | Nov 25 2024 17:25 utc | 29
-----------------------------------------------------------
Oops!
Posted by: Ed | Nov 25 2024 17:33 utc | 31
Thanks b for an excellent analysis. I find it interesting that none of the US and Israeli critics of the ICC warrants claim that Netanyahu is innocent.
Posted by: Chas | Nov 25 2024 17:35 utc | 33
When part of the human body becomes so ill and toxic there is no possible remedy for its recovery, it must be amputated to save the whole. It's a very difficult situation to be in and not one to be ignored.
Posted by: chunga | Nov 25 2024 17:39 utc | 34
Thanks, b. Yes WaPo is clutching at straws. But I agree with
Posted by: mspl | Nov 25 2024 16:26 utc | 13 that the ICC and ICJ have diminished their own credibility.
There's also the perception that both orgs have a reputation for enforcing the White Man's Burden responsibilities - especially against people with the wrong-coloured skin, religion or political leanings.
DW News interviewed an ex-ICJ judge a couple of days ago and I was stunned to hear that the ICJ has issued a warrant for the arrest of a HAMAS big wig AND they believe all of Jewrael's October 7 HAMAS 1200-person massacre and rape bullshit.
So apart from the seeming sloppiness of ICJ's 'investigations' it might be worth checking on why & how people are appointed to the ICJ and ICC.
i.e. It LOOKS as if they're mostly lacklustre ex-public servants filling in time in a quiet corner until they retire...
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Nov 25 2024 17:44 utc | 35
WaPo is a den of liars.
Deceit is its whole purpose and function.
Posted by: Figleaf23 | Nov 25 2024 17:50 utc | 36
[cue Oprah voice]
”You get sanctioned!
And you get sanctioned!
Everyone gets sanctioned!”
Wouldn’t it be nice if this nasty chapter in human history ends with the Empire committing suicide that way?
Posted by: William Gruff | Nov 25 2024 17:52 utc | 37
Oops! Almost forgot.
Why would anyone create a court with no teeth/power to arrest and detain suspects or order Interpol to do so?
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Nov 25 2024 17:54 utc | 38
The icj is a circus of clowns. When in front of the world the clown judges enter the courtroom in single file walking so slowly looking so solemn and serious you know the clown show in tbe circus has started.
Posted by: peacenow | Nov 25 2024 17:59 utc | 39
The ICC is putting the elected leaders of a democratic country with its own independent judiciary in the same category as dictators and authoritarians who kill with impunity.What a load of rubbish. ZioNazi Israel is a terrorist, murderous, genocidal fascist state. Even if it is a "democracy" (whatever that means) for the Jews, the Jews themselves are terrorist, murderous, genocidal fascists. Who mass murder and commit endless war crimes and crimes against humanity not only with impunity but with accolades, not just from themselves but from the collective "West".
Indeed, the CIA's propaganda is getting really weak. Even the ordinary man can easily see right through their malicious and nefarious b.s. What they are saying is that the ICC should be weaponized solely to serve the Jews ("West"), which shows who, in fact, the CIA serves (if not already obvious beforehand).
Posted by: CalDre | Nov 25 2024 18:03 utc | 40
Posted by: William Gruff | Nov 25 2024 17:52 utc | 37
Wouldn’t it be nice if this nasty chapter in human history ends with the Empire committing suicide that way?
Well under way, I'd say. An unstoppable bleeding, from several wounds. (Only small scratches, mind you ;) ) Hopefully the Empire does not resort to the nukes, to shorten its demise.
Posted by: MorePain4Cakes | Nov 25 2024 18:10 utc | 41
Just wait until the ICC issues arrest warrants for the 1,000 IDF fighters individually id'd as committing crimes against humanity. Thick dossiers were submitted a while ago.
Posted by: Exile | Nov 25 2024 18:12 utc | 42
Re: ICJ versus ICC
These are 2 distinct courts.
The ICJ is for state versus state lawsuits. It has a very long history and is reasonably independent.
