{"id":2598,"date":"2024-02-04T13:19:37","date_gmt":"2024-02-04T14:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/?p=2598"},"modified":"2024-02-04T13:19:37","modified_gmt":"2024-02-04T14:19:37","slug":"the-icj-ruling-whats-next-for-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/2024\/02\/04\/the-icj-ruling-whats-next-for-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"The ICJ ruling: What\u2019s next for Israel?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the 26th<\/sup> of January the ICJ gave its first ruling on the Genocide Convention case brought by South Africa against Israel. The case is still a ways from being fully decided, but the preliminary ruling gave probable cause there was in fact genocide in Gaza and the Israelis were told to cease and desist as well as to allow humanitarian aid through to the Gazans. It was a blow to Israel, and to the West. For more, read on\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For a full analysis of the ruling there is a video that goes into it in detail<\/a><\/span>. We won\u2019t cover the details here because it is pretty well known what the Israelis and the US\/UK will do \u2013 ignore the ruling. The case was actually a brilliant demonstration of the law and of the new South Africa. But it represents more than that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thereafter, every violation of the provisional ruling will be a violation against the ruling and will be logged, without a statute of limitation. Anyone aiding and abetting the ruling could be brought up on charges internationally. The repercussions of this ruling will likely resound for years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the persons most invested in seeing a full ruling of genocide and calls for a general ceasefire were disappointed in the ruling, the wheels of the legal system turn very slowly, if not inexorably. In all, it was a great result, and as to why, we will explore that in a bit here.<\/span><\/p>\n

The response from the West on the ruling was immediate, and monstrous, in that they cut aid to the UNRWA<\/a><\/span>, guaranteeing that perhaps millions of Palestinians in Gaza and in 60 refugee camps scattered across the Middle East would starve<\/a><\/span>. It is collective punishment, based upon testimony from Palestinian prisoners (extracted under \u2018duress\u2019, no doubt)<\/a><\/span> as recounted by the Israelis that a few of the UNRWA workers were actually Hamas operatives during Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7. If so, so what? The UN fired the 12 people so accused.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are some 30,000 UNRWA workers, many of them Palestinians. The alleged operatives singled out represent around 0.04% of the group. And the Western powers say they cannot verify the veracity of the Israeli claims<\/a><\/span> \u2013 so they cut the funding just in case<\/em> it was true?<\/span><\/p>\n

In response to the funding cut the Resistance groups<\/a><\/span> in Iraq launched a missile barrage into the Al-Tanf base on the borders of Syria, Jordan and Iraq, killing three American servicemen and wounding upwards of 50 others. Now there are calls by the chickenhawks in Congress to bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran<\/a><\/span>. Ahhh McCain, you\u2019ve done it again.<\/span><\/p>\n

The provisional ICJ ruling showed us something else, though \u2013 Israeli and Western impunity are at an end. But where to from here? And what of the UN, and the emerging world order? What will become of Israel and Palestine? We need a little more background. In that regard there is a quote once again making the rounds:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIl vecchio mondo sta morendo. Quello nuovo tarda a comparire. E in questo chiaroscuro nascono i mostri.\u201d Antonio Gramsci (rendered from the real quote)<\/span><\/p>\n

This quote, actually mistranslated into English makes the rounds every so often in an attempt to describe what is taking place in our changing world. The common English translation \u2013 \u201cThe old world is dying. That new world is slow to appear. This is the time of monsters.\u201d \u2013 is a butchery of even the misquoted Gramsci, which was originally in his prison notebooks. But the quote applies to what is happening in the Middle East\/West Asia, with the monstrous atrocities taking place in the Levant.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a nuance from the Italian rendering of Gramsci\u2019s original quote which is missing in the English rendering, which has a large bearing on answering the questions just posed. The original quote was taken from a larger paragraph, as follows, translated<\/a><\/span>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe aspect of the modern crisis that is lamented as a “wave of materialism” is connected with what is called a “crisis of authority”.<\/em> If the ruling class has lost consensus, that is, it is no longer “ruling”, but only “dominant”, holder of pure coercive force<\/em>, this precisely means that the great masses have detached themselves from traditional ideologies, they no longer believe in what they before they believed etc<\/em>. The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old dies and the new cannot be born: in this interregnum the most varied morbid phenomena occur.<\/strong> This paragraph must be linked to some observations made on the so-called “youth issue” I determined by the “crisis of authority” of the older managerial generations and by the mechanical impediment placed on those who could lead from carrying out their mission.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Emphases added. The bolded text is the original quote translated to English. So, what does all this have to do with the crisis in West Asia? Well, history rhymes as the cycles turn. Let the paragraph and quote sink in, because we see the same dynamic today as what Gramsci was describing a century ago while he was imprisoned by the fascist regime in Italy. He later died from maltreatment while he was imprisoned, at the age of 47.<\/span><\/p>\n

What we are looking at in West Asia and wider afield are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n