[HN Gopher] ICC issues warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, and Hama...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       ICC issues warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, and Hamas officials
        
       Author : runarberg
       Score  : 625 points
       Date   : 2024-11-21 12:13 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.icc-cpi.int)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.icc-cpi.int)
        
       | Qem wrote:
       | > The Chamber issued warrants of arrest for two individuals, Mr
       | Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Yoav Gallant, for crimes against
       | humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023
       | until at least 20 May 2024
       | 
       | And things got much worse in the latter part of 2024. Even if the
       | court didn't take into account facts after 20 May 2024, ample
       | evidence already existing by then was already enough to issue the
       | warrants. When it takes more evidence into account I bet more
       | warrants will be issued.
        
         | bhouston wrote:
         | It is incredibly likely another series of warrants will be
         | issued for the next level down of both Israeli and Hamas
         | leadership.
         | 
         | It is too bad Lebanon didn't ratify the ICC treaty. They really
         | should have.
        
           | ComputerGuru wrote:
           | It is indeed ridiculous that Lebanon didn't join the ICC, one
           | has to imagine that Hezbollah played a role in that decision.
           | Which is funny because all the Palestinian resistance
           | factions actually pushed for ICC jurisdiction to the extent
           | that they called for it to apply to them and Israel equally!
           | The hoops the Palestinians had to jump through to join the
           | ICC were crazy, including (reified) threats of heavy
           | punishments from the US if they did.
           | 
           | Here's the full story if anyone is interested: https://palepe
           | dia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Court%27s_...
        
       | n4r9 wrote:
       | According to the BBC:
       | 
       | > A warrant was also issued for [Hamas military commander]
       | Mohammed Deif, although the Israeli military has said he was
       | killed in an air strike in Gaza in July.
       | 
       | [0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly2exvx944o
        
         | dang wrote:
         | This is the link: https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-
         | palestine-icc-p...
         | 
         | Most news reports are treating this as a single story, but
         | posting the original source seems a good idea in this case; it
         | just happens to be split across two URLs.
        
       | ktallett wrote:
       | Rightfully so, their intentions and actions which have matched,
       | have been clear for the last year. Hopefully the rest of the
       | international community including governments will finally stand
       | together and call them out for the crimes they have been
       | committing. This is hopefully a step to removing arms sales to
       | Israel as well from many countries.
        
       | nabla9 wrote:
       | (before you jump into discussion, remember that this only about
       | these two individuals)
       | 
       | ICC and the prosecutor are on very solid ground here.
       | 
       | The prosecutor asked opinions from a impartial panel of experts
       | in international law. The panel included people like Theodor
       | Meron (former Legal adviser for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign
       | Affairs), Helene Kennedy, Adrian Fulford.
       | 
       | Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant provided plenty of evidence of the
       | intent. Did they really think that when they talk Hebrew to their
       | audience, rest of the world does not hear them. Case like this
       | would be harder to prosecute without evidence of intent.
        
         | justin66 wrote:
         | > Did they really think that when they talk Hebrew to their
         | audience, rest of the world does not hear them.
         | 
         | When it comes to US public opinion, that's normally the way it
         | works.
        
           | PaulHoule wrote:
           | Thanks to our media and politicians.
        
             | nabla9 wrote:
             | People without media and politicians are not that much
             | better.
        
             | GordonS wrote:
             | And in turn, thanks to orgs like AIPAC.
        
               | bjoli wrote:
               | I had a look at the democrats who support the recent
               | "Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American
               | Hostages Act". I had a look at 10 of them. 7 of them had
               | substantial donations from AIPAC. The others were soon up
               | for re-election.
               | 
               | I am not American, but why oh why are you not rooting in
               | the streets? That is just soooo effed up. This is just
               | one of so many issues, and AIPAC is a just a part of the
               | problem. It is just so obvious that U.S. politicians are
               | up for purchase.
        
             | MrMcCall wrote:
             | ... where the combination of their and the public's willful
             | ignorance results in much needless suffering.
        
           | bbqfog wrote:
           | The translate button on Twitter has been _super_ helpful
           | since Oct 7th. You can go see for yourself what most Israelis
           | are thinking and let me just say, it 's very, very appalling
           | and openly genocidal for the most part.
        
             | justin66 wrote:
             | In fairness to Israel, they have a peace movement and human
             | rights movement and so on. It's just that even before
             | October 7th, they were getting increasingly outnumbered.
        
             | burkaman wrote:
             | I don't necessarily think you're wrong, but drawing any
             | conclusions from random people on Twitter seems like a
             | mistake. They might not be human, they might not be
             | Israeli, and they might not be representative of Israel's 9
             | million people. I wouldn't want anybody to judge me based
             | on how English-speaking Twitter accounts behave.
        
             | magic_hamster wrote:
             | Israel was massively radicalized by October 7th. Prior to
             | October 7th, a lot of Israelis believed that if
             | Palestinians had a better economy and could afford a
             | comfortable life, peace would be possible. October 7th was
             | not just a surprise to many Israelis, but also the
             | atrocities were so horrible that it radically changed how
             | Israelis view the situation. This is hard to grasp, but a
             | lot of people don't really understand what happened on
             | October 7th, because this was stuff was obviously not shown
             | on mainstream media.
             | 
             | The entire situation is very tragic. But ultimately,
             | October 7th killed any chance for peace between Israel and
             | the Palestinians, for a long long time. The current
             | population in Israel will never forget October 7th, there
             | are some seriously cannot-be-unseen NSFL atrocities.
        
               | throw310822 wrote:
               | > Israel was massively radicalized by October 7th
               | 
               | Israel had been locking Gaza in a total blockade for 17
               | years (with talk of "keeping them on a diet"), plus had
               | bombed Gaza multiple times resulting in more than 5000
               | deaths (= 5 October 7ths- they called this "mowing the
               | lawn". During these bombing campaigns we have pictures of
               | Israelis enjoying the show from afar from observation
               | points with food and drinks).
               | 
               | In the meanwhile they enforced an apartheid regime in the
               | West Bank, building new settlements for hundreds of
               | thousands of residents, and launching pogroms to drive
               | away the Palestinian population.
               | 
               | So no, it wasn't Oct 7th that radicalised them.
        
               | throw_pm23 wrote:
               | It is telling that you also mention "better economy" and
               | "comfortable life", but not "equal rights" or "self-
               | government" or any such thing. Even with animals in the
               | zoo one doesn't think that all they need is being well-
               | fed.
        
               | WaxProlix wrote:
               | Which atrocities? What wasn't shown on mainstream media?
               | 
               | In my experience, most of what mainstream media claimed
               | initially around atrocities was proven to be
               | categorically false - up to and including the president
               | of the USA going on live TV and lying about having seen
               | evidence of baby killing, with staffers having to
               | sheepishly and quietly release a "that didn't happen"
               | statement later.
               | 
               | Of course these retractions happened later, and Israel's
               | explicit and planned messaging of atrocities, inhuman
               | animal behavior, etc had its desired effect of riling
               | people up to support a genocidal assault after a single
               | successful counterattack from an impoverished people at
               | war for generations.
        
               | robobro wrote:
               | I agree that what the IDF is doing to Palestinians, now
               | and for a long time is very tragic, and it's also tragic
               | how many of their own people and fellow soldiers they
               | (IDF) killed on Oct 7th.
        
               | ben_w wrote:
               | Myself, I have no sense of what it's like in Israel right
               | now, but I have noted several times that the October 7th
               | attack was proportionally worse to Israel than 9/11 was
               | to the US, so I can easily believe that this had a
               | similar impact on the national psyche.
               | 
               | That said, I do often read comments and news articles
               | claiming that Netanyahu's government is unpopular within
               | Israel, and that he only maintains his position by the
               | support of the... well, there's not a polite way to
               | describe the attitudes of the settlers who take land that
               | isn't in Israel and then demand Israel defend them, nor
               | those who demand violence while claiming their religious
               | beliefs prohibit serving in the armed forces even though
               | everyone else has conscription.
               | 
               | Not confident of that popularity though, as Googling gets
               | me an _extraordinarily_ broad range of popularity scores.
               | 
               | That said:
               | 
               | > But ultimately, October 7th killed any chance for peace
               | between Israel and the Palestinians, for a long long
               | time.
               | 
               | Did any chance of a peace live before?
               | 
               | The Israeli PM who signed the Oslo Accords, Yitzhak
               | Rabin, was shot by a far-right-wing Israeli extremist for
               | signing them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_Accords
               | 
               | A large portion of the Palestinian population also
               | opposed it.
        
         | bawolff wrote:
         | I mean, nobody really knows until the trial (if one ever
         | happens). Its easy to be convincing when you are just listening
         | to the prosecution - it gets harder once the defense has the
         | opportunity to poke holes.
         | 
         | Keep in mind the conviction rate at ICC is pretty low.
         | 
         | > The prosecutor asked opinions from a impartial panel of
         | experts in international law.
         | 
         | The court already disagreed with said panel on one of the
         | charges (crime of extermination) and we aren't even at the
         | stage yet where they need proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
         | 
         | Netanyahu and Gallant should certainly be quite worried (if
         | they somehow find themselves in icc custody which seems
         | unlikely) but we are still very far away from a conviction. Its
         | not a foregone conclusion.
        
           | nabla9 wrote:
           | The outcome of this case will be hard to predict, but
           | Netanyahu and Gallant did their best to get convicted.
        
             | MrMcCall wrote:
             | Your dark humor made me chuckle. Thanks for that in this
             | dire world.
             | 
             | May the persecution of all innocent Jews, Palestinians,
             | Ukrainians, and Africans (e.g. Ugandans) end and a world of
             | peace and justice be established, for one and all.
        
               | buran77 wrote:
               | The double edged sword is that proving an ongoing crime
               | maybe stops it from unfolding but anything other than a
               | conviction is presented as an endorsement and
               | encouragement to continue. That could be fine if there's
               | really no crime, not so fine if the crime just couldn't
               | be proven.
               | 
               | Considering here the old adage that absence of evidence
               | isn't evidence of absence. They both lead to the same
               | verdict from a court of public opinion point of view, and
               | realistically the same consequences from a court of
               | justice.
        
           | GordonS wrote:
           | > Keep in mind the conviction rate at ICC is pretty low.
           | 
           | My understanding is that's because it's usually difficult to
           | show _intent_. However, in this case, not only do we have an
           | incredible amount of video evidence of war crimes, but we
           | also have a huge catalogue of Israeli politicians explicitly
           | calling for the genocide of Gaza.
           | 
           | My biggest concern over this is what the US and/or Mossad
           | will do...
        
             | edanm wrote:
             | > However, in this case, not only do we have an incredible
             | amount of video evidence of war crimes, but we also have a
             | huge catalogue of Israeli politicians explicitly calling
             | for the genocide of Gaza.
             | 
             | I disagree that there is an incredible amount of video
             | evidence of war crimes that are relevant here.
             | 
             | And I also disagree that there is a huge catalogue of
             | Netanyahu and Gallant making statements that show intent.
             | For the purposes of these warrants, it doesn't matter what
             | other Israeli politicians have said as I understand it.
        
             | bawolff wrote:
             | Usually when people say that they are talking about
             | genocide. War crimes and crimes against humanity may have
             | some intent requirements but they don't have the double
             | intent that genocide has, which is the part that is super
             | difficult to prove.
             | 
             | To over simplify (also ianal) with genocide you basically
             | have to prove that the only possible rationale for the
             | action was to try and destroy the protected group and that
             | there is no other plausible explanation. With normal war
             | crimes its more just proving the act wasn't done
             | accidentally. [This is a gross oversimplification]
             | 
             | > but we also have a huge catalogue of Israeli politicians
             | explicitly calling for the genocide of Gaza.
             | 
             | I don't think that is relavent here, as genocide is not one
             | of the charges. Additionally, that would probably be more
             | relavent to state responsibility for genocide (what the icj
             | decides) and not personal responsibility (what icc has
             | juridsication over). Even for state responsibility, its a
             | bit iffy how much those statements matter if they aren't
             | said by people who have the power to issue orders to the
             | military (they of course matter a lot if the charge is
             | failing to suppress incitement of genocide). I'm not saying
             | its totally irrelavent, it is probably a bit relavent to
             | the prosecution charge, but largely it matters more what
             | the individuals themselves have said as they are being
             | charged in an individual capacity not as agents of the
             | state.
             | 
             | Basically the ICC and ICJ are different and what you are
             | saying is more applicable to the ICJ case not the ICC case.
        
         | nielsbot wrote:
         | Also important to note that Khan, who filed the warrant
         | requests, was one of Israel's preferred appointees to the ICC
         | as chief prosecutor.
        
           | starik36 wrote:
           | Why would it be preferred or not? Israel is not an ICC
           | member.
        
             | ceejayoz wrote:
             | One can express a preference without having the right to
             | participate in the selection.
             | 
             | Quite a few non-US citizens express a preference on who
             | wins the Presidency, for example.
             | 
             | https://www.timesofisrael.com/uks-karim-khan-elected-next-
             | ic...
             | 
             | > Israel's Kan public broadcaster reported that Israeli
             | officials supported Khan's candidacy behind the scenes, and
             | consider him a pragmatist who shies away from
             | politicization.
        
         | yieldcrv wrote:
         | Also note that the US imposed heavy sanctions on Ethopia and
         | Eritrea's entire government party, head of state, spouses and
         | businesses under the exact same observations of provoking
         | famine and starvation
         | 
         | EO 14046
        
         | hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
         | My question, though, is does pushing these kinds of toothless
         | resolutions make any difference beyond showing that the ICC
         | essentially has no power to enforce its warrants?
         | 
         | It's clear that the most powerful militaries in the world (US,
         | Russia, essentially China too) have declared the "rules-based
         | world order" dead. Does it do anyone any good to pretend this
         | hasn't happened? It reminded me of the post Elizabeth Warren
         | put out complaining that Trump was breaking the law because he
         | didn't sign some ethics pledge:
         | https://x.com/SenWarren/status/1856046118322188573. I couldn't
         | help but roll my eyes. All Warren was doing was showing how
         | pointless these laws are when there are no consequences for
         | breaking them.
         | 
         | The rules-based world order was always a bit of convenient
         | fiction, but I'm afraid it's a fiction that a large part of the
         | world no longer believes in anymore.
        
           | hilbert42 wrote:
           | _" It's clear that the most powerful militaries in the world
           | (US, Russia, essentially China too) have declared the "rules-
           | based world order" dead."_
           | 
           | Correct, and that's what happened only about a decade after
           | WWI--the _War to End All Wars_ and look what happened.
           | 
           | I'm fearful history might repeat itself. It has a bad habit
           | of doing so and often with unexpected twists.
        
             | com wrote:
             | Justice has to be declared as an essential principle of
             | human organisation.
             | 
             | If the 1984 vision of a boot stamping on a human face
             | forever is going to work out to be true, then so be it.
             | 
             | The ICJ is at least holding out against that future.
             | 
             | What will you (as a human) choose to do?
             | 
             | These days and years are going to be definitional I think.
        
               | hilbert42 wrote:
               | _" The ICJ is at least holding out against that future."_
               | 
               | ICJ? Are you implying that what I said, implied or
               | inferred was against the ICC?
               | 
               | Let me be clear, I nether said, meant nor inferred any of
               | those things. In fact I'm in favor of the ICC despite the
               | fact it's a paper tiger in areas where it's most needed.
               | 
               |  _Edit: that said, like many, I 've some criticisms all
               | of which other comments have echoed. Like most things the
               | ICC is a compromise in an imperfect world, it's better
               | than nothing though._
        
               | ben_w wrote:
               | Merely getting "declared" is not enough -- North Korea
               | "declares" itself to be a democracy -- what matters is
               | actually doing it.
               | 
               | The relevance of the ICC etc. is rooted in how much
               | people actually do, not just say.
        
           | ClumsyPilot wrote:
           | > have declared the "rules-based world order" dead
           | 
           | I have hunker are confusing two things here - there is
           | international law, which the US and other delinquents break
           | regularly.
           | 
           | And there is Rules based world order, which is what US talks
           | about and attempts to impose.
           | 
           | For example imposing sanctions on Russia does not have basis
           | in international law, but is part of 'rules based order'
        
             | aguaviva wrote:
             | _For example imposing sanctions on Russia does not have
             | basis in international law,_
             | 
             | Of course it does.
             | 
             | Every country is free to choose which countries it does
             | business with.
        
               | cue_the_strings wrote:
               | Bear in mind that most of the time, sanctions not only
               | prevent you from doing business with the sanctioned
               | entity, but also with any other entity that's doing
               | business with them.
        
               | aguaviva wrote:
               | Bear in mind that this has no bearing on the point under
               | discussion.
        
