A different Biden approach could have shaped war efforts and prevented this from happening in the first place
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) just ruled against Israel and determined that South Africa successfully argued that Israel’s conduct plausibly could constitute genocide. The Court imposes several injunctions against Israel and reminds Israel that its rulings are binding, according to international law.
A final ruling will still take more time, but this ruling will have significant political repercussions. Here are a few thoughts.
This is a devastating blow to Israel’s global standing. To put it in context, Israel has worked ferociously for the last two decades to defeat the BDS movement — Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions — not because it will have a significant economic impact on Israel, but because of how it could delegitimize Israel internationally. However, the ruling of the ICJ that Israel is plausibly engaged in genocide is far more devastating to Israel’s legitimacy than anything BDS could have achieved.
Just as much as Israel’s political system has been increasingly — and publicly — associated with apartheid in the past few years, Israel will now be similarly associated with the charge of genocide. As a result, those countries that have supported Israel and its military campaign in Gaza, such as the U.S. under President Biden, will be associated with that charge, too.
The implications for the United States are significant. First because the court does not have the ability to implement its ruling. Instead, the matter will go to the United Nations Security Council, where the Biden administration will once again face the choice of protecting Israel politically by casting a veto, and by that, further isolate the United States, or allowing the Security Council to act and pay a domestic political cost for “not standing by Israel.”
So far, the Biden administration has refused to say if it will respect ICJ’s decision. Of course, in previous cases in front of the ICJ, such as Myanmar, Ukraine and Syria, the U.S. and Western states stressed that ICJ provisional measures are binding and must be fully implemented.
The double standards of U.S. foreign policy will hit a new low if, in this case, Biden not only argues against the ICJ, but actively acts to prevent and block the implementation of its ruling. It is perhaps not surprising that senior Biden administration officials have largely ceased using the term “rules-based order” since October 7.
It also raises questions about how Biden’s policy of bear-hugging Israel may have contributed to Israel’s conduct. Biden could have offered more measured support and pushed back hard against Israeli excesses — and by that, prevented Israel from engaging in actions that could potentially fall under the category of genocide. But he didn’t.
Instead, Biden offered unconditional support combined with zero public criticism of Israel’s conduct and only limited push-back behind the scenes. A different American approach could have shaped Israel’s war efforts in a manner that arguably would not have been preliminarily ruled by the ICJ as plausibly meeting the standards of genocide.
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4 replies on “ICJ lands stunning blow on Israel over Gaza genocide charge”
I think that it’s pretty obvious which countries receive and count on financial support from Jewish/Israeli sources. Canadian and American politicians are literally bought and paid for, and the Israeli people themselves are in thrall to a known criminal leader. American Jews left the US (and Canada?) and settled in Israel deliberately to create pain and agony for the people of Gaza — so that eventually they could claim what they believed God had given to them alone — the so-called Land of Israel. If there is a God who sanctions what Israelis have done to their fellow humans — that is behaving like their ancestors’ German tormenters — creating their own version of “ovens” in which little children are callously extinguished — then I want nothing to do with any God or anyone who touts a favoured relationship with any “god”. In fact it seems that no such God exists, and human being themselves seem to be proof of that. I don’t know how we all got here, or even if we really are here, but it wasn’t at the hand of a loving God.
Sadly and sickeningly, money and the sources of it have always been where it’s at in politics — which makes me a recipient of my government’s ill-gotten “old age” financing, and not unhappy at all to be nearing the end of my life on this planet. I was born during the unthinkable 2nd World War and will be going out on the waves of a shockingly similar evil — humankind not having improved itself in any significant manner with only a tiny few having visibly risen above the most vicious and dangerous of animal species.
I wish there were a God to guide human-kind into supporting ALL human kind, but it’s clear to me that none exists — despite the Jewish cry “God gave this land to me”. Humans are no more important than the most poisonous of weeds and detritus (a loose mass of decaying material).
Sorry, Penny for being such a downer on your site. You are doing a tremendous job of making us all think hard about mankind’s inhumanity to mankind itself.
Corinne,
wow, what a powerful chunk of sentiment.
If there is a God as humans understand the concept I’m pretty sure it’s not a Zionist.
I too disparage the claim of human “progress”. We are pretty much the hunter gatherers we started out as.
Mark, thanks for your kind and rational response to my tirade. Yes, we’re still no more advanced than “the hunter gatherers we started out as”.
Corrine- you are not a downer- you speak what you feel and you feel what you speak- that’s okay with me 🙂
Mark- in no way shape or form, could a god of humanity, be a zionist. That entire ideology (god’s chosen) only serves the acclaimed chosen and they in turn make everyone else into the dregs of humanity- that’s not my idea of a creator