April 22, 2024 (EIRNS)—Is the Biden Administration singling out an individual IDF battalion for crimes in the West Bank, in order to avoid indicting the entire IDF for crimes in Gaza? That is the implication of an analysis in the April 21st issue of the Jerusalem Post. The Post opens its coverage, proclaiming: “The Biden administration’s attempt to criticize and shift some of Israel’s conduct in handling Palestinian issues in a nuanced way was an attempt to walk a tightrope that could still end in a train wreck.” The train wreck could be coming from the International Criminal Court. The leaks that the ICC was considering issuing arrest warrants for Israeli officials began on April 11, that is, before the leaks on April 13 that the U.S. was considering sanctions against the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda battalion began.
Also, the Post notes, the U.S. leaked their likely sanctions of the Netzah Yehuda battalion at the same time as the U.S. moved forward on a massive foreign and defensive aid package for Israel. “From that perspective, the Biden administration was not looking to hurt Israel, but to have a nuanced argument over areas where it feels the IDF is not at its best, and may even be carrying out war crimes,” the Jerusalem newspaper went on.
“That means that before the leak was made, top U.S. officials knew that whatever they issued against Israel, especially the IDF, could be used by the ICC and others to undermine the credibility of Israel’s legal system,” the Post says. “And make no mistake, that is what sanctions mean.”
“Even if the sanctions are narrowly tailored to Netzah Yehuda, the big issue is not Netzah Yehuda,” the Post continues. “It is that the U.S. is saying that Israel’s legal system was not stringent enough with Netzah Yehuda. And if Israel’s legal system was too lenient with Netzah Yehuda, according to the U.S., what is there to stop the ICC from arguing that Israel and the IDF are too lenient with other units also?