The ICC is for trying individuals for war crimes, etc. when their own gov‘t refuses. The ICC is a recent invention created by the US war party in the 1990s. The ICC was considered a instrument of US War Party to punish its adversaries. The arrest warrants issued for Netanyahu and Gallent has upended all that.
Posted by: Exile | Nov 25 2024 18:17 utc | 43
What we see today in the US (and its Western lapdogs) is as old as human civilization. We are witnessing the standard protocols for a dying empire: The degeneration of Justice and the devaluation of human empathy run parallel with the increase in wars and genocides necessary to expand territory for markets and resources to salvage a dying empire. Soon, the enemies and victims of the empire will be gnawing on the corpse of the dead empire, and the rest is history.
Posted by: Ed | Nov 25 2024 18:27 utc | 44
Them using the word hypocrisy is OC pure projection.
Also the case when the zionists accuse others of warcrimes, rape and lies.
They know they are the hypocrites, warcriminals, rapists and liars.
The ICC has been used as a kangaroo court EXCLUSIVELY for opponents of the US regime.
We all know what happened with Bush.
A staggering display of bias was already shown before during the Yugoslavia Tribunals, a literal test trial for this farce institution.
With sole purpose to punish Milosevic for resisting the US 'rules based order'.
That really didn't go to plan and he made the court and judge look like fools.
He personally defended himself, exposed fake witnesses telling lies and every time he delivered evidence proving it was not a fair trial he invariably got cut off by the judge and was told they would discuss it behind closed doors and not before the cameras.
It was painfully obvious having a public showtrial was a big mistake.
They knew they wouldn't be able to convict him so they boldly killed him.
Wish I saved those videos from YT before the regime censors deleted them.
If anyone has a link somewhere please post it.
It's better than any Hollywood court drama.
Posted by: Ed Bernays | Nov 25 2024 18:48 utc | 45
Either you accept the separation of powers and live in democracy. Or you don't, and you don't.
Posted by: Marvin | Nov 25 2024 17:06 utc | 27
---------------------------------------------------------------
Please tell me you are talking about Donald Trump!
Posted by: Ed | Nov 25 2024 18:49 utc | 46
Too bad there isn't some panel that can charge Wapo with crimes against journalism. It was apparent in 2016 that this paper was a nasty joke when it published its 'prop or not' blacklist of media outlets that they said echoed Russian propaganda, based on some totally sketchy source. The print edition might have some use in an outhouse that ran out of toilet tissue. To think that this is one of the flagship papers in the US shows how far down the crapper the country has gone.
Posted by: Mike R | Nov 25 2024 18:57 utc | 48
"Palestine is a state party of the Rome Statute. The ICC thus has jurisdiction over what happens on its ground. The (im-)practicality of the court's decision is not an argument against it."
Check and mate.
Fuck Off Empire
"You're only meant to judge our enemies, not our friends!"
This is all the West's devolved to. Mafia networks have much more moral codes of conduct than this.
Posted by: Red Outsider | Nov 25 2024 19:25 utc | 50
You won't find this in the Washington Post.....
In Memory Of The Martyr Yahya Sinwar (After 40 Days)
Sinwar died but he did it. He did it. Things are working out as he said. As Sinwar said, when he could go outside,
"Within a limited period of months, I estimate it will not exceed a year, we will make the occupation have two options. Either we force it to implement international law, respect international resolutions, withdraw from the West Bank and Jerusalem and dismantle the settlements. release the hostages and return the refugees, either we and the world force it to do these matters and achieve the establishment of a Palestinian state on the lands occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem... Or we place this occupation in a state of contradiction and collision with the entire international will and isolate it and end its state of integration in the region and in the entire world and the state of collapse that occurred on all fronts of resistance and on all fronts that occurred during past years."
