Israel Under Attack at The Hague

The fight to defend Israel at the International Criminal Court at the Hague has intensified. As Reuters reported last Friday:

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said on Friday she would launch a full investigation into alleged war crimes [by Israel] in the Palestinian Territories as soon as the court’s jurisdiction had been established… The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said a preliminary examination into alleged war crimes, opened in 2015, had provided enough information to meet all criteria for opening an investigation.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the prosecutor’s claim: 

The court has no jurisdiction in this case. The ICC only has jurisdiction over petitions submitted by sovereign states. But there has never been a Palestinian state. The ICC prosecutor's decision has turned the International Criminal Court into a political tool to delegitimize the State of Israel.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a strong condemnation of the ICC’s announcement: 

We firmly oppose this and any other action that seeks to target Israel unfairly. As we made clear when the Palestinians purported to join the Rome Statute, we do not believe the Palestinians qualify as a sovereign state, and they therefore are not qualified to obtain full membership, or participate as a state in international organizations, entities, or conferences, including the ICC.

The United States also reiterates its longstanding objection to any assertion of ICC jurisdiction over nationals of States that are not parties to the Rome Statute, including the United States and Israel, absent a referral from the UN Security Council or the consent of such a State.

Professor Avi Bell characterized the ICC’s "investigation" of Israel this way: 

Fatou Bensouda, the ICC's chief prosecutor, has already adopted doubtful legal arguments made by the Palestinians that: The PLO comprises a state; all parts of Israel that were under illegal occupation by Jordan and Egypt from 1948-1967 – including the Old City of Jerusalem – belong to the state of Palestine; Jewish settlements are an international crime; and IDF soldiers are war criminals. Therefore, we already know what the results of the "investigation" will be and what "evidence" will be collected.

Bell offers this recommendation to the Israeli government:

… As long as Israel continues to treat the ICC as a legal entity, and as long as it maintains relations with ICC staff under the assumption that their intentions are good, as long as Israel continues to make legal arguments as if anyone in the ICC is listening, it will continue to lose the battle. We must wake up and take more stringent political steps, like the US already has, before the nightmare of indictments against IDF soldiers becomes a reality.

That reference to the United States is explained in this article by Caroline Glick. She encourages Israel to fight the ICC with actions similar to ones the US has already taken on the political, legislative, diplomatic, and public relations fronts.