Israel and the International Community

A reminder to those who casually label Israel’s actions in Gaza genocide of what the court actually ruled:

A critical takeaway from all of this should be that the international community, no matter how much Israelis find it vexing, can serve as an important shield and corroborator for Israel. Leftist protestors were not slowed down one bit by Israel dismissing their overreaching claims of genocide, but those claims are now harder to sustain—even if they will continue apace anyway—in the wake of international law’s highest body declining to order Israel’s operations in Gaza to stop. It was easy to dismiss Israeli gripes about UNRWA as hasbara in the service of a battle against Palestinian refugeehood, but that no longer carries the same weight after UNRWA fired its own employees and many of its largest donors halted its funding. While it is absolutely true that hostility to Israel permeates the U.N. and many international institutions and NGOs always have Israel in their crosshairs, that same international community can vindicate Israel in ways that nobody else can.

On the other side, those who have been screaming about genocide and referencing international law and Israel’s allegedly manifest violations of it at every opportunity should have the decency to revisit their prebaked assertions. I don’t expect that most of the protestors who deploy the genocide charge as if they are noting a fact as straightforward as the sun rising in the east will be swayed by the ICJ or any other evidence that contradicts their convictions, but they should acknowledge that the rug has been pulled out from under them. Israel’s war conduct is not perfect, and there are likely plenty of violations of international law and much objectionable conduct that people can find. But that does not make it genocide, and based on the ICJ’s provisional orders, Israel’s war is both ungenocidal and a legitimate defensive response to Hamas’ illegitimate and indefensible actions. If you want to rely on international law to tar Israel, you need to respect that same international law when it tells you that you are wrong.

Source: Israel and the International Community