               | mianos wrote:
               | I think you are agreeing with that. There is not some
               | international law that says countries must deal.with
               | countries they don't want to. It's a national thing.
        
           | fmajid wrote:
           | Netanyahu and Gallant will no longer be able to travel to
           | Europe, and likely will not want to fly over Europe either
           | (thus not to the US either).
        
             | andrewinardeer wrote:
             | Why not the US?
             | 
             | The aren't signatories to the ICC.
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | The typical route _to_ the US from Israel passes over
               | much of Europe.
        
             | tzs wrote:
             | If they just wanted to hop on a regular commercial flight
             | to the US that might be a problem, but I'd expect they
             | would fly on military aircraft.
             | 
             | Instead of taking the most direct route which would fly
             | over Europe they could stay over the Mediterranean until
             | they reach the Atlantic and then head straight to the US.
             | 
             | That adds about 500 miles or so to the trip which probably
             | isn't a big deal on a trip that long.
        
               | ben_w wrote:
               | Now I'm wondering if airspace spreads out horizontally
               | from the coast the same way that shipping rights do.
               | 
               | I'd assume so, but a quick skim-read didn't tell me
               | either way.
               | 
               | If it does, then they'd pick between going through
               | Spanish or Moroccan airspace, because the straights of
               | Gibraltar are narrow enough you can see Africa _from
               | Gibraltar_.
        
           | edanm wrote:
           | > My question, though, is does pushing these kinds of
           | toothless resolutions make any difference beyond showing that
           | the ICC essentially has no power to enforce its warrants?
           | 
           | Absolutely this matters.
           | 
           | This effectively limits where Netanyahu and Gallant can
           | travel to. That's a big deal for a head of state. It sends a
           | signal to all of Europe to be wary of doing business with
           | Israel, which is a big deal.
           | 
           | We also don't know if there are any hidden warrants for other
           | Israelis, and more importantly, if this is a precedent for
           | future warrants. If the court starts issuing warrants for
           | other IDF military personnel, that becomes a huge negative
           | for Israelis.
        
             | Animats wrote:
             | At some point Netanyahu will be out of power. He's been
             | voted out of office before. He's in trouble politically. He
             | promised a short, victorious war over Gaza, and got into a
             | long major war against Iran and more countries instead. The
             | next government might decide to turn him over to the ICC
             | simply to get him off the political stage.
        
         | ClumsyPilot wrote:
         | > Gallant provided plenty of evidence of the intent. Did they
         | really think that when they talk Hebrew to their audience, rest
         | of the world does not hear them.
         | 
         | Absolutely, I can not find the BBC or most other major news
         | networks broadcasting and translating any of that.
         | 
         | I only see that on social media
        
       | xenospn wrote:
       | When was the last time a head of state was arrested by the ICC?
        
         | nabla9 wrote:
         | Omar al-Bashir is currently jailed in Sudan, but has not been
         | transferred to ICC custody yet.
         | 
         | Gaddafi was killed before he could be arrested.
        
         | bhouston wrote:
         | > When was the last time a head of state was arrested by the
         | ICC?
         | 
         | It also acts as a deterrent as much of the world will now
         | likely be out of bounds for travel for either the Israelis or
         | Hamas leadership who were issued warrants.
        
           | jacob019 wrote:
           | Dead men don't travel.
        
         | ssijak wrote:
         | Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was arrested and deported
         | by the government of Yugoslavia after him. Of course, under
         | immense pressure from the west. My preference would be that we
         | tried him under our courts and sent him to jail in
         | Yugoslavia/Serbia.
         | 
         | Now, imposing "justice" obviously only works when you do it to
         | small nations like Yugoslavia or Rwanda. Of course it will not
         | apply to the Israel leader, let alone to somebody from even
         | more powerful nation.
        
           | nabla9 wrote:
           | That was ICTY, not ICC as OP asked.
        
           | KSteffensen wrote:
           | I don't understand how a tiny country like Israel has become
           | so important in global politics. By population Rwanda is ~30%
           | larger than Israel.
        
             | beng-nl wrote:
             | From my weak understanding, it's the only ally the west
             | (USA) has in the Middle East, so they're important
             | strategically - for military bases and other reasons I
             | don't really understand, and so are propped up by financial
             | aid and weapons and other help (intelligence etc?) beyond
             | what would normally happen to a similar country.
        
               | sofixa wrote:
               | > From my weak understanding, it's the only ally the west
               | (USA) has in the Middle East, so they're important
               | strategically
               | 
               | Nope, the US has bases in Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Djibouti
               | and is friendly with the regimes in Saudi Arabia and
               | Egypt.
        
               | beng-nl wrote:
               | Sorry, that'll teach me to state beliefs rather than
               | facts. Thanks for the correction.
        
               | ignoramous wrote:
               | In Jordan, Kuwait, and Lebanon, too. Believe the US arms
               | and trains the Lebanese army?
               | 
               | In Syria, the US has friendlies and bases setup to help
               | them. In Iraq, the US maintains strategic presence.
        
               | derektank wrote:
               | The US has several allies in the middle east. Egypt,
               | Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar all have major non-
               | NATO ally status with the US, the same status as Israel.
               | Jordan in particular is a very close US partner.
               | 
               | I should add, none of these countries are treaty allies
               | of the US, i.e. none of them have a mutual defense treaty
               | with the US. The one country that is a treaty ally of the
               | US in the region is Turkey, though that relationship has
               | been strained in the last couple of decades
        
               | beng-nl wrote:
               | Thanks for the correction. The downvote I got was
               | justified.
        
               | toyg wrote:
               | That strategic relevance has long gone.
               | 
               | The current relevance is strictly dictated by internal
               | political and demographic balances in the United States.
        
             | maccard wrote:
             | They're a western bastion in very close proximity to the
             | Middle East, with a cultural and religious tie to a not
             | insignificant number of Americans. It's also a wealthy
             | country.
        
               | runako wrote:
               | > very close proximity to the Middle East
               | 
               | Israel is _in_ the Middle East.
        
             | neom wrote:
             | Given Israel is the motherland for many Jewish people, plus
             | almost 2.5% of the USA is Jewish, plus there are almost 16
             | million Jewish people globally, I would imagine that.
        
             | PaulHoule wrote:
             | They've worked really hard at it.
             | 
             | Israel for instance has a special relationship with Germany
             | because of remorse for the 1940s. This incident in the
             | 1970s
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_massacre
             | 
             | further gives Germany a reason to crack down on pro-
             | Palestinian protestors. Although supporters of the
             | Palestinians have not staged international attacks for a
             | long time the history of this in the 1970s explains why my
             | Uni suddenly instituted a clear bag policy at sports games
             | a few weeks after the lid blew off in Gaza last year. (When
             | I started doing sports photography at the beginning of the
             | semester I could pack a big camera bag and even take extra
             | lenses)
             | 
             | Also Israel has a high GDP and involvement in international
             | trade, academia, etc. Israel has 50x the GDP per head of
             | Rwanda so they have a large impact in terms of Intel's
             | Haifa office, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Sodastream, etc. My
             | thesis advisor traveled to Tel Aviv a lot to work with
             | collaborators.
        
               | phantompeace wrote:
               | Not to mention Israel has been receiving absolutely
               | immense amounts of financial, military and political
               | support from the USA for decades, to the tunes of
               | billions.
        
               | PaulHoule wrote:
               | It goes both ways, but I'd say it is more driven by the
               | value of Israel's economy rather than the other way
               | around. Of course you have to consider that Israel's
               | defense sector is also part of their economic dynamism.
               | 
               | Big picture here is my take. Since 1948 there have been
               | conservatives in Israel such as Ariel Sharon and Benjamin
               | Netanyahu who have had a policy of ethnic cleansing in
               | that they cannot tolerate there being a non-Jewish part
               | of the polity which is large enough to have political
               | power. The plan has elements such as (a) dividing the
               | population into different fragments such as the West
               | Bank, Gaza and Arab Israelis that don't work together,
               | (b) developing occasional crises that result in the
               | killing or expulsion of large numbers of Palestinians,
               | (c) most of all making sure that the Palestinians do not
               | develop effective leadership, economic connections, soft
               | power, etc. The destruction of academic organizations is
               | critical to this plan because they don't want
               | Palestinians to succeed the way that Jewish people have,
               | instead they want ignorant stupid and desperate
               | Palestinians to make bad moves such as the attacks last
               | year, Munich, numerous 1970s airplane hijackings, the
               | attempt to take over Jordan and such which justifies
               | their persecution in the minds of Israelis and many
               | others
               | 
               | I had a harrowing conversation with a Jewish
               | mathematician about 15 years ago where he explained that
               | it wasn't genocide because the Palestinians were not "a
               | people" which at the time my answer was "boy you sure
               | sound like the leader of Germany from 1933 to 1945" but
               | I've chewed on and have an interpretation of:
               | 
               | Say the remnants of the Iroquois contacted aliens or got
               | some machine like Drexler talked about and decided, now
               | that they had the means, they wanted to take back New
               | York. Are the people who live in the boundaries of New
               | York really a "people" or "nation" or they are just
               | people who live in a certain boundary? (Certainly you
               | find every kind of white, black, Asian and indigenous
               | person from absolutely everywhere here.)
               | 
               | The Ottoman empire despite claiming to be a Caliphate was
               | actually very cosmopolitan and all sorts of people could
               | live everywhere in much of the middle east (a Jewish
               | friend had family that came from Iraq!) so they can make
               | the case that the pre 1948 population of Palestine was
               | just a bunch of randos like us New Yorkers.
               | 
               | Genocide is a crime on top of mass murder because of not
               | just the harm to those killed or the trauma to the
               | survivors and children of the survivors who recapitulate
               | the crime 80 years later, but also the the whole world in
               | the sense that the extinction of a species is a loss to
               | the whole world. Germany is worse off today because of
               | the holocaust because of all the things that aren't there
               | and all of the richness that Jewish people brought to
               | Germany that was lost. (20 years ago I could not find a
               | good bagel shop wherever I went in Germany!)
               | 
               | It's a technicality whether it is genocide or just mass
               | murder in my mind, but it's a good line to get into mind
               | of people like Netanyahu who are thinking ahead hundreds
               | or thousands of years with events like
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_diaspora
               | 
               | as clear in their minds as if they happened yesterday. On
               | a bad day I think the polities of liberal democracies are
               | like children in the hands of gods when it comes to
               | facing those kind of people as our politicians often seem
               | to be thinking two or three days ahead, at most to the
               | next election and we are so self-centered and focused on
               | stupid little things like the price of eggs that they can
               | do what they want with us.
               | 
               | On the other hand there are so many positive things about
               | Israel and Israelis but they cannot find it within
               | themselves to constrain Netanyahu and they are paying a
               | price for it now and will continue to pay a price for it.
               | It is likely that if Netanyahu's program succeeds they'll
               | face a crisis of meaning when they no longer have an
               | enemy and they might lose their culture in just a few
               | generations and at best continue start the cycle of
               | losing their way and getting dispossessed which is
               | repeated several times in the Old Testament and in
               | history.
        
               | ckemere wrote:
               | This is the kind of longer response that I come to HN to
               | see. (Not intended as an endorsement of the ideas, but
               | appreciation of the approach.)
        
               | insane_dreamer wrote:
               | this has always been the key reason, going back to the
               | '60s
        
             | jrochkind1 wrote:
             | > I don't understand how a tiny country like Israel has
             | become so important in global politics.
             | 
             | Here are some of my favorite sources on that! These are all
             | leftist and pro-Palestinian sources, but they are academic
             | and studied. These are about why Israel is important to the
             | "interests of the USA" (ie, what those with power to decide
             | national interests think).
             | 
             | * "Framing Palestine: Israel, the Gulf states, and American
             | power in the Middle East" by Adam Hanieh
             | https://www.tni.org/en/article/framing-palestine
             | 
             | * The first chapter of "Palestine: A Socialist
             | Introduction", "How Israel Became the Watchdog State: US
             | Imperialism and the Middle East" by Shireen Akram-Boshar.
             | The publisher Haymarket is giving away the ebook for free.
             | https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1558-palestine-a-
             | social...
             | 
             | * "No, the US Doesn't Back Israel Because of AIPAC" by
             | Joseph Massad https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/no-the-us-
             | doesnt-back-israe...
        
               | jrochkind1 wrote:
               | (Odd to me that I'm getting downvoted for suggesting the
               | US support for Israel has to do with US interests, and
               | providing sources going into detail on that, and people
               | are getting upvoted for saying it's because Jews have a
               | lot of influence! It's really not mostly because Jews
               | have a lot of influence.)
        
               | throw310822 wrote:
               | Sorry, but it's really, really hard to read anything
               | about US politics and not to think "wow, Jews really _do_
               | have an enormous amount of power ".
               | 
               | From the lobbies (e.g. AIPAC), to the actual members of
               | the government and leading institutions, to the CEOs of
               | the biggest companies and chiefs of financial
               | institutions, to the media and newspapers, to Hollywood,
               | etc...
               | 
               | Not saying they don't deserve it, but still, just to
               | think how _over-represented_ they are...
        
             | sekai wrote:
             | > I don't understand how a tiny country like Israel has
             | become so important in global politics. By population
             | Rwanda is ~30% larger than Israel.
             | 
             | Iran and basically the rest of the Middle East, US needs an
             | ally to keep the region in check.
        
               | CapricornNoble wrote:
               | > Iran and basically the rest of the Middle East, US
               | needs an ally to keep the region in check.
               | 
               | The US (and also UK/France/Germany) have been bending
               | over backwards to prop up Israel since LONG before Iran
               | switched to an anti-US theocratic government.
        
               | dwater wrote:
               | Many scholars argue that the US uses Israel to
               | destabilize the region so that all other countries
               | besides Israel are unable to form a bloc and resist US
               | hegemony, but perhaps that's what you meant by "keep the
               | region in check".
        
               | jumping_frog wrote:
               | This video is relevant.
               | 
               | US President Joe Biden: "If there were not an Israel,
               | we'd have to invent one."
               | 
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HZs-v0PR44
        
               | lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote:
               | "We're also going to discuss the iron-clad commitment--
               | and this is-- I'll say this 5,000 times in my career, the
               | iron-clad commitment the United States has to Israel
               | _based on our principles, our ideas, our values_. They
               | 're the same values. And I've often said, Mr. President,
               | if there were not an Israel, we'd have to invent one."
               | 
               | Added emphasis to clarify the context of the quote.
        
               | xenospn wrote:
               | Even if Israel did not exist, the regional Middle East
               | governments would not agree on much. And definitely not
               | form a bloc.
        
               | n4r9 wrote:
               | Right now? For sure. But in the 50's and 60's there was a
               | growing pan-Arab movement in the Middle East.
        
               | xenospn wrote:
               | Israel and Iran used to be BFFs.
        
             | derektank wrote:
             | Because members of the largest religious faith in the world
             | identify with one party to the conflict and the global
             | hegemon supports the other
        
             | xenospn wrote:
             | History.
        
             | jumping_frog wrote:
             | According to Sachs, Israel has masterfully manipulated US
             | influence to extend its global reach, primarily through
             | AIPAC's incredibly efficient lobbying - spending just
             | hundreds of millions to secure billions in aid and
             | trillions in military spending. Netanyahu's strategy has
             | been particularly clever, pushing the US to overthrow
             | Middle Eastern governments that oppose Israeli policies, as
             | seen with Iraq, Syria, and Libya. Through campaign
             | financing, Israel has basically bought out Congress for
             | surprisingly little money, ensuring the US consistently
             | backs them internationally - like vetoing UN resolutions
             | that favor Palestinians. This US shield is so strong that
             | when the UN voted on Palestinian self-determination, only
             | the US, Israel, and a couple other countries opposed it.
             | Even when Biden sets boundaries for Israeli actions, they
             | just ignore them without consequences. The whole system's
             | genius lies in how Israel's managed to maintain its
             | policies despite global opposition, though Sachs thinks
             | this might backfire by making Israel too isolated and
             | blocking any chance of a two-state solution.
        
             | hn-throw wrote:
             | The Scofield Bible created ardent Christian zionists in the
             | South among evangelicals.
             | 
             | Israel basically uses them to manipulate DC, whilst its
             | allies in media ensure that Christians getting spat at in
             | Jerusalem isn't widely reported.
        
             | M3L0NM4N wrote:
             | Israelis are smart and work hard.
        
               | guerrilla wrote:
               | Everyone else is stupid and lazy? Stop it.
        
