Israel will only understand the full impact of the International Criminal Court arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant after Donald Trump is in the White House, Haaretz diplomatic correspondent Amir Tibon said, on the Haaretz Podcast.
“Once president-elect Trump becomes President Trump on January 20, we could see a lot of pressure coming from the United States against the ICC, European and other countries, not to respect the warrants put out by the ICC,” Tibon said.
A full-on assault by Trump would “be a serious test for the whole idea of international law and the international courts,” he added, “and I’m not sure the ICC will survive this.”
On the podcast, Tibon, and legal scholar Professor Aeyal Gross discussed international reaction to the warrants, the countries that have already committed to honoring them if the Israeli leaders came to their countries, and those who have already said they would defy them. Gross outlined the charges against the Israeli leaders and whether they could have been avoided, talked about the likelihood of arrest and prosecution, what will means for Israel’s top political leader to be – officially – a fugitive from justice.
In addition to discussing the international impact of the ICC indictments, Tibon analyzed the intersection of the ICC warrants with Netanyahu’s ongoing criminal trial in Jerusalem, the unfolding Bibileaks scandal, and his continuing fight for political survival.
The Israeli prime minister “doesn’t care so much about the international ramifications – he’s just trying to survive politically here,” Tibon asserted
If the ICC situation, triggering a “rally round the flag effect” has given Netanyahu “a cycle or two of empathetic headlines, he’ll take it, but then it will be immediately washed away by endless negativity, more soldiers dying in this endless war, the hostages continuing to suffer, the fact that our economic situation is not improving, and the failure to find a solution to the enraging issue of ultra-orthodox exemption from military service.”
Click the alert icon to follow topics:
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
