(Washington Post) Avi Mayer - As the war against Hamas dragged on, deep disagreements arose in Israel about its direction, postwar planning, and the price that ought to be paid to free the hostages still held by Hamas. That is, until Monday. International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan's announcement that he will seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has produced a groundswell of anger and indignation that has united the country once again. 106 of the Knesset's 120 members - including most of the opposition - have signed a statement slamming Khan's comparison of Israel's leaders to the mass murderers of Hamas. To Israelis, the suggestion of moral equivalence between their government and a terrorist group that openly and actively seeks their destruction is repulsive and contemptible. The notion that any comparison could possibly be drawn between the Jewish state, endeavoring to defend itself in the wake of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and the perpetrators of that very massacre, is horrifying. The world might have moved on from Oct. 7, but Israelis have not. Just this week the nation buried the mutilated bodies of four of its people brutally murdered that terrible day. Any effort to tie Israel's hands while it is defending itself will be met with wall-to-wall resistance and steely determination. The writer is a former editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post.
2024-05-23 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive