Israel’s defense of her citizens is deemed a crime

In a scandalous but, sadly, predictable move by the International Criminal Court at the Hague, arrest warrants were issued yesterday for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Accusing the two of having committed war crimes, when defending their citizens after the brutal and savage massacre of October 7th, the charges of “starvation, as a method of warfare and crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts as well 'as the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population,'” are the latest attack against the Jewish state which Netanyahu has compared to the infamous Dreyfus affair of 1894, when Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer, serving in the French Republic was wrongfully convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment at Devil’s Island. 

Consequently, travel to any one of the 124 countries, which are members of the ICC, would risk both men being arrested.  Some of those countries include Canada, Australia, France, New Zealand, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, much of Eastern Europe and many others. In some ways, the brazen act is tantamount to being under house arrest in one’s native country, without the right to travel freely. 

But one can only wonder why this action was taken just two months prior to a new incoming U.S. government, representing the most pro-Israel administration ever? Could it be that time was running out for the chief prosecutor Karim Khan who, himself has been the target of an external the investigation on allegations of sexual misconduct. 

Probably a combination of both circumstances are responsible for this move which, in a flimsy attempt to appear to be fair and even-handed, also ordered the arrest of the deceased head of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif who was killed on July 13th.  

The laughable assertion that “only minimal humanitarian assistance was authorized” and that only more aid was given, “in response to the pressure of the international community or requests by the U.S.,” serves to highlight the glaring hypocrisy of those who held  us fully responsible for the survival of a supposedly starving population who they, themselves were not willing to help or rescue in any way.  

Attempting to hold the moral high ground, they claim that Israel’s great efforts, which supplied massive amounts of food and goods, was still insufficient. Of course, no mention was made of the Hamas terrorists who seized the shipments, so that they could then sell it at exorbitant prices to the Gazan people. 

A comprehensive report by Israel’s N12 news media revealed back in September that “Hamas terrorists had confiscated so much humanitarian aid that the terror group was struggling to find space in warehouses to store all of it.” In fact, it was just a couple of days ago that Ynet reported that “at least 20 thieves who looted aid trucks, were executed.” So what difference would a few hundred more trucks have made if the aid was not ever going to get to those who needed it?

But this is 2024, where the rules of engagement in warfare have dramatically changed, at least when it comes to the State of Israel. Because accusing a sovereign nation, and its army, of having committed war crimes is a more politically-correct and socially accepted way of exhibiting Jew hatred.  

Israel has conveniently become the collective identity of the universal Jew, making it ever so much easier and palatable to point the finger at the homeland which is despised since it represents the ability of Jews to stand up for themselves and defend their right to exist, unlike Jews, during the time of Dreyfus who could be punished and banished by a mere false accusation.  

The Jewish people, who emerged from the ashes of the Holocaust, to build their own homeland, adopted the slogan of “Never Again, to demonstrate that their days of vulnerability were finished. They would rely upon their strength, ingenuity, creativity and the formation of a formidable army which would come to their defense as others sought to kill them off as a people.

With God’s help, we attained such a status, and although many mistakes and miscalculations were made, prior to October 7th, we were somehow able to rapidly regroup and get back in the driver’s seat of a 7-front war that has viciously been waged against us. Over the past year, we have discovered the extent of a sophisticated and intricate 20-year plan, which included thousands of tunnels, billions of dollars of smuggled weapons, well-trained armies of Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and others, who were the well-paid proxy fighters of Iran – all towards the common goal of our destruction.

Had the Almighty not been by our side, waging war throughout this fierce battle, the enemy would have, indeed, prevailed. But Israel, nonetheless, is portrayed as the aggressor, who criminally is charged with crimes in a war which she did not initiate.  The antisemitism is so blatantly obvious that no one is even trying to hide it.

So, what will become of Israelis who travel to one of those 124 countries that now hold our leaders criminally responsible? Will they, too, be met with scorn and vilification for being citizens of a country which is the cause of such contemptuous derision? Were the angry Muslim mobs of Amsterdam a harbinger of similar worldwide events that will follow traveling Israelis? Even if they aren’t, who wants to vacation or sightsee in a country that accepts the lopsided scales of justice of the Hague criminal court? 

Today, Karim Khan may be basking in the justice he believes that he has helped to facilitate, but it may not be the last word on the matter, because, just as things seem to be headed in one way, they can often be overturned by the One great judge who has the ultimate say. 

The scriptures are full of accounts of divine intervention, just as things look their worst. Remember the parting of the Red Sea, David and Goliath, Daniel in the Lion’s Den and many similar stories. Mere mortals are nothing more than clay in the hand of the Almighty who has the ability to change the course of events to align with His plans.

That is our great hope, and it is in Him that we ultimately put our trust, as the people whom He has preserved in the homeland that He gave to them, no matter what court says otherwise!