What’s Good for the Goose
Why the ICC is Right to Indict Netanyahu
On Monday, chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan announced that he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, as well as others, for war crimes and other crimes against humanity. In a blistering (though entirely predictable) response, President Joe Biden objected, saying, “Let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.” Netanyahu, echoing the tired, yet familiar refrain of former President Donald Trump (who is currently facing his own onslaught of federal and state indictments here at home), was even stronger in his denunciation, calling Mr. Khan a “rogue prosecutor who’s out to demonize the one and only Jewish state.” Thankfully, in the days since, leaders of Belgium, France, and Germany (all NATO allies of the United States) broke with the U.S. and Israel and stated publicly that they respect the independence of the ICC. It’s time we did the same.
After all, when this same organization issued an arrest warrant in March of last year for Russian President Vladimir Putin for the war crimes his government continues to commit in Ukraine, Biden called the move “justified” before subsequently conceding that the pronouncement was largely symbolic, as…
