On Monday, Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced that he was seeking arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas senior officials on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Post Opinions asked six experts for their view of the decision.
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Avi Mayer: The ICC has united Israel in opposition
In the immediate aftermath of the pogrom perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7, Israelis of all backgrounds and beliefs came together in a demonstration of unity seldom seen in this country. The impassioned debates of the preceding months seemed to vanish overnight as the country rallied behind efforts to support the victims of the carnage and the families of the hostages — and to ensure that Hamas can never again carry out a comparable massacre.
As the war against Hamas dragged on, however, deep disagreements arose about its direction, postwar planning and the price that ought to be paid to free the hostages still held by Hamas. The street protests of last summer have returned in force, and fissures have developed in Israel’s war cabinet, threatening the government’s stability and the country’s internal cohesion.
That is, until Monday.
International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan’s announcement that he will seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant alongside Hamas leaders Yehiya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (better known as Mohammed Deif) has produced a groundswell of anger and indignation that has united the country once again. Netanyahu’s political foes and potential challengers have rallied to his defense, and 106 of the Knesset’s 120 members — including most of the opposition — have signed a statement slamming Khan’s apparent comparison of Israel’s leaders to the mass murderers of Hamas as “scandalous … an indelible historic crime and a clear expression of antisemitism.”
OPINIONS ON THE GAZA WAR
Kenneth Roth: Biden’s response harms U.S. interests
The Biden administration’s reasons for condemning the International Criminal Court’s move against Israel and Hamas are confounding. It appears to be grasping for a way to defend senior Israeli officials for their starvation strategy in Gaza — a strategy that senior U.S. officials themselves have repeatedly decried.