What Sinwar is saying (that people misinterpret) is that there is either a two-state solution along 1976 borders or a one-state solution of Palestine. That 'Israel' will fall into a state of contradiction and collapse and disintegrate. Which is precisely what's happening. 'Israel' chose door number two (naked genocide) which leads to the condemnation of all nations, preserved only temporarily by the coercion of a dying hegemon (America). 'Israel' cannot exist in this state much longer and will either fall on its own or fall when America falls, whichever comes first. This echoes the martyred founder of Hamas Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who said, “to be precise, I say that by 2027, there will be no Israel.” These men both died, but their strategy, backed by heroic acts, lives on. They believed it while it was unbelievable, but who today believes that 'Israel' can go on like this? They got a country because genocide and they're losing it because genocide, they're going out the way they came.
https://indi.ca/in-memory-of-the-martyr-yahya-sinwar-after-40-days/
Posted by: Don Firineach | Nov 25 2024 19:40 utc | 51
"The Post defies logic when it claims otherwise."
The WaPo isn't defying logic - its playing it part in trying to defend the Zionists - just as the Guardian printed a story questioning the integrity of the ICC's chief prosecutor Karim Khan - which in reality is the beginning of a smear campaign.
Deflections and smears are the order of the day, from those vile b*stards that support the Zionists genocide.
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Nov 25 2024 19:43 utc | 52
"The ICC is putting the elected leaders of a democratic country with its own independent judiciary in the same category as dictators and authoritarians who kill with impunity."
Russia is a democracy with an independent judiciary. It also has a Constitution providing civil rights guaratees to all citizens, which Israel does not. Instead, Israel has a set of Basic Laws, one of which declares Israel as the the Nation-State of the Jewish People, thus relegating Palestinian citizens to a lesser status. The Washington Post's argument for enforcing the ICC warrant on Putin while ignoring the one on Netanyahu is a masterpiece of pretzel logic.
Posted by: ElmerF | Nov 25 2024 19:46 utc | 53
Unfortunately when the entire Editorial Board of The Washington Post has a hand in writing opinion articles, idiocy and sheer ignorance are the result.
Israel has never had a Western-style democracy in the same sense understood by most people in the West. It is arguable that since 2012, with the adoption of a new constitution that includes regular elections and fixed term limits for the Presidency, Syria has become a more democratic nation than Israel.
Neither does Israel have an independent media, with its main news rag Israel Hayom (pro-Satanyahu) financed by Miriam Adelson and its issues given away for free in the country. Barflies can imagine how that affects the sales of other, more traditionally run and managed for-profit Israeli newspapers.
The WaPo's assertion that the ICC should be going after dictators and other authoritarian states that apparently don't have independent, Western-style legal systems and judiciaries betrays the newspaper's own racism and ignorance of history. Most African, Asian and other Global South nations with weak legal systems and courts inherited these systems from their former Western colonial masters, including the US in the case of the Philippines which has had its share of corrupt dictators since 1945.
With The WaPo, The NYT and other so-called quality newspapers in the Anglosphere competing to see who can produce the most retarded propaganda, no wonder it's easy to believe that journalists these days have an average IQ much lower than that of the general public.
Posted by: Refinnejenna | Nov 25 2024 19:50 utc | 54
@ Refinnejenna | Nov 25 2024 19:50 utc | 54
just to add to your post - motorslugs link @ 10- which i am again sharing below - confirms some of your post very clearly here.. thanks.
Israeli government sanctions Haaretz, severs all ties
Posted by: james | Nov 25 2024 20:01 utc | 55
When part of the human body becomes so ill and toxic there is no possible remedy for its recovery, it must be amputated to save the whole.
Posted by: chunga | Nov 25 2024 17:39 utc | 34
On a cellular level, your body does this constantly. All day, every day, cells are sacrificed for the greater good.
But we are not apoptosis. Violence to stop violence is bad logic and bad for the soul. Genocide to stop genocide wouldn’t really stop genocide.
Posted by: Rae | Nov 25 2024 20:03 utc | 56
Hey , is Lindsey trying to beat Annalina for the clown of the Year Award ?
Every time I hear his name , I visualize the Duracell Bunny with a war-drum ... he simply last longer ^^
Posted by: Hiro Masamune | Nov 25 2024 20:06 utc | 57
Bibi better hope he keeps his job, because a hostile successor can do to him what was done to Slobodan Milošević.