             | ignoramous wrote:
             | > _don 't understand how a tiny country like Israel has
             | become so important in global politics_
             | 
             | The simple reason is that global politics (at the UN) led
             | to the partition of the Mandate, against the will of entire
             | regions, which, right now, represent 30% of world's
             | population. Besides, anti-Muslim racism and anti-Semitism
             | always rears its very ugly head during this conflict,
             | especially in the US.
             | 
             | Subsequently, the lack of stability in the Middle East did
             | Israel no favours in how it is perceived, even if it may
             | not be solely its fault (it isn't).
             | 
             | Plus, the silencing of voices (particularly against
             | patently unfounded claims such as, "the most moral army",
             | "anti-Israelism is anti-Semitism", "the only democracy in
             | the middle east") themselves come with their own Streisand
             | Effect.
             | 
             | Also, socio-culturally, after Tibet & Cuba, it is one of
             | the last/few remaining geo-political global movements with
             | the added disadvantage of cutting through all 3 major
             | Abrahamic religions.
        
             | cwkoss wrote:
             | Israel is a colony of US imperialism and functions as the
             | US attack dog in the middle east, taking actions and
             | expressing rhetoric in support of US hegemony that are
             | politically infeasible.
        
           | selimthegrim wrote:
           | He was a former head of state by then.
        
       | 28304283409234 wrote:
       | How is this 'flagged'?
        
         | docdeek wrote:
         | Hacker News Guidelines: Off-Topic: Most stories about politics,
         | or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of
         | some interesting new phenomenon... If they'd cover it on TV
         | news, it's probably off-topic.
        
           | Qem wrote:
           | This is a significant update on an event of historical
           | impact.
        
             | 1over137 wrote:
             | If they get arrested it'd be of historical impact. These
             | warrants mean little really.
        
             | lesuorac wrote:
             | It's not a significant update. When the evergiven got stuck
             | in the suez canel; if a court issued an arrest warrant for
             | the captain that wouldn't have a historical impact.
             | 
             | In a hundred years from now, the leaders of Isreal that
             | people talk about will be the first, the last and the
             | second to last. Similar to how when people talk about the
             | Roman Empire (~500 year span) it's just Cesear.
        
             | kayodelycaon wrote:
             | Eh...
             | 
             | I've never heard of a warrant being more than a footnote in
             | history. Results are what ends up in the history books.
        
             | jazzyjackson wrote:
             | So let it be discussed on HistorianNews
        
         | dang wrote:
         | Users flagged it, as is common for the most divisive topics.
         | 
         | I've turned the flags off now, in keeping with HN's standard
         | practices: some (but only some) stories with political overlap
         | are allowed, and in the case of a Major Ongoing Topic (MOT) we
         | prefer the stories that contain Significant New Information
         | (SNI).
         | 
         | [1]
         | https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...
         | 
         | [2]
         | https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
         | 
         | [3]
         | https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...
         | 
         | Here are a bunch of past explanations I've posted about how we
         | approach this topic:
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41744331 (Oct 2024)
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40586961 (June 2024)
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40418881 (May 2024)
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39920732 (April 2024)
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39618973 (March 2024)
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39435024 (Feb 2024)
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39237176 (Feb 2024)
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38947003 (Jan 2024)
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38749162 (Dec 2023)
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27252765 (May 2021)
        
           | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
           | Stories with flags turned off should display a banner. These
           | moderation decisions deserve transparency.
        
             | ImPostingOnHN wrote:
             | I agree, so long as the people who flagged a given
             | submission or post should also be displayed, for the same
             | reason of transparency. Also the items a user flags should
             | be included in their profile, for the same reason of
             | transparency.
             | 
             | In the interest of full disclosure and the same
             | transparency, I say this as someone who has had such a
             | flag-bombed submission saved, an NPR report about one of
             | the first systemic uses of gun-armed, AI-powered flying
             | drones to mass-shoot people (not to mention that location
             | targeting for the shootings is largely AI-driven as well).
             | I struggle to think of a good reason to flag that as off-
             | topic for Hacker News:
             | 
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42199969
        
           | TheGuyWhoCodes wrote:
           | It's interesting it's always the anti Israel posts that have
           | nothing to do with tech that you allow.
        
             | fldskfjdslkfj wrote:
             | Just one of those funny coincidences.
        
               | TheGuyWhoCodes wrote:
               | Bias in moderation is wrong, it's clear cut. If Dan can't
               | be unbiased, allegedly, I thank him for his work on HN
               | but he should step down.
        
           | ars wrote:
           | It seems like all the pro-Israel comments in the story are
           | getting flagged.
           | 
           | This is giving a very biased view to the discussion.
        
             | ImPostingOnHN wrote:
             | Would you mind giving a few examples?
             | 
             | I looked at a few myself, many are off-topic, or engage in
             | whataboutism, or openly supported war crimes like
             | collective punishment. Others are plain insults or racism.
        
               | ars wrote:
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42206068
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42208721
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42205267
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42208229
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42208765
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42207363
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42207487
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42209050
               | 
               | Should I continue?
        
               | ImPostingOnHN wrote:
               | 1. Off-topic whataboutism.
               | 
               | 2. Shallow dismissal, Arguably incorrect as well.
               | 
               | 3. Shallow dismissal, Insult.
               | 
               | 4. Supporting the forced displacement of civilians and
               | destruction of their home.
               | 
               | 5. Not sure about this one! I'd prefer the poster didn't
               | advocate for the country of Palestine or Israel to lose
               | rights, but that's just my 2 cents.
               | 
               | 6. Shallow dismissal, Insult.
               | 
               | 7. Blatant racism and religious discrimination. Classy.
               | 
               | 8. Shallow dismissal.
        
               | ars wrote:
               | And you think "shallow dismissals" deserve to be flagged,
               | and marked dead?
               | 
               | Really?
               | 
               | And the one-sided nature of flagging is also fine with
               | you?
               | 
               | Not to mention I quite disagree with your analysis of
               | things, for example #1 is not offtopic at all, it's a
               | direct reply.
               | 
               | What about this comment (my comment):
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42206831 which got
               | flagged as well? Is that also a "shallow dismissal"?
        
         | cwkoss wrote:
         | There are a significant number of zionist users on this site
         | that immediately flag any comment or article they percieve as
         | anti-israel.
        
       | bhouston wrote:
       | This shouldn't be flagged.
        
         | 1over137 wrote:
         | Why not? How is it "hacker news" at all? It's just news news.
        
           | dang wrote:
           | On HN, having some stories with political overlap is both
           | inevitable and ok--the question is which particular stories
           | those should be. We try to go for the ones that contain
           | significant new information. See more at
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42204689.
           | 
           | This approach has been stable for many years and there's no
           | intention to allow HN to become a primarily-political site
           | (quite the contrary) but it also doesn't work to try to
           | exclude these things altogether.
        
             | EvgeniyZh wrote:
             | I don't think I've seen any pro-Israeli post in top since
             | the beginning of the war. Definitely anything I submitted
             | was flagged to death almost immediately, even if it was
             | hacker-ish (say, the analysis of the Hamas statistics). You
             | can say of course that users decide what they want, but for
             | political stories at least I don't think it is
             | straightforward
        
               | almogo wrote:
               | The HN community is strongly anti-Israel. Which is
               | surprising, but then again, what's really still
               | surprising these days?
               | 
               | I do think this news is major enough to justify being on
               | HN. There is at least some useful discussions on the ICC
               | that I found interesting, intermixed between the typical
               | antisemitic messaging we're all-too used to seeing.
        
               | cwkoss wrote:
               | The vast majority of the world opposes the Zionists
               | policies of ethnic cleansing, land expansion and
               | genocide.
        
               | aliasxneo wrote:
               | Why would that be surprising? I've found the HN echo
               | chamber to primarily be left-leaning, and an anti-Israel
               | bias fits that model perfectly.
        
             | samatman wrote:
             | Dang, it's a serious problem when discussions like this
             | result in any serious attempts to engage from one side
             | getting flagged to death.
             | 
             | That's what happens here, and on any news involving the
             | Gaza War, for quite some time. To someone who doesn't use
             | [showdead] this creates an impression of partiality in this
             | community which is not borne out by reality.
             | 
             | Which makes Hacker News appear complicit in supporting that
             | point of view.
             | 
             | If you're going to keep overriding the flag mechanism and
             | letting these posts hit the front page, you need to disable
             | flagging of individual posts except by you or another
             | moderator (if there is one?) after manual review. The
             | status quo is unfair.
        
             | grumple wrote:
             | Dang, these comments are filled with misinformation and
             | heavily biased against Israel. I don't personally have the
             | energy to combat all of it. Leaving it up does a disservice
             | to all, because this heavily political issue has been
             | hopelessly infected by this bias and disinformation. It's
             | not a subject that HN is particularly well informed about,
             | and the critical lens with which we treat data sources
             | under normal circumstances is not applied here.
        
               | cwkoss wrote:
               | I think the disinformation and bias in this thread is
               | coming from the Zionist propaganda or those influenced by
               | it. The antizionist perspective is more often aligned
               | with the truth.
        
           | kombine wrote:
           | Because Israel is an integral part of our industry. Most
           | major corporations have their presence in Israel. Moreover,
           | Israel is using AI extensively in their war on Palestinian
           | people, which they develop in partnership with the US.
        
             | cwkoss wrote:
             | A significant portion of the US economy uses Israeli
             | developed cybersecurity products. I wonder if there are any
             | backdoors Mossad uses to consolidate influence.
        
       | ComputerGuru wrote:
       | Wow, this took a _long_ time to come after the application for
       | the warrants. 185 days compared to 23 days for Putin 's arrest
       | warrant -- but then again, one was against the wishes of the USA
       | and the west while the other was at their behest.
        
         | cies wrote:
         | And the US has threatened to invade NL if ICC warrants one of
         | them.
         | 
         | So much for the ICC: a banana court.
         | 
         | It felt so real when Milosovic was trialed: now we all know the
         | true nature of these show trials.
        
           | ceejayoz wrote:
           | Milosevic was not tried by the ICC.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Tribuna.
           | ..
        
           | lostlogin wrote:
           | It's a banana court because the US doesn't recognise it?
        
             | rangestransform wrote:
             | it's a ~~banana~~ kangaroo court because the US turning
             | over soldiers to the ICC would violate their 6th amendment
             | right to a jury trial
        
         | h8dh8es8edh8 wrote:
         | I wouldn't say "and the west" without more qualifications. The
         | USA and Germany are solidly behind whatever the Israeli
         | government does. England a bit less so and the rest of "the
         | west" (however you want to define it) is more ambivalent. My
         | point is that if only two countries (the USA and Germany) would
         | make their support more conditional (conditional on the israeli
         | government not commiting war crimes for example), then things
         | could change a lot
        
           | umanwizard wrote:
           | There is no sovereign state called "England"; you mean the
           | UK.
        
             | Zigurd wrote:
             | How often do people refer to the USA as "America." It's not
             | quite as pedantic as "it's a republic not a democracy,"
             | but...
        
               | umanwizard wrote:
               | The difference is that "America" has no other meaning (in
               | English, that is. In some other languages it means the
               | landmass we call "the Americas"). Whereas "England" means
               | something different from the UK.
        
           | ComputerGuru wrote:
           | You're right, there are notable exceptions in the form of
           | western nations that have backed the enforcement of
           | international law to put an end to the mass killings and
           | starvation taking place in Gaza. Ireland, Spain, Norway,
           | France, Switzerland, Slovenia, Denmark, and Belgium come to
           | mind, ranging from "supporting the independence of the ICC
           | and not commenting on proceedings" to "welcoming the
           | investigation and the end of the killings."
           | 
           | But while the US (not an ICC member) simply insulted the
           | court and the notion of holding an Israeli leader
           | accountable, it was the UK that demanded hearings on the
           | legality of pursuing arrest warrants against Netanyahu and
           | Gallant. Aside from Germany's staunch and unconditional
           | support for Israel, other Western countries that heavily
           | criticized the decision included Hungary, Austria, Czechia,
           | Canada, Australia, and Italy - important to note that some of
           | which also mentioned that despite their long list of
           | misgivings and outrages they nevertheless respected the
           | independence of the court.
        
         | jowea wrote:
         | My guess is that it's simply a matter of how difficult it is to
         | prove the issue. The Putin case was very simply because there
         | is an official state program to do things that are considered
         | genocide. Israel is at least pretending they are letting aid
         | in.
        
           | ComputerGuru wrote:
           | But that's what the court itself is for! You get plausibly
           | charged with a crime, you go to court, and the case is
           | determined one way or the other.
           | 
           | What happened in this case is that Israel beseeched its
           | allies to lobby the court not to look into what was happening
           | [0]. And the UK demanded hearings to impede the ICC warrants
           | from being issued (purely politically, as this was done under
           | Sunak and then Starmer/Lammy dropped the objection, but the
           | delays were already underway).
           | 
           | [0]: https://www.axios.com/2021/02/07/israel-icc-political-
           | pressu...
        
         | nickff wrote:
         | Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 (and was responsible for many
         | civilian deaths, including shooting down an airliner), if we
         | count from then, it has taken the ICC a very long time indeed.
         | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Court...
        
       | seydor wrote:
       | I m afraid this fruitless pursuit will distract from the effort
       | to stop the cleansing, which has to be diplomatic and
       | international
        
         | user982 wrote:
         | What effort?
        
           | lordofgibbons wrote:
           | I think gp, by "cleansing", means ethnic cleansing.
        
             | Mystery-Machine wrote:
             | I think gp, by "What effort?", means "Not much effort has
             | been made to stop the ethnic cleansing."
        
         | Mystery-Machine wrote:
         | So you want to say that the reason for _not_ doing this is: it
         | will distract from the effort to stop the cleansing.
         | 
         | Would that be the same as saying that we shouldn't issue a
         | warrant against a school shooter because it wouldn't stop the
         | shooting? Would it distract from gun laws?
         | 
         | Maybe not the best analogy, but I know that I cannot say for
         | certain whether it will negatively or positively affect the
         | effort. It might positively affect if this makes (especially
         | EU) countries put more pressure on Israel.
        
           | NickC25 wrote:
           | >It might positively affect if this makes (especially EU)
           | countries put more pressure on Israel.
           | 
           | That would never happen. Israel is above any and all
           | criticism, how do people not realize that by now?
           | 
           | Pressure, sanctions, whatever - nothing will actually happen.
           | Likud can trot out the tired trope of antisemitism and any
           | and all criticism, legitimate or not, is automatically waved
           | away. Like it or not, that's objective reality.
           | 
           | Before the shills come in and accuse me of this or that, let
           | me be clear: NO, I don't support Hamas, Likud, or any
           | organization that supports the killing of innocent people.
           | Israel has a right to exist and defend itself, Palestine has
           | a right to exist and defend itself.
        
         | TiredOfLife wrote:
         | What cleansing?
        
       | dankai wrote:
       | "The Chamber therefore found reasonable grounds to believe that
       | Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant bear criminal responsibility for the
       | war crime of starvation as a method of warfare."
       | 
       | Whats perhaps interesting to note is that this charge was made
       | for "just" 41 [1] confirmed starvation deaths among a population
       | of 2,141,643 people [2].
       | 
       | Of course every death caused by intentional starvation is a
       | severe crime and must be punished, but in the context of the
       | victim numbers that most past crimes against humanity have had,
       | it sets a relatively low new bar.
       | 
       | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip_famine
       | 
       | [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip
        
         | guipsp wrote:
         | > Researchers at the Watson Institute for International and
         | Public Affairs at Brown University estimated deaths from
         | starvation to be 62,413 between October 2023 and September
         | 2024.
        
         | zarzavat wrote:
         | Given that the accused is currently in control of the crime
         | scene, it's not surprising that the prosecution chose to
         | prioritise the crimes that are easiest to prove.
        
           | jowea wrote:
           | Same reason an warrant on Putin was issued over the official
           | children "adoption" program.
        
           | culi wrote:
           | The ICC does not state only 41 deaths ocurred. GP is pulling
           | that number from an unrelated Wikipedia article that is
           | undergoing an edit war. It went from "63k" to "41+". None of
           | the commentors here justifying the low number realize its
           | completely made up and unrelated to the ICC
        
         | peppers-ghost wrote:
         | "confirmed" data from Gaza at the moment is unreliable. The
         | people who were doing the counting have either been killed or
         | cleansed from the area. The official death toll is still around
         | 40k despite the reality being closer to 100-200k.
        
           | bawolff wrote:
           | Regardless, total deaths don't matter, only deaths that were
           | the result of crimes matter, in this context.
           | 
           | Some of those deaths are going to be legal targets killed
           | during combat, which is not evidence of a war crime. You have
           | to split things out for the numbers to mean anything.
        
             | xg15 wrote:
             | But the problem is that Israel's style of warfare is
             | (intentionally or not) blurring the distinction between
             | those numbers, by using methods of combat that have
             | exceptionally high rates of collateral damage.
             | 
             | The most extreme instances of this are the deliberate
             | withholding of aid, both in the "total siege" in the
             | beginning of the war, as well as operations like now in the
             | north.
             | 
             | You might hit a lot of legitimate targets with this, but
             | it's also guaranteed you will impact _all_ the civilians in
             | the area.
             | 
             | Generally, in this entire war (and also long before),
             | Israel is far too quick with the "Human
             | shields"/"collateral damage" argument to my liking, and
             | using it as an excuse to basically disregard considerations
             | for civilians at all.
             | 
             | (It's also instructive to see how different the hostages
             | and palestinian civilians are treated in IDF
             | considerations, despite both groups technically being
             | "human shields")
        
               | ignoramous wrote:
               | > _the problem is that Israel 's style of warfare ... The
               | most extreme instances_
               | 
               | Yep. The complication is, the Strip is close to being
               | totally dependent on Israel, and yet chose war. I doubt
               | any other country ruled by right-wingers, with that much
               | power over their already (diplomatically, economically,
               | socially) cornered enemy, would have acted any
               | differently. I guess, the sequence of events reeks of
               | desperation & despair from all sides and has ended up
               | exposing one & all.
        
               | xg15 wrote:
               | It's not as if life was particularly pleasant there
               | before the war. Israel was already before restricting the
               | maximally attainable quality of life. Or as if the
               | Palestinian control group in the West Bank who had chosen
               | cooperation was faring any better.
               | 
               | Also that stuff is exactly what international
               | humanitarian law is supposed to prevent. Obligations of
               | the occupying power and all.
        
               | ignoramous wrote:
               | Agree. Like I said, this war has exposed facists,
               | racists, hawks, hypocrites and their nexus (on every
               | side).
        
               | xg15 wrote:
               | Agreed.
        
               | edanm wrote:
               | > But the problem is that Israel's style of warfare is
               | (intentionally or not) blurring the distinction between
               | those numbers, by using methods of combat that have
               | exceptionally high rates of collateral damage.
               | 
               | I think Israel has a lot to answer for, especially as you
               | say with regards to the withholding of aid.
               | 
               | But you're ignoring a much bigger factor in why the
               | "style of warfare" has a high collateral damage - it's
               | not the way Israel is fighting, it's the way _Hamas_ is
               | fighting. They have spent years and millions of dollars
               | to turn Gaza into a war zone - there are vast underground
               | tunnels from which Hamas militants can go in and out and
               | pretend to be civilians, then shoot at soldier. They can
               | and do launch rocket attacks at civilians from within
               | tunnels that run underneath hospitals and schools.
               | 
               | They've also stored weapons caches in many "civilian"
               | buildings, have booby trapped many civilian buildings,
               | and in general colocate all their arms and militants
               | among civilians, on purpose.
               | 
               | Hamas members have said on multiple occasions that they
               | don't care about the Gazan civilians and it's not their
               | job to protect them. You don't have to think Israel is
               | perfect (I certainly don't), but you're really ignoring
               | the _main_ driver of the terrible situation the Gazans
               | are in, which is Hamas.
        
               | runako wrote:
               | You're describing conditions that occur in many
               | asymmetric/guerilla wars. None of these are novel tactics
               | whose acceptability must be evaluated from first
               | principles now.
               | 
               | Further, none of these should come as surprises to
               | Israeli commanders, who will have seen these tactics from
               | Hamas in the past.
               | 
               | The bottom line is that any military can only control its
               | own conduct as it represents its citizens in battle.
        
             | culi wrote:
             | The ICC doesn't claim 41 deaths were the result of war
             | crimes. That claim is made by an irrelevant Wikipedia
             | article that is undergoing an edit war. It was recently
             | switched from "62,413 conservative estimate" to "41+"
             | 
             | ICC doesn't claim how many deaths are due to war crimes. GP
             | is purposefully sowing misinformation
        
           | culi wrote:
           | GP is not citing the ICC. The ICC never claims 41 deaths are
           | confirmed. GP is citing a Wikipedia article which is
           | undergoing an edit war. The Wikipedia page had cited 62,413
           | deaths and then was switched to a pro-Israel source that
           | instead says "41+"
           | 
           | ICC never claimed only 41 deaths were confirmed
        
           | edanm wrote:
           | If you think the "confirmed" data is unreliable, what makes
           | you think you know the "real" number? How is your number any
           | more reliable?
        
         | bawolff wrote:
         | > Whats perhaps interesting to note is that this charge was
         | made for "just" 41 [1] confirmed starvation deaths among a
         | population of 2,141,643 people [2].
         | 
         | IANAL but this is probably incorrect i think - the starvation
         | charge is related to allegations of intentionally restricting
         | neccesities of life. Whether anyone dies as a result is
         | irrelavent to that charge. The murder charge is for the people
         | who actually allegedly died as a result (of the starvation that
         | is. To be clear, the death has to illegal for it to be the war
         | crime of murder. Normal combat death is not murder).
        
         | shihab wrote:
         | This is common and expected. Even when a serial killer
         | suspected of 20 murder is apprehended, arrest is often made
         | based on one or two confirmed cases, more charges are later
         | added as investigation deepens.
         | 
         | Also, keep in mind foreign journalists are completely banned by
         | Israel from entering Gaza- complicating evidence gathering.
        
           | immibis wrote:
           | The Gaza ministry that would have counted the deaths was also
           | destroyed several months ago, which is why news media have
           | been reporting the same death total of 40,000 for several
           | months.
        
             | noman-land wrote:
             | I was wondering about this. Thanks for the info. Got any
             | links where I can read more?
        
               | newspaper1 wrote:
               | This is a really good independent report on the death
               | toll:
               | 
               | https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS014
               | 0-6...
        
             | yyyk wrote:
             | This is wrong. They are still reporting daily deaths
             | counts, that counts have been going up. The Grauniad is
             | good about collecting the reports (but bad about other
             | unrelated things).
        
           | legulere wrote:
           | Israel does take selected journalists into Gaza on trips
           | organised by the military. The issue is that journalists
           | cannot make themselves an independent picture of the
           | situation in Gaza.
        
           | culi wrote:
           | This is not how the ICC conducts its investigations. The
           | "41+" figure is from a Wikipedia article that is undergoing
           | an edit war. The very source it is citing actually says 63k
        
             | dlubarov wrote:
             | As I understand it 41 is the number of starvations recorded
             | in hospitals. 63k is a highly theoretical "estimate" based
             | on the IPC scale and data from food insecurity in other
             | parts of the world. It seems absurd on its face, since it
             | would imply that an absurdly small fraction of starvations
             | were recorded in hospitals.
        
         | shkkmo wrote:
         | > but in the context of the victim numbers that most past
         | crimes against humanity have had, it sets a relatively low new
         | bar.
         | 
         | Which context is this? If you mean the context of past ICC
         | indictments that isn't true. There are multiple other examples
         | of people indicted for specific acts that resulted in the
         | deaths of a 2 digit numbers of people.
         | 
         | The bar for "war crimes" or "crimes against humanity" isn't the
         | number of people you kill. Though in this case, plenty have
         | been killed, this case is about what can be proved conclusively
         | ebough given who it is against.
        
         | croes wrote:
         | What's the threshold for war crimes?
        
           | bawolff wrote:
           | The crimes have a definition with requisite elements in the
           | rome statue.
           | 
           | While many of them do require a certain gravity, viewing
           | international crimes like a more serious version of a normal
           | crime is probably the wrong way of doing it. Some war crimes
           | do not require anyone to die. In other cases thousands could
           | die and it wouldn't be a war crime or crime against humanity
           | because the elements aren't met.
           | 
           | In particular, starvation doesn't require anyone to have
           | died, and it covers more things than just food. Keep in mind
           | its a relatively new crime in international law, it was only
           | made illegal in 1977 (for example during ww2, the nuremburg
           | trials explicitly ruled that sieges were legal). As far as i
           | know nobody has ever been persecuted for it, so the case law
           | doesn't exist, so its a bit unknown.
        
         | yyyk wrote:
         | We can compare the rate to countries in more.. stable
         | situations[0]. They'll have a very difficult time getting
         | anywhere with that rate. But we'll see. The world would be
         | better off with all these individuals having no power at all.
         | 
         | [0] https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-
         | rankings/starvatio...
        
         | megous wrote:
         | Starvation vs starvation to death are different things.
         | 
         | War crime of starvation was directed against 2.3 million people
         | without distinction, incl. ~1 million children. I'd say that's
         | bad enough.
        
         | culi wrote:
         | This comment is just pure misinformation. Nobody is claiming
         | only 41 deaths.
         | 
         | You're citing an irrelevant Wikipedia page as a source that has
         | a crazy edit history going back and forth between "41+" and
         | "62,413 conservative estimated" deaths
        
       | threemux wrote:
       | Not super meaningful in reality - any country looking to arrest
       | either man should tread carefully.
       | 
       | The American Service-Members' Protection Act authorizes the
       | President of the United States to use "all means necessary and
       | appropriate to bring about the release of any U.S. or allied
       | personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at
       | the request of the International Criminal Court".
       | 
       | Israel is listed in the act as covered. Any means explicitly
       | includes lethal force, which is why the act is nicknamed the
       | "Invade the Hague" act.
        
         | ssijak wrote:
         | The Netherlands said that they would arrest anybody accused.
         | That would be peculiar to see, what would actually happen if
         | anybody of the accused were to travel there.
        
           | com wrote:
           | The Dutch have a very lackadaisical attitude to law, and at
           | the very same time a very principled cut-off-my-nose-to-
           | spite-my-face rule of law mentality.
           | 
           | If I were a senior Israeli or Hamas leader I'd avoid the
           | place for a couple of decades in case of sealed charges.
        
             | sgjohnson wrote:
             | > If I were a senior Israeli or Hamas leader I'd avoid the
             | place for a couple of decades in case of sealed charges.
             | 
             | If the Netherlands granted diplomatic immunity to said
             | leaders before their visit, and then decided to arrest
             | them, that by itself would be an act of war.
             | 
             | And even worse, it would ruin basically the only treaty
             | every country has agreed to - the Vienna Convention on
             | Diplomatic Relations.
        
         | alexisread wrote:
         | The question here is why is only Israel covered in this act?
         | 
         | Also anti-BDS legislation in finance, regardless of ethical
         | etc. concerns?
         | 
         | The US gives $4bn/year to Israel gratis, and so far $20bn in
         | weapons over the course of this conflict, including advanced
         | weapons like the F35 WITH source code access (which no other
         | F35 partner has) - why?
         | 
         | There have been no investigations of US deaths WRT settler
         | violence, aid workers killed etc. Normally with any US death
         | it's a huge issue.
         | 
         | What does Israel do in return to make it such a favoured
         | country? eg. 20bn in disaster relief aid to Florida would be
         | probably more welcome by US citizens.
        
           | threemux wrote:
           | It's not only Israel. It's all of NATO plus "major non-NATO
           | allies" specifically Australia, Egypt, Israel, Japan,
           | Argentina, the Republic of Korea, and New Zealand
        
           | IncreasePosts wrote:
           | We give Jordan $1.6B/year, what does it give in return? What
           | about Ethiopia at $2B/yr?
        
             | talldayo wrote:
             | We gave Pakistan and Iran a few billion dollars in military
             | aid a while back. What we got in return was a Bangladesh
             | genocide and an Islamic revolution.
             | 
             | Lesson learned: arms sales can be used to ideologically
             | justify butchering civilians if the government receiving
             | that aid is not held accountable.
        
             | alexisread wrote:
             | You could ask the same questions about that yes, but
             | whataboutism does not answer the questions here.
             | 
             | For Ethiopia it's flagged as humanitarian aid, and likely
             | for Jordan as a result of the neighbouring Syria war.
             | 
             | None of that is arms though, and critically more than the
             | aid, why the legislation?
             | 
             | What justifies making it illegal to stop investing in a
             | country despite it's actions? Surely that's a commercial
             | decision rather than a legislative one?
        
             | shihab wrote:
             | The biggest condition behind US aid to Jordan and Egypt is
             | them continuing friendly relations with Israel. In 1970s
             | when this aid was started- this condition was made very
             | explicit by USA.
             | 
             | So in other words, these two at least are nothing but
             | indirect aid to Israel.
        
         | kklisura wrote:
         | Honestly, I would so like someone to test that!
        
         | gist wrote:
         | > any country looking to arrest either man should tread
         | carefully.
         | 
         | I'd imagine that if they were detained the IDF would put out
         | quite a bit of effort to get them sprung from prison ... at any
         | cost.
         | 
         | (Imagine if a former US leader was put in prison anywhere but
         | the US).
        
           | newspaper1 wrote:
           | So you think Israel will start attacking European countries?
           | I don't think that would work out well for them.
        
         | cwkoss wrote:
         | It would be a chance to become a hero of humanity that 99% of
         | the world would cheer on...
        
       | throwaway984393 wrote:
       | This will not amount to anything, but it's nice to know we aren't
       | all crazy or anti-semitic for thinking the Israeli state has been
       | acting very poorly in regards to the State of Palestine. Feels a
       | little bit like trying to get organized crime on tax evasion.
        
       | 0xDEAFBEAD wrote:
       | >In his first response to the ICC issuing a warrant for his
       | arrest on allegations of war crimes, Benjamin Netanyahu's office
       | has described the ruling as "absurd and false lies" and said the
       | decision is "antisemitic."
       | 
       | https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/nov/21/internati...
       | 
       | If Netanyahu and Gallant really think they are innocent, and the
       | allegations are absurd and false, they should cooperate with the
       | ICC. Have your day in court and show how absurd the accusations
       | are. If you're not willing to do that, it seems reasonable for
       | the public to draw a proverbial negative inference.
        
         | bluGill wrote:
         | You are assuming the court isn't a political thing that is
         | trying to get him regardless of evidence. The court is at least
         | partially political, and Netanyahu will tell you this is
         | entirely political and he wouldn't get a fair trail.
        
           | TrueDuality wrote:
           | Courts are political entities but this is one that Israel
           | chose to accept and recognize the authority of. It has a
           | history of being very transparent in its decisions and is
           | widely recognized as being neutral and fair in their decision
           | making process.
           | 
           | Of course the person charged and found guilty of a crime will
           | argue against the court. Disagreement, even if valid, doesn't
           | change the recognized authority of this court even if the
           | "teeth" are extremely limited.
        
             | seabass-labrax wrote:
             | Israel don't recognize the authority of the International
             | Criminal Court. Palestine, however, does, and therefore the
             | ICC consider these allegations within their jurisdiction. A
             | relevant point is that the UK (under the previous
             | Conservative party government) requested the opportunity to
             | dispute the allegations of war crimes based on this
             | complication, but the new British government did not choose
             | to continue with the objection. No other countries have
             | made objections.
        
               | bawolff wrote:
               | The challenge wasn't based on exactly that, they were
               | trying to argue that a treaty palestine signed with
               | israel precluded palestine from giving icc juridsiction
               | that it didn't have itself.
               | 
               | That said, if it ever gets to trial, the defendants will
               | almost certainly try to challenge it on that basis.
               | 
               | Realistically though i think the chance of that type of
               | challenge succeding is unlikely. International courts
               | generally are above domestic law. They probably have a
               | better chance of convincing the court that palestine
               | isn't a state and thus cannot sign the rome statue (which
               | is also a long shot imo)
        
               | HappyPanacea wrote:
               | > Courts are political entities but this is one that
               | Israel chose to accept and recognize the authority of.
               | 
               | They were replying to this part of the comment which was
               | factually incorrect (Israel did not recognize ICC
               | authority) not on what the challenge on jurisdiction was
        
             | mananaysiempre wrote:
             | > Courts are political entities but this is one that Israel
             | chose to accept
             | 
             | For what it's worth, Israel signed the Rome Statute
             | establishing the court in 2000 but declared in 2002 it no
             | longer intends to ratify it[1]. (Which, I guess, is
             | marginally better than the US, which has threatened The
             | Hague with military invasion in case any arrests are
             | made[2]. But not by much.) TFA specifically points out that
             | "States are not entitled to challenge the Court's
             | jurisdiction under article 19(2) prior to the issuance of a
             | warrant of arrest."
             | 
             | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_parties_to_the_Rom
             | e_Sta...
             | 
             | [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-
             | Members%27_Pr...
        
               | mmastrac wrote:
               | As a follow-up to [2], even more interesting is the text
               | of covered persons:
               | 
               | "military personnel, elected or appointed officials, and
               | other persons employed by or working on behalf of the
               | government of a NATO member country, a major non-NATO
               | ally including Australia, Egypt, Israel, Japan,
               | Argentina, the Republic of Korea, and New Zealand"
        
               | buckle8017 wrote:
               | That's not the list of covered persons.
               | 
               | The act bars military aid to any country that is a
               | signatory to the court, except those countries.
        
