A veritable alphabet soup of UN groups are now involved in investigating Israel and Israeli officials for war crimes. A war crime is defined by the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a departure from “or serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict.”
The ICC chief prosecutor’s office (aided by two assistants) has announced that a preliminary investigation indicates culpability and that the office is now investigating Israeli and Hamas officials to gather evidence before arrest warrants are issued.
Netanyahu has made a plea for help bartering threats against the Palestinian Authority, and warning of its collapse, not that it accomplishes much, having been reduced to a fig leaf and an enforcer for Israel in the West Bank. Following actual factional infighting among Palestinians and when hundreds died in 2006 (because Hamas beat the PA in the election) — the two parties agreed to share power with the PA in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza.
There have been many incidents since and ordinary Palestinians are quite fed up with the conflict between their two leading parties. It suits Israel fine. And with Fatah (the PA’s party) tamed, it is concentrating on Hamas in Gaza to the horror of the world. A sad story indeed for the Palestinian cause when the two principal parties are at constant loggerheads and prone to violence.
In an incident illustrating the levels of antagonism in play, Israeli demonstrators stopped food aid trucks headed for Gaza. They scattered the food packages on the road, ripping open the boxes. The right-wing group responsible, Tzav-9, wants to stop all humanitarian aid to Gaza until the hostages are released.
From the group’s point of view the trucks were on the way to deliver food to Hamas, who are trying to kill Israeli soldiers and citizens. In the meantime, the UN’s World Food Program warns that Palestinians are experiencing what it said was “a full-blown famine”.
There is also the issue of the post-war administration of Gaza. Do the Israelis finally pull back and let the Palestinians rule themselves? If that happens, then Hamas simply comes back to where they were, leaving the Israeli people to ask themselves “What was the war for?”
So then is Israel going to rule the area? They are trying to find a proxy but without success. Jordan and other Arab states have empathetically refused. And the ball remains in Netanyahu’s court. Look before you leap is the old adage.
Netanyahu has managed to give Israel an unwanted sign in the eyes of the world and left himself holding a hot potato. He has yet to answer defense minister Yoav Gallant’s basic question regarding who will rule Gaza after the war, and is being plastered in the media. He has also started the Rafah operation earning the anger of Joe Biden.
What next for the leap-before-you-look “Bibi” Netanyahu? Only he knows.