Posted by: Cato the Uncensored | Nov 25 2024 20:06 utc | 58
The Washington Post could make a credible case about the ICC if previous crimes against humanity perpetrated by Israelis had been tried earlier. These Israelis have not been held accountable and never will be. Netanyahu was one of the perpetrators then. The Gaza genocide is so blatant and understood as a horrific crime, nothing can be done to cover it up or excuse it. Netanyahu and his minions must be hunted down, tried, and hanged like the Nazis they have mimicked.
Posted by: Keme | Nov 25 2024 20:08 utc | 59
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham [...] “To any ally, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, if you try to help the ICC, we’re going to sanction you,” Graham tells Fox News in an interview.
Posted by: Apollyon | Nov 25 2024 15:57 utc | 3
Was it playwright Harold Pinter who described American foreign policy as : "Do what we say, or we'll kick your head in " ?
Posted by: Red Star | Nov 25 2024 20:17 utc | 60
[A] Post analysis found that Israel has largely failed to comply with the U.S. government’s three main demands — a surge of humanitarian aid, not a trickle; access to Gaza for commercial trucks; and an end to Israeli’s siege of populated northern Gaza.
—————————————
Israël has failed to comply to US government demands.
The demands from the ROW, including US allies, have no existence or are irrelevant.
Posted by: scc | Nov 25 2024 20:38 utc | 61
@53
WP's pretzel logic is quite simply because they are a mouthpiece for the Empire.
Posted by: Anon | Nov 25 2024 21:07 utc | 62
Just as a "democracy" cannot reform itself through voting, humans cannot consistently and fairly hold other humans to account.
No human has such capacity, and where things are left to the discernment of other humans, corruption will surely become involved.
Meanwhile, we think justice and salvation can come from Parliaments filled with lawyers. That's not too far removed from the Western delusion that printing money will magically make tangible resources appear.
As a species, we're so incredibly naive.
Dangerously so, in my opinion.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 25 2024 21:10 utc | 63
Was it playwright Harold Pinter who described American foreign policy as : "Do what we say, or we'll kick your head in " ?
Posted by: Red Star | Nov 25 2024 20:17 utc | 60
##########
Just remember, Trump is for peace, even if he has to deport American citizens for being against Israel on a College campus.
Maybe that is why he's not going to do blanket J6 pardons. LOL
It's not even about right or wrong. It's that wielding power in this manner always fails, usually in spectacular fashion.
America is often like watching someone scream at you while punching themselves in the face.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 25 2024 21:14 utc | 64
The argument that leaders of "democracies" should be exempt from having to show up in court is critically flawed: The very foundations of democracy is the separation of powers. In particular the separation of Executive - the government - and the judiciary - the courts.
Meaning that a governments' refusal to accept the power of a court to investigate alleged wrongdoings automatically means that said government is not a democratic one.
Either you accept the separation of powers and live in democracy. Or you don't, and you don't.
Posted by: Marvin | Nov 25 2024 17:06 utc | 27
=======
In a peculiar way, the WaPo's argument regarding the importance of trying these crimes in national courts (as ludicrous as that is) does seem to imply that the ICC is in fact the "naechste Instanz" of the highest national court.
Per the WaPo's argument, the problem with the ICC case and judgment is that somehow a queue has been jumped.
To me that implies a tacit acceptance that the ICC is the supreme judicial authority, over the highest national court. Their "procedural" logic does seem, in a backhanded way, to confirm the standing of the ICC.
I am again getting confused between the ICC and the ICJ.
Has the latter issued any rulings or warrants?
Posted by: Jane | Nov 25 2024 21:36 utc | 65
Re: ICJ versus ICC
These are 2 distinct courts.
The ICJ is for state versus state lawsuits. It has a very long history and is reasonably independent.
The ICC is for trying individuals for war crimes, etc. when their own gov‘t refuses. The ICC is a recent invention created by the US war party in the 1990s. The ICC was considered a instrument of US War Party to punish its adversaries. The arrest warrants issued for Netanyahu and Gallent has upended all that.