               | mananaysiempre wrote:
               | It's both, effectively, but the GP is quoting the correct
               | copy of the list.
               | 
               | The prohibition you mention is in 22 USC 7426:
               | 
               | > (a) PROHIBITION OF MILITARY ASSISTANCE.--Subject to
               | subsections (b) and (c), and effective 1 year after the
               | date on which the Rome Statute enters into force pursuant
               | to Article 126 of the Rome Statute, no United States
               | military assistance may be provided to the government of
               | a country that is a party to the International Criminal
               | Court.
               | 
               | > [...]
               | 
               | > (d) EXEMPTION.--The prohibition of subsection (a) shall
               | not apply to the government of--
               | 
               | > (1) a NATO member country;
               | 
               | > (2) a major non-NATO ally (including Australia, Egypt,
               | Israel, Japan, Jordan, Argentina, the Republic of Korea,
               | and New Zealand); or
               | 
               | > (3) Taiwan.
               | 
               | The threat I was talking about is in 22 USC 7427:
               | 
               | > (a) AUTHORITY.--The President is authorized to use all
               | means necessary and appropriate to bring about the
               | release of any person described in subsection (b) who is
               | being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the
               | request of the International Criminal Court.
               | 
               | > (b) PERSONS AUTHORIZED TO BE FREED.--The authority of
               | sub-section (a) shall extend to the following persons:
               | 
               | > (1) Covered United States persons.
               | 
               | > (2) Covered allied persons.
               | 
               | > (3) Individuals detained or imprisoned for official
               | actions taken while the individual was a covered United
               | States person or a covered allied person, and in the case
               | of a covered allied person, upon the request of such
               | government.
               | 
               | > [...]
               | 
               | with "covered persons" defined in 22 USC 7432 by
               | essentially the same list as above, as long as those
               | countries do not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC:
               | 
               | > [...]
               | 
               | > (3) COVERED ALLIED PERSONS.--The term "covered allied
               | persons" means military personnel, elected or appointed
               | officials, and other persons employed by or working on
               | behalf of the government of a NATO member country, a
               | major non-NATO ally (including Australia, Egypt, Israel,
               | Japan, Jordan, Argentina, the Republic of Korea, and New
               | Zealand), or Taiwan, for so long as that government is
               | not a party to the International Criminal Court and
               | wishes its officials and other persons working on its
               | behalf to be exempted from the jurisdiction of the
               | International Criminal Court.
               | 
               | > (4) COVERED UNITED STATES PERSONS.--The term "covered
               | United States persons" means members of the Armed Forces
               | of the United States, elected or appointed officials of
               | the United States Government, and other persons employed
               | by or working on behalf of the United States Government,
               | for so long as the United States is not a party to the
               | International Criminal Court.
               | 
               | > [...]
        
               | belter wrote:
               | If we are going to discuss the diplomatic and
               | international implications of the ICC, it is important to
               | note that the security--and even the continued existence
               | as independent, sovereign entities--of the countries
               | supporting the court is overwhelmingly reliant on the
               | U.S. military umbrella. Without this protection, their
               | sovereignty would quickly be at risk.
        
               | pepve wrote:
               | I'm not sure you are right. Take a look at this map: http
               | s://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Court .
               | I don't think "overwhelmingly reliant on the US" is an
               | accurate description of the green countries on that map.
               | Partially reliant sure. But not overwhelmingly.
        
               | belter wrote:
               | No countries in Africa and Latin America would enforce
               | the ICC arrest request for Putin. Concerning the rest of
               | Europe, with the exception of the only military power
               | left: France, are you arguing they could defend their
               | sovereignty without the USA military big stick?
               | 
               | "Why Europe Is Unprepared to Defend Itself" -
               | https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-nato-armed-
               | forces/
        
               | aguaviva wrote:
               | _No countries in Africa and Latin America would enforce
               | the ICC arrest request for Putin._
               | 
               | That's your straight-up speculation.
               | 
               | Meanwhile, the fact that he hasn't visited any of those
               | countries -- suggests he knows better.
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | It's not entirely speculation; South Africa certainly
               | wanted to avoid it.
               | 
               | https://www.reuters.com/article/world/south-africa-asks-
               | icc-...
               | 
               | > South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked
               | permission from the International Criminal Court not to
               | arrest Russia's Vladimir Putin, because to do so would
               | amount to a declaration of war, a local court submission
               | published on Tuesday showed.
               | 
               | Brazil waffled, too.
               | 
               | https://www.reuters.com/world/up-brazils-judiciary-
               | decide-pu...
               | 
               | > On Saturday, while in India for a Group of 20 nations
               | meeting, Lula told a local interviewer that there was "no
               | way" Putin would be arrested if he attended next year's
               | summit, which is due to be held in Rio de Janeiro.
        
               | cycomanic wrote:
               | You're making two arguments it seems, 1. Who is enforcing
               | the arrest warrant against Putin, which I don't get, how
               | should Europe or an African or Latin American country
               | enforce the warrant enforce the warrant without Putin
               | travelling there? I seriously doubt Putin would travel to
               | a country where risks arrest. Or are you suggesting
               | countries should invade Russia to arrest Putin. I don't
               | see anyone including the US (thankfully) doing that.
               | AFAIK that would also constitute a violation of
               | international law (mind you many western countries really
               | only care as long as it suits them, the whole Israel
               | situation being a clear example). 2. The question if
               | Europe could defend itself against invasion without the
               | US. Defend against whom I have to ask, the only possible
               | aggressor would be Russia, but Russia is struggling with
               | their Ukraine invasion, a much smaller, less trained,
               | less equipped force than Nato even without the US. The
               | suggestion that Russia is in any position to threaten
               | Europe is absolutely laughable. The only way that would
               | happen is using nuclear weapons, and once we go down that
               | path the whole world is f*ckd.
        
               | HWR_14 wrote:
               | Who does Europe need to defend itself against? Russia
               | can't invade Ukraine, and it has 1/10 the population
               | (less?) and arms that are leftovers from European
               | armories (and US armories). Is China going to roll troops
               | across a continent?
        
               | varjag wrote:
               | If North Korea does, why not China?
               | 
               | Also worth mentioning that without the United States the
               | present continental European militaries would struggle
               | even against the battered ground forces of Russia. Can't
               | really fight back with GDP of your service economy alone.
        
               | belter wrote:
               | Will your opinion change, when you see a photo of Polish
               | soldiers looking at North Korean battalions across their
               | fence border?
        
               | int_19h wrote:
               | What the war in Ukraine is showing is that Russia is
               | capable of running a wartime economy, cranking out
               | artillery shells etc at replacement rates, while Europe,
               | so far, has not demonstrated the ability to do so, which
               | is why supplies are dwindling - you can only run so far
               | on existing stocks.
               | 
               | It should also be noted that Ukraine has been preparing
               | for this exact scenario since 2014, building massive
               | fortifications in the east (which is precisely why the
               | Russian advance there has always been such a grind).
               | 
               | In the event of an open confrontation between Russia and
               | European countries currently backing Ukraine, it's not at
               | all a given that the latter can hold significantly better
               | than Ukraine does today, without American help. European
               | armed forces are generally in a pathetic shape, grossly
               | undermanned and underfunded, and would simply run out of
               | materiel before Russia runs out of bodies to throw at
               | them.
        
               | fakedang wrote:
               | If that was the case, Putin shouldn't have holed up in
               | Russia during the BRICS conference in South Africa
               | earlier this year.
        
               | dingnuts wrote:
               | You don't? I suggest you look at the figures for who is
               | providing aid to Ukraine and ask yourself why the green
               | nations in Europe are paying so much less than the US to
               | fight Russia.
               | 
               | This is why Trump won again, by the way. Because Europe
               | expected the US to fund their defense in this war, and
               | people who do not live in cities with access to the
               | global market see no benefit to aiding Europe and voted
               | that Europe should pay for its own defense.
               | 
               | I guess now we'll get to see what happens when the US
               | lets those European nations that are shaded green defend
               | themselves without us.
        
               | ivan_gammel wrote:
               | > ask yourself why the green nations in Europe are paying
               | so much less than the US to fight Russia
               | 
               | Oh, this is simple. Ukraine would be able to defend
               | itself if it kept nuclear weapons. However they signed a
               | treaty with USA, UK and Russia and gave up their nuclear
               | weapons in exchange for some security guarantees. Russia
               | did not honor that agreement. If USA and UK fail to
               | provide adequate support, nobody will sign such treaties
               | again. What's even worse, nuclear arms are becoming the
               | only real security guarantee, so the fate of Ukraine
               | defines the fate of nuclear non-proliferation.
        
               | bluGill wrote:
               | Ukraine couldn't have kept nuclear weapons. It needs a
               | lot of technical expertise to do that, particularly in
               | today's world where you only test them in simulation
               | which means you need great ability to trust your
               | simulations. Ukraine didn't even have the keys to use the
               | weapons they had (Russia did) which means they needed to
               | first rebuild each with new keys. Not that Ukraine
               | couldn't do all that, but they just don't have the money
               | to do that and everything else they also need to do.
               | Nuclear weapons are an obvious first thing to go because
               | they are only useful in a situation where you want to end
               | the world. In almost all cases it is better to be able to
               | defend yourself without ending the world.
        
               | snovv_crash wrote:
               | Ukraine built those nuclear weapons.
        
             | bawolff wrote:
             | > Courts are political entities but this is one that Israel
             | chose to accept and recognize the authority of
             | 
             | As far as i am aware, this is a false statement. Israel has
             | been opposed to the ICC since its inception (originally
             | because the first version had a judge selection mechanism
             | they thought was biased against them, although i am sure
             | there are other reasons they object, especially relating to
             | their settlements).
             | 
             | Perhaps you are confusing the ICC with the ICJ, which are
             | totally different things.
        
             | usaar333 wrote:
             | Neither Israel nor the de-facto government of Gaza they are
             | fighting ever accepted the authority of the ICC; neither
             | has signed the Rome Treaty.
             | 
             | The ICC authority is being derived from the Palestinian
             | Authority applying for membership and the Court deciding
             | earlier in a 2-1 decision that Palestine is a state, the PA
             | is the legitimate government of Palestine, and that Gaza is
             | territory under its jurisdiction.
        
               | bawolff wrote:
               | > Court deciding earlier in a 2-1 decision that Palestine
               | is a state, the PA is the legitimate government of
               | Palestine, and that Gaza is territory under its
               | jurisdiction.
               | 
               | I think you are overstating it. They made a provisional
               | decision, but just for the purpose of if the
               | investigation can go forward. The decision does not
               | decide whether or not palestine is a state in general,
               | and if this ever goes to trial the defendants can still
               | challenge this decision.
        
             | blackeyeblitzar wrote:
             | > Israel chose to accept and recognize the authority of
             | 
             | Israel never ratified the Rome statute. The US withdrew but
             | Israel never ratified it in the first place.
             | 
             | > It has a history of being very transparent in its
             | decisions and is widely recognized as being neutral and
             | fair in their decision making process
             | 
             | There is a long section on criticism against the ICC, not
             | just from Israel, that suggests otherwise:
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Court
        
           | ClumsyPilot wrote:
           | > a political thing that is trying to get him regardless of
           | evidence
           | 
           | This is the exact line that was trotted out by Russian
           | propaganda in 2023 when the ICC issued a warrant for arrest
           | of Vladimir Putin
           | 
           | Perhaps if you find yourself n the same position as Russia,
           | you are in fact doing something wrong
        
           | stanfordkid wrote:
           | There is indeed, as you state, political influence being
           | exerted on courts. Most of that influence is in support of
           | Israel and Netanyahu -- do you really think there is
           | significant political power and influence upon the ICC from
           | Palestine or Hamas? Look at the amount AIPAC has contributed
           | to pro-Israel politicians. It's quite frankly absurd such a
           | political organization exists under the guise of representing
           | American Jews yet pretty much lobbies solely for Israeli
           | geopolitical issues. Kennedy even tried to get it to register
           | as a foreign agent. The fact that these warrants were issued
           | despite the influence and leverage of Israel is a hint at how
           | egregious the crimes are.
        
           | nimbius wrote:
           | political is..sorta true. the point of these international
           | legal bodies was to maintain and enforce a world order
           | dominated by western powers. it was not about promoting
           | justice (albeit sometimes that happened.) the selective
           | application of enforcement and investigation have reduced the
           | ICC to little more than a tool of neocolonial rule.
           | 
           | the rome statute itself contains provisions that limit its
           | reach. article 98 precludes extradition, which has been
           | abused by the US to prevent US nationals from being tried.
           | 
           | in short the ICC is allowed to go after western geopolitical
           | rivals, however going after an ally whos committing genocide
           | is a bridge too far; they _will_ be shielded. for example:
           | the US pressured its allies to refuse to refer any activities
           | in Afghanistan to the ICC and largely succeeded as its allies
           | form the dominant half of the UN Security council. whats
           | interesting here is the US seems so isolated this time as to
           | have lost the ability to block the referral. perhaps a first
           | in history.
        
             | jll29 wrote:
             | I once had the honor to attend a lecture by a prosecutor of
             | the ICC.
             | 
             | Out of all lawyers/attorneys/prosecutors/judges that I met
             | in my life, that one was the one that I would judge to bet
             | he most idealistic and justice motivated (admittedly based
             | on my gut instinct); a very rare breed.
             | 
             | It's good that there are such institutions with a good
             | purpose, staffed with good people. Bad faith actors -
             | including war criminals - will of course claim agendas
             | (other than bringing justice), deny jurisdiction etc. but
             | it is a good starting point to have them. The next step is
             | to strive to give these organizations enough "teeth" to
             | execute.
             | 
             | The "individual bully" problem needs some addressing, a
             | solution to that remains outstanding.
        
           | loceng wrote:
           | And the only counterweight for a person accused of genocide
           | who is claiming they haven't committed war crimes or
           | genocide, while they call this action "antisemetic" - the
           | only way to determine if they are being genuine in claim it
           | is antisemitism or political-manipulation (demonization) tool
           | is to go to court and see all of the evidence presented.
           | 
           | Either 40,000+ people dead or seemingly nearly all
           | Palestinian's civilian infrastructure being destroyed, both
           | warrant being witnessed and investigated by the international
           | community with a fine tooth comb, no?
           | 
           | The ICC isn't some amateur city court in some backwaters
           | country, it is the current epitome and evolutionary state
           | from effort and passion of humanity towards holding the line
           | for justice.
        
             | bawolff wrote:
             | > And the only counterweight for a person accused of
             | genocide
             | 
             | The ICC has not accused anyone of genocide. It does have
             | juridsiction over personal criminal responsibility for
             | gdnocide, but so far, nothing on that front has been
             | mentioned.
             | 
             | South africa is suing israel at the icj alleging state
             | responsibility for genocide, however that is different from
             | personal responsibility, and different standards of
             | evidence and procedures apply. Its also a totally separate
             | court system.
        
               | loceng wrote:
               | Straw man argument. I didn't make the claim the ICC
               | accused the ICC of genocide, however Netanyahu is now at
               | minimum now officially wanted for war crimes.
               | 
               | ICC and ICJ are different, yes.
        
               | bawolff wrote:
               | Well when you say "person accused of genocide" in the
               | context of a warrant from a court that has juridsiction
               | over personal responsibility for genocide, its not a leap
               | to assume that is what you meant.
               | 
               | However if you didn't mean that, what did you mean by
               | "person accused of genocide"? Who is accusing them? You
               | personally?
        
           | loceng wrote:
           | Can't you place that exact same argument on the side of the
           | Palestinians, and add more weight to their claim - where the
           | international community so far has allowed this, due to
           | reason (whether money involved in politicians toeing a line
           | or not), and so the courts decisions and political bias are
           | more likely to favour Netanyahu over the Palestinians?
           | 
           | There never seems to be much critical thinking on the quick
           | one-liners that on the surface appear to often be one-liner
           | propaganda talking points used for deflection, to give an
           | easy memorable line for an otherwise ideological mob to
           | learn-train them with to then parrot.
           | 
           | (edited tran->train)
        
             | bawolff wrote:
             | You can claim anything, but i don't think it means much if
             | you don't back it up with some arguments.
             | 
             | Like this is basically only the second time that a sitting
             | head of state of a functioning country has had a warrant
             | issued against them. Its fairly unprecedented. I don't
             | agree with the claims the icc is biased against israel, but
             | the fact they are acting at all certainly shows they aren't
             | biased for them.
        
         | 1024core wrote:
         | > they should cooperate with the ICC. Have your day in court
         | and show how absurd the accusations are
         | 
         | There's a reason why the US does not recognize the ICC.
        
