Much ado about nothing?
Yes it is – given that a UK visit by either the genocidal state’s leader or the defence minister he sacked 1 is about as imminent as seeing Joe Biden on Mastermind. We may safely assume that Starmer’s people, likewise Von der Leyen’s, lost no time in assuring the criminal regime of the token nature of their formal response to the ICC arrest warrants. 2
All the same, we may equally assume that its issue is about as welcome as having Biden on your chess team. It leaves both UK and EU squirming on a hook they could have done without since, as I put it in one footnote to the previous post …
The gratuitous insulting of Trump by Europe’s globalist elites and their liberal media was … born of blinkered hubris: in this case that Tangerine Man could not stage a come-back …
… and in another footnote to the same:
Europe’s manufacturing powerhouse, Germany, is in crisis. Biden’s ecocidal sabotage of NordStream, with the abject acceptance if not full-on involvement of Europe’s comprador leaders, has robbed it of the cheap energy which kept it competitive. As Europeans pay through the nose to stay warm and put food on the table, firms go under else relocate in the USA. With Europe (the UK especially) having little to trade and unable to feed itself – even as sunset on Western supremacy erodes its ability to extract global rents on finance capital – its future looks bleak. Indeed, the one thing Washington can rightly claim as an irrefutable gain of its backfired war on Russia is that Europe’s status vis a vis the USA has been demoted from junior partner to semi-colony.
Given these realities, the ICC arrest warrant tops up a cup of bitterness to overflow point. Which is pretty much all I have to say on the matter – other than to register my unqualified approval.
*
Moving on, I posted last week – This was no Kristallnact II – on the Maccabi Tel Aviv thugs. In it I wrote of the Mayor of Amsterdam condemning “antisemitic attacks” while the media “went into overdrive”. I wrote too of Owen Jones’s “forensic takedown” of that staggeringly deceitful narrative.
The mayor has since gone on record with her regret at calling that night an antisemitic pogrom, and at failing to condemn the Maccabi thugs who ran amok in her city. But you’ll have heard of her willingness to admit being wrong, won’t you? After all, those same truth loving media which were all over the “antisemitic” angle have naturally given front page treatment to her honesty …
… just pulling your leg. Of course they haven’t. Here’s Owen again:
* * *
- Most young Israeli Jews (and Druze, though not Arabs) have to serve in the IDF. Defence Minister Yoav “human animals” Gallant wanted the exemption lifted for ultra Orthodox Jews whose support Bibi needs to keep him in office and out of jail. This, and Gallant’s reservations on invading Lebanon – shared by an IDF more used to mowing the grass in Gaza or aiding land grabs on the West Bank than engaging an armed and disciplined foe on its home terrain – is why he was fired.
- Says Caitlin Johnstone today:
No warrant for Biden is like issuing a warrant for a murderer but not the guy who gave him the gun, kept handing him ammunition, and drove the getaway car.
Nothing will come of this because it is unenforcible and international law is only as real as the US empire agrees to pretend it is, but it is a significant step in the deterioration of international consensus on Israel as the world watches the Zionist regime commit atrocity after atrocity right out in the open.
Predictably, Benjamin Netanyahu is shrieking about antisemitism and calling the ICC’s move “a modern Dreyfus trial”. He does this because he has nothing resembling a real argument in his defense, and neither does anyone else.
Meanwhile, US Senator Tom Cotton wants to invade The Hague:
https://x.com/SenTomCotton/status/1859608976389714045
Whilst Lindsey Graham seems ready to go to war with every country on the planet who tries to comply with the arrest warrant:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-senator-vows-legislation-to-punish-nations-who-work-with-icc-after-israel-arrest-warrants/3400489
“I will be introducing legislation that puts other countries on notice – If you aid and abet the ICC after their action against the State of Israel, you can expect consequences from the United States. Any nation that joins with the ICC after this outrage is a partner in a reckless act that tramples the rule of law,
“We cannot let the world believe for a moment that this is a legitimate exercise of jurisdiction by the Court against Israel because to do so means we could be next,”
He got that last bit right – and not just in terms of the US but also the UK.
Article 25 of the Rome Statute is very firm on the issue of accomplices who aid and abet War Crimes::
“Article 25
Individual criminal responsibility
1. The Court shall have jurisdiction over natural persons pursuant to this Statute.
2. A person who commits a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court shall be individually responsible and liable for punishment in accordance with this Statute.
3. In accordance with this Statute, a person shall be criminally responsible and liable for punishment for a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court if that person:
(a) Commits such a crime, whether as an individual, jointly with another or
through another person, regardless of whether that other person is criminally
responsible;
(b) Orders, solicits or induces the commission of such a crime which in fact occurs
or is attempted;
(c) For the purpose of facilitating the commission of such a crime, aids, abets or
otherwise assists in its commission or its attempted commission, including
providing the means for its commission;
(d) In any other way contributes to the commission or attempted commission
of such a crime by a group of persons acting with a common purpose. Such
contribution shall be intentional and shall either:
(i) Be made with the aim of furthering the criminal activity or criminal
purpose of the group, where such activity or purpose involves the
commission of a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court; or
(ii) Be made in the knowledge of the intention of the group to commit the
crime;
(e) In respect of the crime of genocide, directly and publicly incites others to
commit genocide;
(f) Attempts to commit such a crime by taking action that commences its
execution by means of a substantial step, but the crime does not occur because
of circumstances independent of the person’s intentions. However, a person
who abandons the effort to commit the crime or otherwise prevents the
completion of the crime shall not be liable for punishment under this Statute
for the attempt to commit that crime if that person completely and voluntarily
gave up the criminal purpose. 3 bis. In respect of the crime of aggression, the provisions of this article shall apply only to persons in a position effectively to exercise control over or to direct the political or military action of a State.
4. No provision in this Statute relating to individual criminal responsibility shall affect
the responsibility of States under international law.”
There are already concrete steps being taken to apply the above provisions to UK politicians. If the decision makers at the top of the UK Government publicly state they will comply with the ICC arrest Warrant, they risk not only the “Special Relationship” (best keep an eye on those pipes pumping gas from the North Sea) but won’t have a leg to stand on if those moves against them under Article 25 reach the same stage.
What was that? Oreshnik!. Bless you.
As the late Sinead O’Connor said:
And you can’t get any more exposed than Lindsey Graham in his own words:
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/lindsey-graham-tells-allies-were-gonna-crush-your-economy-if-they-arrest-netanyahu-for-war-crimes/
Lindsey Graham commits to crushing the economy of the UK, Canada, France, Germany, anyone, who tries to comply with the arrest warrant for Netanyahu.
Still, given Starmer’s Baldrick level cunning plan of selling the UK lock, stock and no smoking barrel to Blackrock…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePS7hZo5mB4&ab_channel=NovaraMedia
……it could be the asset managers who get sanctioned and crushed?
The situation is getting more bizarre by the hour. Has someone released several million tons of LSD into the atmosphere?
Is that what they mean by acid rain?
That kind of acid rain would be an improvement on what’s currently on offer.
Where the hell is Oddball (from Kelly’s Hero’s) when we need him?