Posted by: Exile | Nov 25 2024 18:17 utc | 43
=========
Thank you.
Posted by: Jane | Nov 25 2024 21:42 utc | 66
Ah yes, more manure from the "washington compost" (thanks to the originator of that moniker) ie. only enemies of the empire may be accused of war crimes.
The good news is that when they have to say the quiet part out loud, because the crimes are so horrific, the house of lies is about to crumble. Unfortunately though, many honest folks who have not been paying attention will be hurt when it collapses.
Posted by: Snowleopard | Nov 25 2024 21:47 utc | 67
The evidence for Ukro-Nazi war crimes is piling up and, while the Russian Federation authorities haven't managed to push this matter onto the front burner, I really think they can and should surprise us with a proper war crimes tribunal.
This crap from WaPo is as much a distraction as anything. Once the Ukro-Nazis and (especially!) their sponsors are in the dock, putting the Israeli leadership in the dock as well should be pretty easy.
Posted by: NH | Nov 25 2024 21:51 utc | 68
maybe professional lawyers for human rights etc should threaten legal action against them for contrivance to support Israel.
Posted by: Jo | Nov 25 2024 22:47 utc | 69
The logic of b’s argument is sound. He must also then be in favor of the prosecutions of Putin et all
Posted by: Zargo | Nov 25 2024 22:48 utc | 70
"The ICJ is for state versus state lawsuits...
The ICC is for trying individuals for war crimes"
He would say he did not pull the trigger, and so to be guilty it follows he had to be directing the actions of the "state" that gave him the authority to direct, and hence that "state" is as guilty as he.
If not, it would have refused to obey an order. If not, participants of that "state" would have renounced their participation in that "state".
It follows that either ICC is judging a "state", or it is trying to conflate and misdirect, redefining a "state" as a person.
Just because one person says "Proceed with the destruction of..." does not implement anything. Apart from being a momentary expression of intent, nothing happens. Only a "state" (or similar organisation) allows anything related to those words to happen.
People hide behind state, sometimes state hides behind people.
Posted by: Ornot | Nov 25 2024 23:18 utc | 71
Would be fun a seal team crashing The Hague to release them.
Would put a nice dent on the whole nato thing and politicians role as mere capos.
For those thinking that’s impossible, remember bojo considered raiding the Netherlands.
Wouldn't that trigger NATO's article 5? lol!
Posted by: Englishman | Nov 25 2024 23:43 utc | 72
Israel lost on every front. Their entity and society are repugnant.
Resistance will prevail
Posted by: Animal | Nov 25 2024 23:46 utc | 73
The ICC should immediately state that they do not agree with the premise of USUKIS Trumpian position that ' Bad things were done on both sides on Oct 7. '
Otherwise nothing ever heals because Israel's foreknowledge of Oct 7 and massacre of its own students will be forgotten.
Kaida shaytana Dha'eefa. Satan's plan is weak. We all know that the ICC will compound the injustice of the genocide if they accept one jot of guilt on Hamas' part.
When Clare Daly casually said that Ireland is an Occupied Country, they shut down the debate.
Posted by: Giyane | Nov 25 2024 23:49 utc | 74
The ICC is the codification of the principles of International genocide and war crimes Law established by the Nuremburg Trials. It was an attempt to get past the Law of the victors-you can't duck its jurisdiction by just saying "I won't sign."
Posted by: wilsonK | Nov 26 2024 0:01 utc | 75
I'm guessing that the ceasefire talk by Israel is bullsh*t. Netanyahu needs to tamp down domestic protest and look 'peaceful'. They also want to split Lebanon off from Hezbollah to pressure them into retreat. I was surprised at talk of using the French to disarm Hezbollah (!!). It looks ridiculous. And Israel wants to start bombing again in 60 days (?) Seriously?
