Donald Trump
Trump invites war crimes indictee to the White House
Wolfgang Hansson
This is a commentary text. Analysis and positions are those of the writer.
Published 15.47
Donald Trump loves to point the finger at the world.
Now he has done it again by inviting Israeli war crimes indictee Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the White House as the first foreign leader since Trump was sworn in.
In doing so, he is giving a slap in the face to the international community in general and to the International Court of Justice in The Hague in particular.
If Netanyahu visits any of the more than 120 countries that have joined the International Court of Justice, the ICC, they are obliged to arrest him. This includes almost all of Europe and most democracies.
The US does not recognize the court (they want only American courts to be able to judge American citizens) and therefore has no formal obligation to arrest him.
But Trump inviting Netanyahu to be the first foreign leader to visit the White House next week is still a very clear symbolic act.
A signal that the US not only ignores the ICC's indictment of Netanyahu for war crimes but is also prepared to defy the court's order.
With this, Trump sends a message to the whole world that he does exactly what he wants and that no one can stop him. He is the biggest, best and most powerful and does not need to care what anyone thinks.
He is also doing it to annoy his representative Joe Biden.
Even before the Israeli prime minister was indicted for war crimes, Biden punished Netanyahu by refusing to invite him to the White House.
Starvation as a weapon
It was to show the US's dissatisfaction with Netanyahu's attempt to erode Israel's democracy by reducing the power of the Supreme Court and instead expanding his own.
Netanyahu was indicted by the ICC last fall for war crimes by, among other things, using starvation as a weapon against the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza.
Despite repeated demands from a number of countries, the UN and President Biden personally, Israel refused to allow enough food, medicine, hygiene products and medical equipment into Gaza.
The result was a humanitarian disaster in Gaza, with a number of organizations sounding the alarm that the population was starving.
The indictment against Netanyahu is unique but also controversial. It is the first time that a leader of a democratic country in the West has been indicted for war crimes. The US is among those who protested against the indictment, but Biden declined to invite Netanyahu.
Instead, Trump is showing his contempt for the ICC and for the entire international rules-based order that the United States helped build after World War II.
One of the cornerstones is not to forcefully change the borders of other countries. Yet Trump has publicly threatened to use military means if NATO member Denmark does not agree to let the United States have Greenland. He has made similar threats against the small country of Panama in Central America if they do not agree to hand over the Panama Canal to the United States.
Noble purpose
Perhaps Trump has a noble purpose with his invitation to Netanyahu, in addition to showing the world that he is above all rules.
In just a few days, Israel and Hamas will begin negotiating the second phase of the ceasefire in Gaza. Trump has expressed fears that the war will start again when phase one ends in a month.
In phase two, the rest of the hostages will be released, but Israel will also withdraw all its forces from Gaza. Many doubt that Israel will really do this.
Not least because Netanyahu's government then risks falling apart. The far-right parties want the war to continue and threaten to leave the government permanently if it does not.
One of Trump’s purposes in inviting Netanyahu may be to convince him to ensure that the ceasefire holds. Trump wants a permanent end to the war in Gaza. A necessity for him to be able to implement his plan to get Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. The idea is that if all Arab countries in the region make peace with Israel, it will be easier to resolve the Palestinian conflict and weaken arch-enemy Iran.
But the Palestinians are very suspicious. Trump has shown time and again that he practically ignores them and is completely on Israel’s side.
Emptying Gaza
One of his first decisions as president was to lift the Biden-imposed moratorium on sending really heavy bombs to Israel.
He has also recently floated the idea of completely emptying Gaza of people to facilitate reconstruction. The Palestinians fear that they would never be allowed to return if they agree to be temporarily relocated to Egypt or Jordan.
Those who fled their homes in Israel in 1948 would be driven out again and the dream of a state for the Palestinian people would be buried forever.
Joe Biden never managed to get Netanyahu to obey. On the contrary, he openly defied the will of the American president. The question is whether Trump can and is prepared to twist Netanyahu's arm enough to bring about a permanent end to the latest Gaza war.
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