It's doubtful whether the judges from The Hague have ever visited St. Clement Danes church in London. Adjacent to it, for over 30 years, stands the statue of British General Arthur Harris. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother proudly unveiled the monument despite vehement protests from the German government. Harris was the key figure who directed the British policy of "area bombing" – massive air raids targeting German population centers. Those bombings made a decisive contribution to the eventual surrender of the Nazi enemy.
Imagine a scenario where The Hague's ICJ tribunal (which didn't exist then) or some other international court had ordered Harris to cease those massive bombing campaigns that created what is now known as "firebombing." They killed around 600,000 civilians and destroyed about 6 million buildings in Hamburg, Dresden, Cologne, Berlin, and other cities.
Picture an alternate reality where a Hague-style tribunal ordered Winston Churchill, who dispatched Harris and his bombers to pound Nazi German cities, to completely or partially halt the war effort there – akin to The Hague's order to Israel on Friday regarding Rafah. If such an unthinkable thing had happened by having the Allies cease combat, this would have assisted the Nazis in continuing the extermination of the Jewish people and their conquests and crimes. It would obviously have also delayed their eventual surrender. Harris himself articulated his moral philosophy to critics then, stating: "The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind."
The obvious historical parallel returns to 1945, because The Hague is now assisting Hamas – the Nazis of our time who have repeatedly vowed to destroy Israel and murder its people – to maintain their stamina. They refuse to surrender and insist on holding captives. The Hague is now helping one of the world's most heinous terrorist organizations maintain its power and its evil and continue perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Morally and pragmatically, Israel must refuse to comply with the ICJ ruling. Our obligation to the captives still held in Gaza is to continue militarily pressuring Hamas with full force, patience, perseverance, and wisdom. Or, borrowing Harris' words, let Hamas reap what they sowed. .
Israel has conducted itself in Gaza like Mother Teresa. No other army in the world behaves like the IDF in Gaza. The Hague judges seeking to stop us in Rafah (and this is only the beginning) know this, but their arrogant, hypocritical ruling is not legal - it's political, biased, anti-Semitic, and fueled by basic hostility towards Israel. It also suffers from a glaring double standard, ignoring contemporary wars and armies that have killed thousands of non-combatants while singling out Israel aggressively – Israel, which feeds, hydrates, and fuels its enemies, even providing protective shelters for the "uninvolved" who chose Hamas as their leadership.
In the annals of history, The Hague's ruling from this past Friday will be recorded as a nadir. Historians will analyze how this judicial body deteriorated to such depths, while Israel's expected refusal to obey the ruling will appear, in hindsight, as a glimmer of light in profound darkness.