The really disheartening reaction to this are the mayors of northern Israel - who are angry at any talk of ceasefire while missiles fall on their cities. "Surrender" and all that. This, again, demonstrates a path similar to Ukraine in which extremism dominates. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. How long can this go on? Until it can't go on any longer.
Posted by: Eighthman | Nov 26 2024 0:06 utc | 76
The logic of b’s argument is sound. He must also then be in favor of the prosecutions of Putin et all
Posted by: Zargenko | Nov 25 2024 22:48 utc | 70
______
Granted, you’re a troll, but you do have a point. What about consistency? But once you realize that the ICC is a corrupt, West-toadying institution with little credibility, suddenly you realize: Even so miserable an institution couldn’t avoid handing out a couple of warrants to bleedingly obvious war criminals!
Posted by: malenkov | Nov 26 2024 0:27 utc | 77
I have often thought that most US presidents since 1950 or so deserved to be arrested, tried and handed, at least as much as Tojo or Goering.
Posted by: lester | Nov 26 2024 0:42 utc | 78
@ lester | Nov 26 2024 0:42 utc | 78
Hmm, was there ever an American president who wasn’t a war criminal? Well, maybe someone like JQ Adams. Or WH Harrison or Garfield, seeing as their terms were too short to cause much mischief.
Posted by: malenkov | Nov 26 2024 1:05 utc | 79
I have often thought that most US presidents since 1950 or so deserved to be arrested, tried and handed, at least as much as Tojo or Goering.
Posted by: lester | Nov 26 2024 0:42 utc | 78
"If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged." – Chomsky
https://chomsky.info/1990____-2/
Posted by: burak | Nov 26 2024 1:10 utc | 80
This ceasefire is pure conjecture........Bibi and the War Cabinet of radical war criminals have no intention of offering a ceasefire on fair and objective terms......their terms are submit or we will blow up all of downtown Beirut......
Hezbollah has already stated clearly that no ceasefire for Gaza and no ceasefire in Lebanon either.....the missile war on Haifa and Tel Aviv will continue............
I see no concrete signs that the IDF or Hamas or Hezbollah or PIJ or PFLP will move off their stations on this issue........
The IDF is now lead by racists and bigots who describe Palestinians as beasts and rats...........hardly an atmosphere for compromise......
Posted by: Tobias Cole | Nov 26 2024 1:18 utc | 81
The WPO is just a mouthpiece for the Israeli lobby in DC......its amazing the largest slaughter of innocent civilians in this century can be so lightly dismissed by the official paper of the CIA and FBI......
100,000 civilians dead, 100,000 maimed, 100,000 missing, and over one million civilians now war refugees after the genocide campaign, many in danger of starving to death for lack of food and fresh water......and
All the WPO can do is defend the Israeli government, a government of racists who continuously justify the mass murder of women and children and the destruction of all civil servants and their families and all civilian infrastructure..........its not a newspaper its a propaganda organ.......
Posted by: Tobias Cole | Nov 26 2024 1:29 utc | 82
Wouldn't that trigger NATO's article 5? lol!
Posted by: Englishman | Nov 25 2024 23:43 utc | 72
Hardly, did nordstream trigger ?
I just mentioned it would be slightly unbecoming for the vass-allies and another instance where it would be a little too “in your face” for European capos
Posted by: Newbie | Nov 26 2024 1:35 utc | 83
I have often thought that most US presidents since 1950 or so deserved to be arrested, tried, and hanged, at least as much as Tojo or Goering.
Posted by: lester | Nov 26 2024 0:42 utc | 78
-------------------------------------------------------------
Certainly, LBJ for his complicity in the death of JFK: they couldn't have done the cover-up without him.
Posted by: Ed | Nov 26 2024 2:21 utc | 84
An interesting time for all. The times are a changin'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: BadDealMotorsOn | Nov 26 2024 2:38 utc | 85
"The ICC is putting the elected leaders of a democratic country with its own independent judiciary in the same category as dictators and authoritarians who kill with impunity."
So there's a category where it's all good to kill with impunity as long as there's elected leaders and an independent judiciary?