           | newspaper1 wrote:
           | Yes, because they want to operate outside the rule of
           | international law.
        
             | Prbeek wrote:
             | It looks like ICC is not part of the fantastic rules based
             | order.
        
             | bpodgursky wrote:
             | For international law to "rule" over anything, it should
             | start by having an enforcement arm that isn't 98% the US
             | military.
        
             | culi wrote:
             | Imagine the US having to face consequences for Iraq. One of
             | the most fucked up collection of war crimes and violations
             | of laws of war in the 21st century. The average American
             | now thinks "we shouldn't have gone into Iraq" but has no
             | idea the reputation the US has in the rest of the world
             | because of this act
        
               | monocasa wrote:
               | There's jurisdiction questions there since neither Iraq
               | nor the US are Rome Statute signatories, however
               | Palestine is a signatory.
        
           | rangestransform wrote:
           | yeah, the accused has no right to a jury trial with the ICC
           | 
           | with the 6th amendment, signing the rome statute into law
           | would be both unconstitutional and effectively subjecting US
           | soldiers to a kangaroo court (in the eyes of the US)
        
             | hilbert42 wrote:
             | True, and this more than highlights the great divide across
             | the globe on the matter, it screams it out. One can only
             | guess what the ramifications will be.
        
             | milutinovici wrote:
             | Yet they insist that other countries should cooperate with
             | the court
        
             | favorited wrote:
             | If that were true, the US wouldn't be able to extradite
             | anyone to Mexico, where they do not use jury trials.
             | 
             | Constitutional restrictions on prosecution in the United
             | States do not apply to foreign criminal justice systems.
        
         | freejazz wrote:
         | If you think it's a sham, why would you participate in the
         | process? I don't agree that it is a sham, but it's an absurd
         | principle to think that they'd have any interest in doing so.
        
           | megous wrote:
           | Israel already participates in the process. That's why they
           | file documents with the court. Claims from two of those the
           | pre-trial chamber rejected today, prior to issuing the
           | warrants.
           | 
           | Re response: your claim was participation not jurisdiction,
           | shift goalposts however you like
        
             | freejazz wrote:
             | Sure, and in American courts you can appear just for the
             | purposes of disputing jurisdiction without submitting
             | oneself to it.
        
         | pagade wrote:
         | Antisemitic. Every time I hear this word, I can't help but
         | think of its irony--a term used exclusively for describing
         | discrimination against one community, as if prejudice against
         | them carries more weight than against any other. Perhaps,
         | though, it serves as the best reflection of our hypocrisy.
        
           | dlubarov wrote:
           | The term doesn't imply that, but yes antisemitism has
           | historically been more prolific than most other forms of
           | discrimination. Even if we ignore the Holocaust and focus on
           | recent incidents, Jewish victims are very disproportionately
           | represented in hate crime statistics, for example.
        
             | throw310822 wrote:
             | > Jewish victims are very disproportionately represented in
             | hate crime statistics, for example.
             | 
             | There is a very serious issue of reporting here. Someone
             | might report a wrong look as an act of hate, and members of
             | a different community (poor, recent immigrants) can be used
             | to being discriminated and treated with contempt, and never
             | report it.
             | 
             | If you actually check the statistics of "antisemitic acts"
             | that are published (usually issued periodically by Jewish
             | organisations) you will find lots of very small and
             | unverifiable episodes.
        
             | newspaper1 wrote:
             | That's an absurd statement that discounts all other
             | genocides, slavery... almost two continents worth of
             | indigenous Americans were wiped out. Are there special
             | terms for these actions like "anti-semitism"? No.
        
               | glassounds wrote:
               | > The compound word antisemitismus was first used in
               | print in Germany in 1879 as a "scientific-sounding term"
               | for Judenhass (lit. 'Jew-hatred'), and it has since been
               | used to refer to anti-Jewish sentiment alone
               | 
               | It's not a special term to make Jews special, it's a
               | special term to make Jew hate normalized.
        
               | newspaper1 wrote:
               | How could that possibly be true when the only people
               | perpetuating this word are groups like the ADL, Israel...
               | If what you said was true, all of these Zionist
               | institutions wouldn't be promoting it.
        
               | glassounds wrote:
               | I can promise you that "the ADL and Israel and the
               | Zionist institutions" are not the only ones using the
               | term "antisemitism". I'd personally prefer that it'd be
               | called anti Jewish racism.
        
               | newspaper1 wrote:
               | They are the main institutions using the term as a
               | weapon, and the discussion here is based on Netanyahu's
               | own words.
        
               | thomassmith65 wrote:
               | I checked wikipedia, and actually it states the same as
               | the parent comment. That sentence has five references. It
               | doesn't shock me, given the era, but rather than
               | speculate and squabble, someone could check the
               | references and see if they really do support the
               | statement in the wiki.
        
               | newspaper1 wrote:
               | So all of these Jewish institutions are promoting an anti
               | Jewish word? Please explain why they would do that.
        
               | thomassmith65 wrote:
               | I assume hardly anyone remembered, or payed much mind, to
               | the origin of that word by the 1920s. I don't know who
               | coined 'homophobia' or 'feminism' or many other concepts;
               | they're just common words we use.
        
               | newspaper1 wrote:
               | Right, so the word as it's used today is what we're
               | talking about. It's being used as a weapon to silence
               | criticism of Israel and Zionism in general.
        
               | thomassmith65 wrote:
               | I dunno. Regardless of the exact words one uses, one can
               | always accuse one's opponent of bias.
               | 
               | If the word 'antisemitic' didn't exist, the accusation,
               | phrased in different words, would still carry weight.
        
               | newspaper1 wrote:
               | And I would complain about the false accusation if that
               | was the case. As it stands "antisemitism" is what's being
               | used to label people who oppose Zionism. It's just like
               | how "communism" was used during McCarthyism.
        
               | glassounds wrote:
               | They're using the current common terminology for the
               | phenomenon, which does not have the roots you claimed it
               | has.
        
               | newspaper1 wrote:
               | That's the point, it doesn't matter what the origin was,
               | how it is being used now is what is being critiqued.
        
             | Hikikomori wrote:
             | Does Israels actions over the years have any impact on how
             | Jews are treated elsewhere?
        
           | yread wrote:
           | Not to mention there are more semitic people than Jews. And
           | Holocaust targeted more people, too. And there were pogroms
           | against other poeple, too.
        
             | culi wrote:
             | The Romani people for example (derogatorily called
             | "gypsies". The term "gyp"--to scam--derives from
             | stereotypes of Romani people) faced some of the most
             | gruesome programs in history before facing the Romani
             | Genocide in WW2. Yet we rarely talk about antiziganism the
             | way we talk about antisemitism and people still casually
             | throw around terms like "gyp"
        
             | glassounds wrote:
             | The word has never, in its history, been used for anything
             | other than racism against Jews. There are Semitic
             | languages, not people.
             | 
             | > Due to the root word Semite, the term is prone to being
             | invoked as a misnomer by those who incorrectly assert (in
             | an etymological fallacy) that it refers to racist hatred
             | directed at "Semitic people" in spite of the fact that this
             | grouping is an obsolete historical race concept. Likewise,
             | such usage is erroneous; the compound word antisemitismus
             | was first used in print in Germany in 1879 as a
             | "scientific-sounding term" for Judenhass (lit. 'Jew-
             | hatred'), and it has since been used to refer to anti-
             | Jewish sentiment alone
        
           | ada1981 wrote:
           | Especially when you consider "semites" are a member of an
           | ancient or modern people from southwestern Asia, such as the
           | Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, or Arabs. It can also refer
           | to a descendant of these peoples.
           | 
           | So, many Palestinians are Semites as well. And one may
           | conclude when Ovadia Yosef, a former Chief Rabbi of Israel,
           | says:
           | 
           | "It is forbidden to be merciful to them. You must send
           | missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and
           | damnable. The Lord shall return the Arab's deeds on their own
           | heads, waste their seed and exterminate them, devastate them
           | and vanish them from this world."*
           | 
           | That this is "Anti-Semitic" speech as well.
           | 
           | It's amazing how buying off 98% of US Representatives can
           | change a cultural and media narrative.
           | 
           | *https://adc.org/racist-incitement-by-israeli-leaders-must-
           | en...
        
         | loceng wrote:
         | I first thought you were going to point out how the misuse of
         | the word "antisemitic" is especially problematic here:
         | 
         | Do the vast majority of people not understand correlation vs.
         | causation? Because Netanyahu is Jewish does not mean an action
         | against him is because he's Jewish.
         | 
         | That they are willing to use such "cry wolf" tactics, abusing
         | it, dilutes their credibility at minimum - and then should
         | bring their integrity into question, just for this
         | misrepresentation of calling this action antisemitic.
        
           | disgruntledphd2 wrote:
           | I mean, this has been standard operating procedure for the
           | State of Israel for a long time now. Any criticism is
           | dismissed as antisemitic.
           | 
           | Personally, I don't think that's fair, but it's
           | understandable why they would use it as a defence.
        
             | throw310822 wrote:
             | Because it works. Well, it used to work- today, I think it
             | has lost all its value. Good riddance.
        
               | glassounds wrote:
               | Regardless of whether a group of politicians use it
               | maliciously or not - Antisemitism exists and happens all
               | the time. It has not "lost its value", and if it has then
               | so has western society.
        
         | gspencley wrote:
         | > If Netanyahu and Gallant really think they are innocent, and
         | the allegations are absurd and false, they should cooperate
         | with the ICC. Have your day in court and show how absurd the
         | accusations are.
         | 
         | I don't know if I agree with this.
         | 
         | If the ICC is an honest organization that stands for individual
         | rights, liberty and justice then sure.
         | 
         | If, on the other hand, the ICC is a corrupt organization that
         | invites the worst of the worst in terms of rights-violating
         | countries and dictatorial regimes to the table, then no way. In
         | any compromise between right and wrong, good and evil, the
         | wrong has everything to gain and the good has everything to
         | lose.
         | 
         | In other words, I don't have all of the facts when it comes to
         | the ICC and its history. I know that it is separate from the
         | UN, but I don't know very much about it. Therefore I don't know
         | which alternative I ultimately land on.
         | 
         | But in general and in principle, when it comes to those that
         | are objectively and morally wrong, there is every reason to not
         | grant them legitimacy through recognition or participation.
        
           | pazimzadeh wrote:
           | what do you mean by 'invite to the table'? it's a criminal
           | court, so it's going to deal with criminals
           | 
           | you're also assuming that israel is a good faith actor in all
           | of this
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Court#I.
           | ..
        
             | gspencley wrote:
             | > what do you mean by 'invite to the table'? it's a
             | criminal court, so it's going to deal with criminals
             | 
             | "Criminals" in this context is meaningless. Please hear me
             | out.
             | 
             | We're dealing with the concept of "International Law",
             | which is largely understood as agreements / treaties
             | amongst different countries.
             | 
             | This means that those agreements are no more valid or
             | better or righteous than the countries that enter into
             | them. If the nations involved share certain basic
             | principles and make an agreement that aligns with those
             | principles, the enforcement of these "laws" would come from
             | those nations that are party to the treaty.
             | 
             | BUT - if one nation changes its mind, or changes its
             | internal laws or decides "nah, no thanks" then how do you
             | enforce these so-called "laws"? Do the other nations
             | declare war on this nation?
             | 
             | It gets even worse than that. Because the very concept of
             | "International Law" contains a logical contradiction.
             | 
             | The idea is that we are going make war (force, violence,
             | death, destruction, conflict) subject to some kind of
             | rules. The problem is, you can't. You can have two parties
             | to a conflict agree to certain things: like not to murder
             | civilians, or prisoners etc. if it can be helped. But at
             | the end of the day it's an agreement that doesn't have any
             | kind of binding power or significance because the idea of
             | war means that two groups have decided that they can't
             | reach any kind of rational agreement and so they have
             | resorted to violent conflict.
             | 
             | War, by definition, is the absence of law. The absence of
             | reason. The breakdown of civilization. It comes about when
             | two groups cannot reason with one another; cannot agree
             | with one another on what the rules ought to be.
             | 
             | Law is not a concept that comes out of nowhere. It is the
             | idea that in order to protect individual rights and
             | liberty, the element of force and violence is going to be
             | taken out of civil existence and placed into the hands of a
             | monopoly: the government, which sets the rules and
             | enforcement mechanisms around when force is and is not
             | justifiable within their respective operating
             | jurisdictions.
             | 
             | When you have multiple nations that operate independently,
             | each with their own laws and rules, all you can do is get
             | them to agree to certain things, as long as they have some
             | basis upon which to enter into an agreement.
             | 
             | My thesis is that a free, rights-protecting nation has no
             | basis for an agreement with a dictatorship that routinely
             | violates peoples' rights. That the dictatorship has
             | everything to gain by getting the free nation to agree to
             | what its evil desires want, while the free nation has only
             | things to lose (through compromise, which is part and
             | parcel of coming to terms).
             | 
             | That's what I mean by "invite to the table."
        
               | bawolff wrote:
               | > We're dealing with the concept of "International Law",
               | which is largely understood as agreements / treaties
               | amongst different countries.
               | 
               | Well this is true of a lot of international law, it
               | doesn't apply here. The ICC largely deals with things
               | that are preemptory norms which apply regardless of if
               | you sign the treaty.
        
               | gspencley wrote:
               | > The ICC largely deals with things that are preemptory
               | norms which apply regardless of if you sign the treaty.
               | 
               | That's irrelevant. Anyone can form an independent
               | organization and proclaim that nations of the world are
               | subject to the rules set forth by that independent
               | organization.
               | 
               | The point is that they have no intrinsic authority.
               | 
               | Authority comes from either moral sanction (of the
               | people, by the people / consent of the governed) or
               | through force.
               | 
               | In other words, the enforcement mechanism has to come
               | from those that opt-in to that organization. i.e: through
               | mutual agreement.
               | 
               | Which means that any "violator" nation can then say "GTFO
               | and I dare you to come at me and see the full force of my
               | police (if you try to arrest my citizens) or my military
               | (if the participating nations declare war on me in an
               | attempt to enforce these 'laws')."
               | 
               | So it still can only come about through mutual agreements
               | between nations. Otherwise it is nothing more than a
               | rogue body that sends armed thugs to try and enforce its
               | rules while nations get to say "We neither recognize nor
               | agree to those rules, nor do we recognize your authority
               | to enforce them. However, you are subject to our laws
               | while you are trying to execute your 'warrants' on our
               | soil. And we will arrest YOU and throw you in our jails
               | if you interfere with the rights of any one of our
               | citizens."
        
               | bawolff wrote:
               | > In other words, the enforcement mechanism has to come
               | from those that opt-in to that organization. i.e: through
               | mutual agreement.
               | 
               | Tell that to the germans who were hanged at the nuremburg
               | trials. They certainly didn't consent.
               | 
               | You are right to a certain extent, that enforcement
               | requires agreement or force, but at the same time the
               | general rules and procedures of international law do have
               | some force to them. They have this force because they are
               | widely agreed on. This includes Israel which broadly
               | agree all these things are illegal, they just take issue
               | with that specific court. However their donestic courts
               | recognize all the things the icc prosecutes as crimes
               | locally broadly speaking. (Well there is some dispute
               | over what forced population transfer means, but that
               | isn't one of the crimes in question for this warrant)
        
               | jll29 wrote:
               | > a free, rights-protecting nation has no basis for an
               | agreement [between any two or more states] with a
               | dictatorship that routinely violates peoples' rights.
               | 
               | Wikipedia quote: "States and non-state actors may choose
               | to not abide by international law, and even to breach a
               | treaty but such violations, particularly of peremptory
               | norms, can be met with disapproval by others and in some
               | cases coercive action ranging from diplomatic and
               | economic sanctions to war."
               | 
               | I think isolating bad actors can be a limited solution to
               | the absence of physical power/not wanting to start a way,
               | which ultimately as you rightly state corresponds to a
               | situation of absence/breakdown of law that is best
               | avoided.
        
               | pazimzadeh wrote:
               | I'm using "criminals" as a short-hand for "the worst of
               | the worst in terms of rights-violating countries and
               | dictatorial regimes" which is what you initially said.
               | 
               | If there is no such thing as international law, then what
               | "rights" are these countries violating?
               | 
               | > When you have multiple nations that operate
               | independently, each with their own laws and rules, all
               | you can do is get them to agree to certain things, as
               | long as they have some basis upon which to enter into an
               | agreement.
               | 
               | It sounds like you do think all countries should be
               | 'invited to the table' unless they fail to meet a
               | standard which you yourself don't think exists.
               | Confusing.
        
