by Jonathan Cook, The Unz Review:
When everything is exposed as a lie, the biggest liars triumph. The forces of darkness rush in to fill the void. That is the future awaiting us
For more than a year, those calling for an end to Israel’s slaughter of civilians in Gaza have been relentlessly vilified: as apologists for Hamas, as antisemites, even as supporters of a genocide against Israel and the wider Jewish people.
These smears have been buttressed by western politicians and the media insisting that Israel is conducting a legitimate, “defensive” war with limited aims: supposedly to eradicate Hamas and free a few dozen remaining Israeli hostages.
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The bigger picture has had to be swept from view. That Israel has levelled the infrastructure in Gaza needed to sustain life; bombarded Palestinians wherever they have sought refuge; butchered many tens of thousands of civilians – or more likely hundreds of thousands; and actively starved most of the population by withholding aid.
And, overlooked in all of this, Israel has failed to make a significant impact on Hamas’ fighting ability and has almost certainly endangered the lives of the hostages with its indiscriminate bombing campaigns.
Finally, 14 months on, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has struck a major blow against Israel’s tissue of lies and deceptions – as well as the complicity of western elites.
Judges at the war crimes court approved last month the issuing of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
After six months of delays, the ICC has agreed, against a background of unprecedented intimidation, to put the pair on trial at The Hague for crimes against humanity, including the targeting of civilians and the use of starvation as a method of war.
Should either step on the soil of any of the 124 member states – including Britain and all of Europe – that state will be obligated to arrest them and transfer them to The Hague.
The charges laid against Netanyahu and Gallant are likely also to bolster the case being made at the ICC’s sister court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.
What is clear is that the walls are closing in on Israel, as they are for those who have aided and abetted its crimes. Which includes western political and media establishments.
Collision course
This is a historic – and therefore dangerous – moment for the court and for the international legal order.