Posted by: [Citation Needed] | Nov 26 2024 2:47 utc | 86
To all US Americans: did you vote? Do you pay taxes?
You're legitimizing and financing those terrorists at the top so what does that make you? You are the problem, every single one of you.
Posted by: Zet | Nov 26 2024 3:00 utc | 87
Apollyon | Nov 25 2024 15:57 utc | 3
*** “If you are going to help the ICC as a nation enforce the arrest warrant against Bibi and Gallant… I will put sanctions on you,” adds Graham, who has turned on the court ..***
Trump and Biden both lost the US election to President Graham?
Posted by: Cynic | Nov 26 2024 3:02 utc | 88
The endless and most frustrating HYPOCRISY of US Zionist elite knows no bounds. As far as the US is concerned, only Putin should be arrested for war crimes and NOT ZioJew boy in Ukraine and the million of death he and the US have caused.
"The ill-considered arrest warrants against Israel only give Mr. Trump a new reason to halt American cooperation with the court, at a time when it’s needed for Russia, Sudan, Myanmar and conflicts elsewhere that atrocities are being committed with impunity and the victims have no other recourse."
Oh, those countries the US is trying to regime change or otherwise terrorize? The millions dead and displaced the US and now Israhell have caused and will continue to?
We are NOT a serious country. And our MSM are shameless morons working for the CIA/MOSSAD/MI6
Posted by: Kay | Nov 26 2024 3:04 utc | 89
The endless and most frustrating HYPOCRISY of US Zionist elite knows no bounds. As far as the US is concerned, only Putin should be arrested for war crimes and NOT ZioJew boy in Ukraine and the million of death he and the US have caused.
"The ill-considered arrest warrants against Israel only give Mr. Trump a new reason to halt American cooperation with the court, at a time when it’s needed for Russia, Sudan, Myanmar and conflicts elsewhere that atrocities are being committed with impunity and the victims have no other recourse."
Oh, those countries the US is trying to regime change or otherwise terrorize? The millions dead and displaced the US and now Israhell have caused and will continue to?
We are NOT a serious country. And our MSM are shameless morons working for the CIA/MOSSAD/MI6
Posted by: Kay | Nov 26 2024 3:04 utc | 90
I'm not convinced the ICC arrest warrants are meaningful.
As attested to by Western MSM and politicians, the ICC is a kangaroo court controlled by Western overlords to deal with non compliant former colonies.
The ICJ needs to make a decision on the charges laid against the occupiers.
Posted by: Suresh | Nov 26 2024 3:38 utc | 91
I'm not convinced the ICC arrest warrants are meaningful.
As attested to by Western MSM and politicians, the ICC is a kangaroo court controlled by Western overlords to deal with non compliant former colonies.
The ICJ needs to make a decision on the charges laid against the occupiers.
Posted by: Suresh | Nov 26 2024 3:38 utc | 92
'Empires are like sausages. One should not inquire too closely into what goes into them or how they are made.'
But as empire explodes and decomposes we will increasingly come to know all of these.
And so we must prepare ourselves as best we can for whatever lies ahead.
Posted by: John Gilberts | Nov 26 2024 5:18 utc | 93
Posted by: Jane | Nov 25 2024 21:36 utc | 65
To me that implies a tacit acceptance that the ICC is the supreme judicial authority, over the highest national court. Their "procedural" logic does seem, in a backhanded way, to confirm the standing of the ICC.
<= The ICC has preemptive jurisdiction over crimes against humanity.. in those matters it is the supreme court for all humans in the world. A court based in human rights has always been objectionable to those who must own, control and dictate everything.. having to put up with and consider the well being of the rift raft is unconscionably frustrating.
B writes
The Washington Post editors do not even try to refute the courts argument. They can't.
They admit though that Israel, acting with impunity, is deliberately causing a famine:
Posted by: W | Nov 25 2024 15:59 utc | 5
What ICC has done is destroying this narrative, and remind that Israel is just a colonial outpost.