           | ignoramous wrote:
           | > _I don 't have all of the facts when it comes to the ICC
           | and its history. I know that it is separate from the UN, but
           | I don't know very much about it. Therefore I don't know which
           | alternative I ultimately land on._
           | 
           | If you can put in the time & effort required to make an
           | empirical assessment of the ICC, go ahead and do so; then
           | come back here and enlighten us all. Otherwise, this is just
           | more of the same kind of denialism & deflection we're all too
           | familiar with post WW2 from the many (and vocal) mass crime
           | apologists.
        
         | grecy wrote:
         | > _and said the decision is "antisemitic."_
         | 
         | It is incredible how many actions are being hidden behind this.
         | 
         | I couldn't care less what imaginary person someone believes in,
         | or what their culture or heritage is. If they're killing
         | massive numbers of people - especially children - they're doing
         | something wrong. I have no interest in commenting on their
         | beliefs. I'm saying their actions are wrong, and that is true
         | no matter who is doing it and what they believe.
        
           | jll29 wrote:
           | Yes, if there is any moral norm that anyone, especially any
           | parent would accept - as closely to universal as possible,
           | perhaps - it is that killing children is evil.
        
         | rmbyrro wrote:
         | The Israeli will not recognize the authority of this ICC bench,
         | because it's a politically motivated prosecution. They've lost
         | before the trial even began.
        
       | StefanBatory wrote:
       | Netanyahu I'm not surprised, but Gallant?
       | 
       | EDIT: Asking genuinely on Gallant all I know is he was minister
       | of defence and had a felling out with Netanyahu.
        
         | bawolff wrote:
         | He's the minister of defense (not anymore but was at the time).
         | If the allegations are true, then as minister of defense he
         | probably ordered the things in question (or failed to stop
         | them)
        
           | StefanBatory wrote:
           | Okay, failing to stop them is a fair point I haven't
           | considered - thanks.
        
         | jrochkind1 wrote:
         | Being the minister of defense gives you culpability for the
         | military actions the ICC has decided are war crimes, I'd think?
         | But I am not an expert in international law, just don't find it
         | surprising.
        
           | sofixa wrote:
           | Yep, commanders are responsible for the actions undertaken by
           | their troops.
           | 
           | It's called Command responsibility or sometimes the Yamashita
           | principle/doctrine, after a Japanese general who was executed
           | for horrific crimes committed by troops not even under his
           | command, but in his area of responsibility (they were naval
           | troops in the Philippines, he was commander of the
           | Philippines, the navy and the army hated each other; he
           | pulled out of Manilla in order to wage war in favourable
           | terrain, the naval infantry commander refused to follow him
           | and fought a brutal urban battle that destroyed the city, and
           | on purpose killed more than a hundred thousand civilians).
        
             | sku11gat wrote:
             | Some Japanese officers take responsibility very seriously.
             | 
             | >Hitoshi Imamura was a Japanese general who served in the
             | Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, and was
             | subsequently convicted of war crimes. Finding his
             | punishment to be too light, Imamura built a replica of his
             | prison in his garden and confined himself there until his
             | death.
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitoshi_Imamura
        
               | sofixa wrote:
               | Most just ordered horrific atrocities, their men to die,
               | and then killed themselves.
        
         | adhamsalama wrote:
         | You're not surprised that the prime minister is accused of war
         | crimes, but surprised the minister of defense is?
        
         | shihab wrote:
         | "Defense minister [Gallant] announces 'complete siege' of Gaza:
         | No power, food or fuel". [1]
         | 
         | [1] https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-
         | ministe...
        
           | StefanBatory wrote:
           | Thanks for the link, I didn't know that it was he who
           | announced that. Thank you!
        
         | runarberg wrote:
         | As I understand it, he was the mastermind behind the policy of
         | starvation and hindering of aid into Gaza. There is a famous
         | video of him promising such in October 2023. He was also the
         | defense minister in a time when several hospitals were targeted
         | and damaged, so it is not hard to see the responsibility of
         | this policy falling on him.
        
         | newspaper1 wrote:
         | Gallant's position is that there are no innocent people in Gaza
         | and that they should be starved to death. He's said this many
         | times:
         | 
         | https://x.com/KhalilJeries/status/1853905224320372923
        
           | StefanBatory wrote:
           | I didn't know about this before, thanks :|
           | 
           | I thought he was much more of a moderate in Netanyahu
           | cabinet.
        
             | newspaper1 wrote:
             | There's a large attempt to pin all of this on Netanyahu and
             | his closest cabinet but what he's saying is pretty much
             | supported by nearly all of Israeli society down to
             | individual citizens. I encourage everyone to find people
             | who live in Israel on X and translate their tweets so they
             | can see for themselves.
        
               | SauciestGNU wrote:
               | It's utterly appalling, and the main reason I tend to
               | think the end of apartheid in Israel will look
               | substantially different than the end of apartheid in
               | South Africa.
        
             | griomnib wrote:
             | He is a moderate; which tells you all you need to know
             | about contemporary Israel politics and ethical standards.
        
             | tdeck wrote:
             | Liberal Zionists like to pretend Gallant was the "moderate
             | one" but in reality there is essentially no moderate in
             | current Israeli society, there is only the secular far
             | right and the messianic further right. The two differ only
             | in small derails of their preferred strategy when using the
             | military to ethnically cleanse Gaza. There is no
             | significant coalition that recognizes basic human rights
             | for Palestinians.
        
             | edanm wrote:
             | He is a member of Netanyahu's party, which is a right-wing
             | party (though not far-right in terms of Israeli politics).
             | 
             | He is certainly not a _moderate_ , but he is far more
             | trusted than Netanyahu and is considered a moderating and
             | opposing influence on him by many people. Mostly
             | representing the interested of the defence establishment,
             | as opposed to purely political interests (or, if you ask
             | me, as opposed to Netanyahu's only real interest, which is
             | himself).
        
       | roody15 wrote:
       | What is the point of the ICC? Russia doesn't recognize it, Israel
       | doesn't recognize it and even the United States doesn't recognize
       | it. I am confused at what these warrants even mean.
        
         | tuvocoical wrote:
         | In this case, to make a political statement against Israel and
         | their leadership.
         | 
         | Note that the only member of Hamas indicted, Mohammed Deif,
         | will never see a day in court. As the ICC already knows, he was
         | killed in an airstrike earlier this year.
        
           | ktallett wrote:
           | Since there has been no proof of his death bar the
           | announcements from Israel, it is sensible to consider him as
           | a wanted man until there is concrete evidence he is dead.
        
             | tuvocoical wrote:
             | https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5077358-new-
             | evidence-s...
             | 
             | Hamas sources have also confimed this.
        
         | DasIch wrote:
         | In practice these warrants mean that they cannot travel to any
         | country that does recognize the ICC without being arrested,
         | which means they almost certainly won't.
        
           | jcranmer wrote:
           | Just like how Putin couldn't travel to, say, South Africa,
           | after a warrant was issued for his arrest. Oh wait, South
           | Africa declined to enforce the ICC arrest warrant in that
           | case.
           | 
           | I don't see this meaningfully constraining Netanyahu's
           | foreign travel options.
        
             | runarberg wrote:
             | It would be politically very risky for any European
             | democracy to not enforce this arrest warrant, much more so
             | than for South Africa or Mongolia. Israel is not popular
             | among the public in Europe, and if a government invites him
             | for a political visit, and don't arrest him, that
             | government will have to pay for that in the next election
             | (and probably sooner, with mass demonstration and public
             | unrest).
             | 
             | Now, lets talk about Putin's visit to South Africa. So
             | Putin was scheduled to visit a BRICS summit in South Africa
             | despite the ICC arrest warrant. South Africa claimed they
             | wouldn't enforce the arrest warrant. People got very mad.
             | South Africa, in response, declared that Putin would only
             | participate in the summit remotely, where the arrest
             | warrant couldn't be enforced.
             | 
             | Now this was obviously a way to bypass the ICC warrant, and
             | the stunt did not go well in the general public. In the
             | next election the ANC, the governing party at the time,
             | lost their parliamentary majority for the first time since
             | South Africa became a democracy in 1994. Now South Africans
             | had several other reasons to ditch the ANC, but this stunt
             | certainly didn't help.
        
             | aguaviva wrote:
             | Oh wait, South Africa is just one country.
             | 
             | In a great many other countries, including nearly all
             | Western countries, the warrant is still in effect.
             | 
             | And even in the South African case: the government's
             | decision was considered quite tenuous, which is why Putin
             | cancelled his visit, in was was considered to be a major
             | diplomatic setback at the time. So at the end of the day --
             | the warrant still had significant effect, and fulfilled its
             | purpose.
        
           | nickff wrote:
           | ICC member Mongolia didn't arrest Putin when he visited.
           | https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/ukraine-situation-icc-pre-
           | trial...
        
             | aguaviva wrote:
             | The fact that it's the only country he's been able to visit
             | since the warrant was issued (aside from North Korea)
             | indicates that, by and large -- it's working as intended.
        
               | ganeshkrishnan wrote:
               | >The fact that it's the only country he's been able to
               | visit since the warrant was issued
               | 
               | Putin has visited around 20 countries after this ICC
               | warrant including UAE, Saudi Arabia, China, Armenia,
               | Vietnam , India (planned), Uzbekistan ...
               | 
               | Start here and start counting: https://en.wikipedia.org/w
               | iki/List_of_international_presiden...
               | 
               | But I know you wont. Your response will be shifting some
               | goal posts like "these are not real countries because
               | they don't exist in my coloring book"
        
               | aguaviva wrote:
               | I stand corrected:
               | 
               | "The fact that he's only been able to visit a relative
               | handful of countries -- nearly all of which were
               | traditional Cold War allies (and several of these being
               | current or former vassal states) -- indicates that, by
               | and large, the warrant is working as intended."
               | 
               | BTW the number is 9, not 20.
        
               | nickff wrote:
               | Not grandparent, but where are you getting 9?
               | 
               | I get 16 from the Wiki:
               | 
               | Tajikistan
               | 
               | Turkmenistan
               | 
               | Iran
               | 
               | Uzbekistan
               | 
               | Kazakhstan
               | 
               | Armenia
               | 
               | Kyrgyzstan
               | 
               | Belarus
               | 
               | China
               | 
               | United Arab Emirates
               | 
               | Saudi Arabia
               | 
               | North Korea
               | 
               | Vietnam
               | 
               | Azerbaijan
               | 
               | Mongolia
               | 
               | Turkmenistan
        
               | aguaviva wrote:
               | I'm looking at the bullet lists for 2023-2024, whereas it
               | seems you may be looking at the table of all post-2022
               | visits (several of which were before the warrant was
               | issued).
        
               | sgjohnson wrote:
               | Several of the countries listed are not members of the
               | ICC, so they don't really count here.
        
         | runarberg wrote:
         | There have been several pundits with opinion on the matter,
         | you'll find quite a few in any news source (personally I
         | recommend al-Jazeera). The gist of it is that this will have
         | implication mostly around travels of Israeli officials to
         | Europe. We might also see a slow and gradual policy shift in
         | Europe as a result of this.
        
         | latentcall wrote:
         | Ah yes three countries accused of doing really heinous shit do
         | not recognize the legitimacy of the International Criminal
         | Court. How convenient.
        
       | bawolff wrote:
       | > The Chamber also noted that decisions allowing or increasing
       | humanitarian assistance into Gaza were often conditional. They
       | were not made to fulfil Israel's obligations under international
       | humanitarian law or to ensure that the civilian population in
       | Gaza would be adequately supplied with goods in need. In fact,
       | they were a response to the pressure of the international
       | community or requests by the United States of America. In any
       | event, the increases in humanitarian assistance were not
       | sufficient to improve the population's access to essential goods.
       | 
       | I don't understand why this would matter. Does it matter the
       | rationale for increasing aid? I would think the only thing that
       | should matter would be weather the aid was sufficient or not. (I
       | appreciate in the end icc pretrial felt it wasn't enough , but i
       | think that is the only thing that should matter)
       | 
       | Like if someone is accused of murder, but doesn't because a
       | friend told them not to, we don't throw them in jail because they
       | decided not to murder for the wrong reasons.
        
         | toast0 wrote:
         | The rationale for supplying aid might not matter when the aid
         | is sufficient. Although, coercive aid might still be a problem;
         | I'm unfamiliar with international law on this.
         | 
         | But when aid is not sufficient, I think rationale/intent makes
         | more of a difference. If you're doing it for the right reasons
         | and putting in a good effort, sufficiency may not be acheivable
         | and it may not be right to charge you with not acheiving it. If
         | you're only doing it to keep your friends happy, and it's
         | insufficient, maybe there was more you could have done.
        
         | ncr100 wrote:
         | The word intent is oftentimes used in The judicial system to
         | measure culpability and punishment:
         | 
         | whether somebody accidentally stabbed a person 90 times or
         | intentionally stabbed the person 90 times, for instance, is
         | captured via the concept of intent.
        
         | vharuck wrote:
         | Israel was expected, under international law, to
         | unconditionally allow aid for the civilians. Israel used it as
         | a bargaining chip, effectively holding civilians hostage.
        
           | bawolff wrote:
           | This doesn't seem to match what the ICC is saying. I don't
           | see anywhere that the icc accused Israel of using aid as a
           | bargaining chip.
        
             | vharuck wrote:
             | From the announcement:
             | 
             | >decisions allowing or increasing humanitarian assistance
             | into Gaza were often conditional.
             | 
             | I may be misinterpreting legal jargon, but "conditional"
             | implies Israel often didn't want to allow humanitarian
             | assistance unless Israel received something. This isn't
             | allowed under international law. Relevant excerpt from the
             | announcement:
             | 
             | >This finding is based on the role of Mr Netanyahu and Mr
             | Gallant in impeding humanitarian aid in violation of
             | international humanitarian law and their failure to
             | facilitate relief by all means at its disposal.
             | 
             | Parties to conflict are expected to facilitate aid, not
             | just allow it, and definitely not set conditions.
        
         | xg15 wrote:
         | I think it does matter, because it's another indicator for
         | intent.
         | 
         | If the starvation is a "simple" side-effect of the combat
         | situation, but you're working actively to alleviate it on your
         | own volition (by doing your best to let in aid organizations,
         | etc) then it's obvious to see there is no intent to it.
         | 
         | If, on the other hand, you have to be pressured by the
         | international community, including your closest allies for
         | every tiny step in the direction of letting in aid, and you
         | will immediately jump two steps back as soon as the pressure
         | eases slightly, then it can be inferred that you really really
         | _want_ the starvation to happen and your only problem with the
         | situation is getting away with it.
         | 
         | (Not even starting with all the government officials who
         | spelled out the whole intent explicitly in public, documented
         | quotes)
         | 
         | > _Like if someone is accused of murder, but doesn 't because a
         | friend told them not to, we don't throw them in jail because
         | they decided not to murder for the wrong reasons._
         | 
         | The problem is that the murder is happening here and the friend
         | is trying - badly - to convince the person to pull out the
         | knife.
        
         | MisterTea wrote:
         | > Like if someone is accused of murder, but doesn't because a
         | friend told them not to, we don't throw them in jail because
         | they decided not to murder for the wrong reasons.
         | 
         | If they did not carry out any action then this holds true. But
         | there were actions carried out that amounts to assault and
         | attempted murder.
        
       | tuyguntn wrote:
       | If Netanyahu and Gallant declared as war criminals, does it also
       | mean whoever helped them during the 2024 is complicit?
       | 
       | Wondering what happens to so many Western leaders who supported
       | Netanyahu unconditionally.
        
         | GordonS wrote:
         | Biden/Harris, Starmer, Scholz and Macron have all been
         | supplying Israel with arms, all whole knowing they are carrying
         | out a genocide. The US has also had boots on the ground, and
         | the UK has flown hundreds of spy and missions over Gaza.
         | Meanwhile, they _all_ give near carbon-copy press statements
         | that read like they came straight from Israeli Hasbara.
         | 
         | They have knowingly supported and _aided_ Israel, and I hope
         | more warrants are forthcoming.
         | 
         | Come to think of it, plenty of journalists and media orgs are
         | complicit too, such as the BBC.
        
         | alexisread wrote:
         | Technically yes, and a number of UK politicians are being
         | mooted for investigation
         | 
         | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/23/criminal-complaint-...
         | 
         | Notably this admission by David Cameron, to knowledge of
         | starvation is rather damning
         | 
         | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-67926799
        
         | elAhmo wrote:
         | Like the US congress giving an applause and a standing ovation.
        
       | nashashmi wrote:
       | Title doesn't mention any hamas official
        
         | dang wrote:
         | I adopted the title of one of the news articles that were also
         | submitted about this. See
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42204632 for why.
        
