If Israeli headlines are anything to go by, the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor’s request for an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have provided the Israeli leader with the most serendipitous outcome of his long and tumultuous political career. one of the transformations.
“Hypocrisy in The Hague,” proclaimed the front page of the newspaper Neue Izvestia on Tuesday.
The front page echoed the outrage expressed across Israel’s political spectrum and abandoned any semblance of impartiality, denouncing Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s “intolerable cowardice” in linking Israel with the Hamas leader Standing together, these leaders “seek to destroy it.”
Mr Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Galant, were threatened with arrest warrants as well as three Hamas leaders accused of involvement in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October. The devastating attack and the war crimes committed by Israel in its punitive reprisal on 7 October.
This appears to have galvanized his opposition broadly. Israel’s political opponents offered support. U.S. officials have been critical of his plans to invade Rafah and have harshly condemned the International Criminal Court’s actions.
In the hours and days leading up to that, Mr Netanyahu had appeared to be in trouble, both domestically and internationally.
The Israeli public is increasingly frustrated with the government’s failure in more than seven months to achieve its stated war goals of wiping out Hamas and bringing home the 128 hostages, living and dead, remaining in Gaza. Neta Mr Nyahu’s emergency war cabinet is on the verge of collapse.
Galante and former military adviser Benny Gantz, two key wartime cabinet members, have publicly denounced Netanyahu in recent days for failing to develop a plan to govern Gaza. Gantz even issued an ultimatum, saying that if Netanyahu did not come up with a clear strategy by June 8, his centrist party would withdraw from the government.
Israel is also facing intense pressure from its most important ally, the United States, to halt the attacks. As Israel’s Knesset reconvened on Monday after a spring recess, it became the focus of a resurgence of anti-government protests reminiscent of those that rocked the country in the months before the war.
But Netanyahu, the famed political phoenix, may have received a political lifeline and new popular support, at least for a while.
“For now, it strengthens Netanyahu,” said biographer Ben Caspit, a longtime critic of the prime minister and a columnist for the Middle East news website Al-Monitor. “He is happiest when he becomes a victim of persecution,” Caspit said of Netanyahu, adding that a condemnation from the ICJ could sour those who have grown tired of the conservative leader. Supporters are back.
Kaspit said that in Israel’s view, the chief prosecutor achieved “his own goals” by creating an impression of equivalence between the Hamas leader and Netanyahu and Galante. Many Western countries designate it as a terrorist organization.
The perceived insult united Israelis and some of Israel’s foreign allies, something Hamas has also failed to do in recent months. Israel said the Oct. 7 attack killed about 1,200 people, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ensuing war.
Political rivals within Mr Netanyahu’s government and the opposition have formed a united front against the court.
In a statement on Tuesday, Galante called Khan’s “analogy” between Hamas and the state of Israel “despicable.” According to experts, Galante may be re-evaluating his options.
Yonatan Touval, a senior analyst at Mitvim, an Israeli foreign policy research institute, said the court proceedings put Netanyahu’s party rival Galante “in the same boat,” adding, “Gantz will have a hard time leaving the government.”