<=I think the court has done more than destroy a narrative; it has established that justice requires that no person be allowed to violate the rights of mankind even if such person is head of state. There is no immunity for crimes against humanity and the ICC has preemptive judicial power to prosecute such crimes when the state hosting a guilty party refuses to properly prosecute and punish a person guilty of such crimes. Its just that the court is hard pressed to get its decisions enforced..
Posted by: Exile | Nov 25 2024 18:12 utc | 42
Just wait until the ICC issues arrest warrants for the 1,000 IDF fighters individually id'd as committing crimes against humanity. Thick dossiers were submitted a while ago.
<=enforcement is a problem.. but what if worldwide humanity were to mobilize in order to empower the court's jurisdiction would that make a different outcome?
Posted by: Ed Bernays | Nov 25 2024 18:48 utc | 45
<=yes, i saw some of those tapes.. ..
Posted by: Marvin | Nov 25 2024 17:06 utc | 27
Either you accept the separation of powers and live in democracy. Or you don't, and you don't.
<=show me where in the constitution it says that relations between American citizens and the people elected to run the USA government will be democratic?
The great promise in the constitution is the Bill of Rights [which were added by amendment, three years following the 1788 ratification of the constitution]; because these ten amendments state that government officials are not allowed to violate the human rights of citizens.
Posted by: snake | Nov 26 2024 6:40 utc | 94
Nuremberg was insufficient to deter the same crimes being committed again in Palestine. Nuremberg II will require lots more rope.
Posted by: Vog3lfr3i | Nov 26 2024 6:41 utc | 95
Maybe the Pope should beatify benjamin satanyahu? Would this satisfy the sensibilities of the crooked WaPo (WaKo) folks?
Posted by: Knavish | Nov 26 2024 8:14 utc | 96
https://x.com/BrankoMilan/status/1860950642841256371
Branko Milanovic @BrankoMilan
Honestly, I have never, never seen in my life an article that openly, without dissimulation, calls for two distinct judicial systems: one for upper races, another for lower.
https://x.com/PeruginiNic/status/1860942140236304724
Nicola Perugini @PeruginiNic
Associate professor, politics and IR, Edinburgh.
According to the Washington Post Israel should not be investigated by the ICC because Hamas is “human shielding” and Israel is a democracy fighting barbarians. ICC is not for civilized colonial powers.
The WP argues that ICC should not investigate because Israel should be investigated by its own legal system which legalized: land and natural resources grab; land looting; ethnic cleansing; punitive house demolitions; forcible transfer; interrogation of children under torture 1/
https://x.com/PeruginiNic/status/1860961897027149977
The WP argues that ICC should not investigate because Israel should be investigated by its own legal system which legalized: confiscation of dead bodies; denial of family visits; apartheid planning; deportation; use of white phosphorous; apartheid wall; starvation 2/2
https://x.com/ecomarxi/status/1860994714251526611
Tiberius @ecomarxi
This is fucking insane. The editor of this newspaper should be in jail.
Posted by: michaelj72 | Nov 26 2024 8:39 utc | 97
Posted by: Vog3lfr3i | Nov 26 2024 6:41 utc | 95
Nuremberg II will require lots more rope.t
There wasn't a lot of rope in the first one since only 12 of 177 defendants were executed.
Like everywhere, most nazis got of easy or got released early and pardoned.
Posted by: Ed Bernays | Nov 26 2024 10:17 utc | 98
So it seems the scribes at this excreble rag have either done stuff that renders them vulnerable to extortion or are supporters of genocidal psychopathy. Who gives even half of a flying fuck what they think. They are on a very fast train to irrelevancy.
Posted by: eagle eye | Nov 26 2024 10:22 utc | 99
Senator Graham said a very interesting thing, the "We're next" part.
Why fear the law when you have done nothing illegal ? Does he realized he just, in a way, plead guilty in advance ?
Very interesting ...
Posted by: Savonarole | Nov 26 2024 10:32 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
I am impressed you manage to remain this calm over this kind of behaviour.
I could not, and cannot.
Posted by: AG | Nov 25 2024 15:51 utc | 1