       | locallost wrote:
       | I doubt there will be actual arrests, but there will be and there
       | are already consequences. I just saw France and Netherlands
       | announced they will obey the warrants, thus Netanyahu can no
       | longer travel there. Presumably the whole of EU is off limits (I
       | am unaware which countries recognize the court).
        
         | immibis wrote:
         | I expect Germany to declare the opposite. There is a small
         | chance this incident fractures the European Union.
        
           | locallost wrote:
           | I think Germany has already said it will respect the court's
           | decision but disagrees with it.
        
             | immibis wrote:
             | Quite strange coming from the country that contributes the
             | second highest amount of money to the genocide, where you
             | can be arrested for protesting against the genocide, and
             | every institution will label you a terrorist if you do.
        
               | locallost wrote:
               | Well there are competing forces pulling in different
               | directions. So yes, but... at the same times at least
               | officially, the rules are the rules for Germans. In
               | reality what I learned from them living in Germany is
               | that they will do their best to honor the letter of the
               | law, by effectively doing the opposite. But at least on
               | paper they will follow the rules.
        
           | csomar wrote:
           | If Europe (ie Germany) as a whole fails to enforce the
           | warrant, the court is pretty much dissolved.
        
           | spongebobism wrote:
           | Current opposition leader Friedrich Merz, who will probably
           | win the snap elections in February, has even before the court
           | ordered the warrant called for Germany not to obey it. But of
           | course, it's easier to take strong stances when you're not
           | part of that government that has to act on them yet. We'll
           | see.
        
         | shihab wrote:
         | EU foreign policy chief said the court's decision should be
         | implemented. Ireland also indicated they would comply with the
         | warrant.
        
       | lupire wrote:
       | How is this not a declaration of war against Israel and Gaza by
       | the members of the UN? Regardless of their alleged friends, these
       | people are the leaders of sovereign (-ish, for Gaza) nations.
        
         | AndrewVos wrote:
         | Because a declaration of war is different to stating that a
         | country committed war crimes.
        
         | crazygringo wrote:
         | Because nobody is invading Israel. Nobody's declaring war.
         | 
         | The whole point of international law is to hold citizens of
         | sovereign nations accountable, without having to go to war to
         | achieve it.
         | 
         | Nobody has legal authority to go into Israel to seize
         | Netanyahu. But now he knows that if he tries to travel to
         | Europe, he will be seized upon entry. That's not war, that's
         | simply apprehending someone who there is an arrest warrant out
         | for.
        
         | abbe98 wrote:
         | ICC is not a UN organ:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Court
        
       | h_tbob wrote:
       | I don't get why Israel waged war on Gaza instead of just going
       | for the guy who ordered the attack. Any thoughts?
        
         | latentcall wrote:
         | Oct. 7 was incredibly useful for Israel give it the casus belli
         | to destroy resistance and settle Gaza. Lebanon will be the
         | cherry on top.
         | 
         | Why kill one guy when you can kill all resistance and (future
         | possible) resistance and tada you have a bunch of land and can
         | expand your borders.
        
           | underdeserver wrote:
           | 1200 dead including children and elderly. Useful. Are you
           | serious?
        
             | latentcall wrote:
             | Yes I am serious. Obviously 1200 dead is sad. Disregarding
             | the emotions, on an Israeli political level it IS useful to
             | rally the country to finally handle the Palestine problem
             | once and for all, which is what is happening right now.
        
         | jowea wrote:
         | The guy is the Hamas leader who was killed recently? How would
         | Israel get him? Special forces raid? He could hide anywhere in
         | Gaza. And why would Israel want to do a decapitation instead of
         | destroying the hostile organization? Even assuming Israel
         | doesn't want to annex territory that seems like expecting the
         | US to react to 9/11 by sending the Navy Seals after Bin Laden
         | and stop it at that.
        
         | cwkoss wrote:
         | The Gaza invasion was never about the hostages. If Israel cared
         | about the hostages they wouldn't have indiscriminately bombed
         | the entire territory. The hostages are dead, and demanding the
         | impossible return of people they killed is simply a pretext:
         | 
         | They want land expansion and the total ethnic cleansing of
         | Palestine. Look up 'Greater Israel'. Tim Walz accidentally let
         | it slip during a debate that this is the goal of the US empires
         | support.
        
       | ComputerGuru wrote:
       | For context, this is only possible because the state of Palestine
       | pushed hard and persisted for years to become an ICC member and
       | thus give the ICC jurisdiction over crimes committed on
       | Palestinian territory, whether by Israel or by Palestinian
       | factions. The USA is still mad at them for doing it.
       | 
       | The full account is worth reading, it includes considerations by
       | the various resistance factions that they'd also be subject to
       | ICC jurisdiction and realized threats of punitive measures by the
       | USA and Israel if they continued to push for ICC membership:
       | https://palepedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Court%27s_...
        
         | xenospn wrote:
         | Do you think the state of Palestine would arrest Hamas
         | officials on behalf of the ICC?
         | 
         | Moreover, would any Muslim country? I think this goes both
         | ways.
        
           | tdeck wrote:
           | Yes. The PA is controlled by a party that staged a coup when
           | Hamas won an election in Gaza and has been able to prevent
           | elections since 2006.
        
             | TeaBrain wrote:
             | This doesn't serve as evidence that the PA would be willing
             | to arrest Hamas members.
        
               | vinay427 wrote:
               | To be fair, the GP comment asked what one thinks about
               | the possibility, and the parent comment provided some
               | limited grounding. It's a bit difficult to provide
               | concrete evidence for a hypothetical.
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | Fatah and Hamas have engaged in open combat regularly.
               | 
               | Willingness isn't really in question. Ability to do so
               | is, though.
        
               | ComputerGuru wrote:
               | The PA routinely arrests Hamas members. On the daily.
               | Locks them up or hands them over to Israel to lock them
               | up for years. Isn't that already evidence?
        
               | TeaBrain wrote:
               | Yes, that absolutely serves as evidence. I don't think
               | what was written in the comment I replied to serves as
               | evidence by itself though, which is all I was pointing
               | out.
        
               | TheGuyWhoCodes wrote:
               | They don't, what are you talking about? If they did
               | Israeli borer police wouldn't have to go into palestinian
               | town and villages arresting terrorists.
        
           | feedforward wrote:
           | The New York Times and Haaretz reported in the summer and
           | autumn of last year (just prior to the current flareup),
           | Netanyahu had sent the Mossad head to Qatar in order to
           | convince them to send money to prop up the Hamas government
           | in Gaza. As Netanyahu said publicly in 2012, he wanted Hamas
           | strong and the Palestinian Authority and Fatah weak, as the
           | PA was pursuing measures at the United Nations.
           | 
           | You're pointing the finger at the State of Palestine and "any
           | Muslim country", when the real supporters of Hamas for years
           | has been Israel and Netanyahu.
        
             | dlubarov wrote:
             | Those were ostensibly aid funds; it's not as if Qatar was
             | sending rockets. Do you think Israel should block such aid?
        
               | criddell wrote:
               | The person you are replying to didn't imply that it was
               | military aid. They said it was to strengthen Hamas and
               | weaken the Palestinian Authority. I have no idea if
               | that's true or not, but it's a different claim than you
               | are challenging.
        
             | edanm wrote:
             | > You're pointing the finger at the State of Palestine and
             | "any Muslim country", when the real supporters of Hamas for
             | years has been Israel and Netanyahu.
             | 
             | You said true things before about Netanyahu propping up
             | Hamas, and he certainly has a lot to answer for.
             | 
             | But you then went way too far in this statement. The "real
             | supporters" or Hamas are not the Israelis or Netanyahu.
             | They existed before Netanyahu, and they're armed and funded
             | to massive degrees by Iran. And while Netanyahu certainly
             | had a certain symbiosis with Hamas, and used them to weaken
             | the PA, Hamas is its own organization; the diversion of the
             | funds that Netanyahu helped secure them to creating the
             | October 7th attack was certainly not anyone's desire except
             | Hamas's own.
        
           | netsharc wrote:
           | The whole "The Muslims/Muslim countries won't do X, and
           | therefore why should we?" argument is funny and depressing to
           | me. Why won't they do X? Because maybe in your mind you think
           | they're savages/less civilized. Less, that is, compared to
           | you/your community's (in whatever scale: nation, race,
           | hemisphere). But if you're saying "If they don't do X, we can
           | behave the same", isn't that a call for you/your community to
           | abandon your civilization and embrace the "equal" savagery?
           | 
           | How is it a winning argument? "In our eyes we're civilized
           | and they're savages, and if they don't act civilized we're
           | also free to abandon or civilized ways and act the way we
           | condemn...".
        
             | nujabe wrote:
             | It's typical hasbara propaganda tactics, deflect, deflect
             | and deflect.
        
             | jojobas wrote:
             | >Because maybe in your mind you think they're savages/less
             | civilized.
             | 
             | No, rather because they want to use the international law
             | to their advantage, not to their detriment.
        
           | culi wrote:
           | Yes, the PA has stated that they would comply with the ICC
        
         | FireBeyond wrote:
         | > For context, this is only possible because the state of
         | Palestine pushed hard and persisted for years to become an ICC
         | member and thus give the ICC jurisdiction over crimes committed
         | on Palestinian territory, whether by Israel or by Palestinian
         | factions. The USA is still mad at them for doing it.
         | 
         | That sounds biased.
         | 
         | Why -shouldn't- Palestine be able to be a member of the ICC?
         | Your verbiage makes it sounds like they basically bullied the
         | ICC into membership.
         | 
         | And frankly, so what if the US is still mad at them for it? The
         | US won't join organizations like this because it'd rather
         | protect people like Kissinger who openly committed war crimes
         | (and wants the freedom to be able to do whatever it wants,
         | wherever, without consequence).
        
           | tsimionescu wrote:
           | I think the GP intended to congratulate the Palestinians for
           | their digged resilience in pursuing this, despite the
           | extraordinary opposition they faced. I think they were using
           | this language specifically to suggest how hard the fight was,
           | not to imply that it was a bad thing.
        
             | ComputerGuru wrote:
             | You are correct. But given the normal position people take
             | when it comes to Palestine, I don't blame GP for
             | misinterpreting! :)
        
               | FireBeyond wrote:
               | Well, I apologize for the misreading, certainly!
        
         | insane_dreamer wrote:
         | > state of Palestine pushed hard and persisted for years to
         | become an ICC member
         | 
         | good for them; is there some reason they shouldn't have?
        
           | ComputerGuru wrote:
           | Absolutely not; in fact, I was commending them for it.
        
       | idunnoman1222 wrote:
       | Article is pretty light on the details of the Hamas officials. I
       | wonder if they'll show up to their day in court.
        
         | tsimionescu wrote:
         | According to Israel at least, all the ones that the warrants
         | were requested for are now dead. Perhaps new warrants will be
         | issued, but simply taking on the mantle of Hamas leadership
         | will not make someone retroactively culpable for the crimes of
         | October 7th. Culpability at this level is personal, not
         | collective. So even though anyone who becomes the next leader
         | of Hamas will be, by this act itself, a terrible human seeking
         | to advance some horrible ideals, that will not make them
         | culpable for everything Hamas has already done.
        
         | recroad wrote:
         | No because dead
        
       | giardini wrote:
       | Have they issued any warrants for Hamas leaders for the 7 October
       | Hamas-led attack on Israel?
        
         | isoprophlex wrote:
         | Yes, for those that are still alive, that is indeed the case.
        
         | warrenmiller wrote:
         | Yes. Read the posts
        
         | ArnoVW wrote:
         | they have, at the same time, issued a warrant for Mohammed Diab
         | Ibrahim Al-Masri, who is (or was) the commander of the armed
         | part of Hamas.
         | 
         | https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-p...
        
       | ThinkBeat wrote:
       | I really don't think this belongs on the front page. It is a
       | highly divisive political issue with strong radicalisation at the
       | edges of any discourse on it.
       | 
       | I have my own strong opinions on it, but arguing it does not in
       | my opinon belong on the front page here.
       | 
       | There are plenty of places you can go and have this discussion in
       | as heated of a version as you prefer.
        
         | 11101010001100 wrote:
         | Legal issues seem to attract plenty of attention on HN. We
         | could see what sort of precedent has been set.
        
         | carb wrote:
         | I disagree. #1 this topic is not as divisive as it may seem.
         | There is consensus as to what is happening and only a minority
         | of the world thinks otherwise.
         | 
         | #2 Israel is a major tech partner and most large tech companies
         | have offices in Tel Aviv. Many startups that we discuss here
         | are headquartered in Tel Aviv. The head of state of the country
         | having an ICC arrest warrant and the situation at large have
         | major consequences to the tech world and thus HackerNews users
         | have a unique lens through which to have discourse. Discourse
         | with an angle that you won't find elsewhere this is discussed.
        
           | loeg wrote:
           | > There is consensus as to what is happening and only a
           | minority of the world thinks otherwise.
           | 
           | Well, that's obviously false. GP is right; this topic
           | produces more heat than light.
        
             | lynndotpy wrote:
             | There is a strong but not unanimous consensus that Israel
             | is committing war-crimes and enforcing an apartheid state
             | in the territories it occupies. There is consternation over
             | whether Israel's actions constitute genocide.
             | 
             | That said, I think it's fair to assume that people from the
             | US and other Israel-allied nations are disproportionately
             | represented on Hacker News. So, we should not expect the
             | global consensus to be reflected here.
             | 
             | But I think think this topic both (1) is on topic for
             | HackerNews given Israel's outsized prevalence in the tech
             | industry, (2) has geopolitical implications that I think
             | are worth discussing.
             | 
             | Either way, HackerNews is an outlier in terms of the
             | quality of the discussion, among social media or forums
             | where people will argue both for and against Israel's
             | actions. While I am very much on the "against Israel's
             | actions" side, I do think there is value in this
             | discussion, and so I am happy this topic is here on
             | HackerNews.
        
           | underdeserver wrote:
           | What is it that you believe there is consensus about?
        
         | recroad wrote:
         | It's only divisive if you support genocide. For anyone else
         | it's perfectly normal to discuss.
        
       | loeg wrote:
       | The HN title says "and Hamas officials," but this appears nowhere
       | in the article.
        
         | guerrilla wrote:
         | https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-p...
        
           | loeg wrote:
           | That isn't the linked article.
           | 
           | > Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is
           | misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize.
        
       | loceng wrote:
       | dang,
       | 
       | Any strange upvote/downvote activity going on in this thread?
       | 
       | Watching my own replies votes going up and down, makes me think
       | of the "THERE WAS A FIREFIGHT!" GIF:
       | https://tenor.com/search/there-was-a-fire-fight-gifs
       | 
       | E.g. Going to 2 then down to 0, back up, back down and
       | stabilizing again at 0; of course sophisticated coordinated
       | activity will pace itself, even if across real users, as to not
       | "waste their ammo" or be blatantly obvious; makes me wonder if
       | there have been any studies analyzing this.. anywho. Back to
       | life.
        
         | cwkoss wrote:
         | I'm sure that zionist 'civilians' exist within the HN
         | community, but the speed at which zionists find and downvote
         | critical comments really makes me wonder if there are Israeli
         | state funded accounts posting here with the intent of steering
         | discourse.
        
       | 50208 wrote:
       | I support these warrants.
        
       | StriverGuy wrote:
       | This does not belong on hacker news
        
         | cwkoss wrote:
         | Its interesting to me that whenever I see this sort of "off
         | topic concern" comment in this thread, the poster has a history
         | of pro-Zionist comments.
         | 
         | I suspect you don't so much disagree with this topic being
         | discussed, but rather are uncomfortable seeing such a large
         | majority of the HN community disagree with your sentiment.
        
       | tomohawk wrote:
       | What the ICC is saying is that if you study the laws of war and
       | create a strategy to hide behind those rules while putting non-
       | compatants at peril, you get to win.
       | 
       | This is what Hamas and Hezbollah have done. They have built their
       | combat infrastructure inside of and underneath schools,
       | hospitals, houses, etc. To say that to attack them after they do
       | that is to invite prosecution is risable.
        
       | wslh wrote:
       | It is enough to check the ICC track record on Maduro [1][2] to
       | laugh. It is taking too long... while the people who have direct
       | and daily contact with Venezuelans [3] already know about its
       | attrocities from direct witnesses.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.dejusticia.org/en/justice-in-tension-the-role-
       | of...
       | 
       | [2]
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Court_i...
       | 
       | [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelan_refugee_crisis
        
       | rixed wrote:
       | As a European, I find the reactions from the US politicians as
       | related in this Al-Jazeera article quite choking :
       | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/21/how-us-politicians...
       | 
       | But maybe biased though. Anyone would have a link to some more
       | nuanced statements with officials who do not sounds just like
       | thugs?
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2024-11-21 23:00 UTC)