LETTER: Israel and the International Criminal Court
Your May 22 editorial excoriating the International Criminal Court was rife with hypocrisy and rhetorical excess. The court’s job is to enforce international laws meant to govern the conduct of nations. They have identified suspected violations of those laws by both Hamas and Israeli leaders. The prosecutor has not claimed they violated the same laws nor made any prejudgments about the relative severity or depth of depravity of their alleged violations.
In fact, to date, the justices have been asked by the court’s prosecutor only to issue warrants for arrest due to evidence of violations. They have not made comparisons between the violators or their violations. It is a rhetorical trick to allege such actions where none exist.
No one reasonably expected Israel to turn the other cheek to the barbarism of the Hamas surprise attack. But there are many who say that Israel has subsequently violated standards of international law in the excess of its response, which is killing thousands upon thousands of innocent Palestinian non-combatants, inclusive of women and children. Israel’s response does begin to look like an attempt to indiscriminately kill and imperil all residents of Palestine in feckless hopes of ending Hamas atrocities. It begins to look like genocide. And it also looks like a violation of international law regarding the conduct of war.
It should be no surprise that a great many Americans are increasingly disgusted with our involvement.