Biden's Outrageous Double Standard

The prosecutor’s application once again reminds us of how indefensible Israel’s conduct of this war has been.

The president’s response to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s application to the court for arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant was as short as it was predictable:

The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous. And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.  We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.  

If you look through the list of crimes included in the application, you can see that seeking arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister and defense minister is justified. The crimes listed in the application are serious and the commission of these crimes has been well-documented. As the prosecutor said in the statement released today, “We submit that the crimes against humanity charged were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to State policy. These crimes, in our assessment, continue to this day.” If the court issues arrest warrants for these officials, it will be a step towards holding them accountable for these crimes.

The Israeli government clearly has used starvation as a weapon against the entire population of Gaza, and it continues to do so. Their policy has been one of siege and starvation, and it has driven the people of Gaza into famine conditions. As the prosecutor said in the statement, “Israel has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival.” As the senior leaders of the government, Netanyahu and Gallant are responsible for this policy that they created and implemented. Now there is a chance, however remote, that they may have to face real consequences for what they have done.

The prosecutor also said, “Notwithstanding any military goals they may have, the means Israel chose to achieve them in Gaza – namely, intentionally causing death, starvation, great suffering, and serious injury to body or health of the civilian population – are criminal.” This is what opponents of the war have been saying from the start. The prosecutor’s application once again reminds us of how indefensible Israel’s conduct of this war has been.

The truly outrageous thing here is the shameful response from Biden and the rest of the administration as they desperately try to cover for the war criminals that they have been supporting for the last seven months. Everyone remembers how Biden cooperated with the ICC by providing evidence to help document Russian war crimes, and the president welcomed the warrant issued for Putin in 2023. Just a little over a year later, officials from a U.S. client state are credibly accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity and the president condemns the prosecutor when he applies the same standard to Israel.