Liberal Zionists want ‘criticism’ of Israel for occupation — but go silent when ICC threatens actual consequences

Last week the International Criminal Court ruled that it had jurisdiction to investigate war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, a step toward the possible prosecution of Israeli leaders in the Hague for illegal settlements and killings of Palestinian civilians (and Palestinian killings of civilians as well). And since then all hell has broken loose.

The Biden administration has condemned the move. Netanyahu has called the ruling “pure antisemitism.” The U.S. Jewish establishment has come down angrily on Netanyahu’s side. AIPAC, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the American Jewish Committee, the ADL, and Israel’s lawyer Dennis Ross too, all denounced it.

Meantime, a lot of progressive groups have hailed the ICC decision as a sign that Israel will finally be held accountable for human rights violations that world officials have been wringing their hands about forever and doing little to stop. Even a few Israeli groups have bravely welcomed the ruling.

So what about liberal Zionists? Well, they are caught in the middle again. American liberal Zionists say they are progressives who hate the occupation. But they also want to maintain their good standing in the Israel lobby, and in the organized Jewish community (translation: the older, donor class). And it turns out that keeping their standing among the official Jewish community is more important than progressive values.

Result: The liberal Zionists have been studiously ignoring the ICC ruling, or offering neutral commentary.

The liberal Zionists are hoping the ICC ruling goes away. They are hard at work criticizing the Israeli occupation, but not asking for any real consequences for that occupation. They support continued U.S. aid to Israel of $3.8 billion a year, without reduction, despite all the atrocities.

As the young Jewish group IfNotNow said, if you’re a progressive organization you have to back the ICC ruling.

Any organization that focuses on I/P and claims to value the human rights of Palestinians but hasn’t welcomed the ICC ruling on investigating Israeli war crimes is complicit in supporting Netanyahu’s strategy to avoid any form of accountability.

No names, but I think IfNotNow was talking about Americans for Peace Now, J Street, and New Israel Fund.

Here’s a quick roundup on the liberal Zionist silence.

Americans for Peace Now is busy analyzing Netanyahu’s political tactics, and Israeli polling data, not a word about the ICC ruling. Update: APN today issued a statement calling the ICC ruling the “inevitable consequence” of Israel’s occupation, at once “heartbreaking” and a “critical international examination.” See end of this article.

The progressive rabbis’ group T’Ruah highlights settler violence and American refugee policy– nothing about the ICC.

The Progressive Israel Network, a collection of ten liberal Zionist organizations, has had nothing to say about the ICC ruling.

The New Israel Fund is actively deploring the Israeli army’s practice of invading Palestinian homes. “The power dynamic is so clear from the first second you enter the house” says an Israeli soldier. (Well we knew that! What do you propose to do about it?)

As for J Street, it found time to retweet fond memories of Christopher Plummer. And it is busy hammering away at “creeping annexation” and the Israeli creation of firing zones in the occupied West Bank.

J Street says that Israel is violating “international law” in the occupation, but it wants Criticism of Israel– but no real consequences.

The first major demolition of Palestinian homes since @POTUS Biden took office occurred last week…The US should make clear that it will not shield the Israeli govt from criticism for such violations of int’l law [my emphasis]

J Street’s political director offered a straddle statement on the ICC ruling:

One doesn’t need to endorse specific claims before the International Criminal Court to oppose efforts to defame and delegitimize it. Trump’s sanctions on ICC officials were an attack on a rules-based institution and the rule of law that @JoeBiden’s administration should revoke.

J Street is obviously seeking to appease its progressive base with vocal criticism of Israeli atrocities–while doing nothing to alienate its older Jewish stakeholders who have helped provide it access to the Democratic Party, by actually trying to punish Israel for its actions.

So the ICC moment is revealing. It’s a Rubicon in the Israeli position in the world, a lot like when the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem stated last month that Israel is an “apartheid” state, maintaining a “regime of Jewish supremacy between the river and the sea.” The liberal Zionists also had nothing to say about the B’Tselem report because it exposed their moral weakness. You can’t say there’s apartheid there and not be for some form of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, BDS. But liberal Zionists say that BDS is antisemitic!

Real progressives know how to respond to the ICC ruling: celebrate it!

Adalah-NY has praised the decision. The BDS movement welcomed the ruling. “Israel’s apartheid regime has killed over 3,600 Palestinians since the ICC started its preliminary examination of the situation in Palestine.”

The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem hailed the decision as a landmark ruling that could bring about an “end for impunity.”

The Israeli group Yesh Gvul (there is a limit) also welcomed the decision for finally delivering consequences for Israel’s occupation:

When the legal system in Israel avoids investigating any suspicion of war crimes, it is essential that the suspicion be checked. If not here then in the Hague.

Since 1982 we’ve been doing everything we can to prevent war crimes and call on all citizens of israel: don’t take part in such crimes! This is against morality, Israeli law, international law and military judgment law.

As we reported, Human Rights Watch saluted the ICC ruling. “It’s high time that Israeli and Palestinian perpetrators of the gravest abuses – whether war crimes committed during hostilities or the expansion of unlawful settlements – face justice.”

Rep Ilhan Omar has welcomed an ICC investigation. So has Gideon Levy, the Israeli columnist: “The Hague Ruling on Israel Is Cause for Hope.”

The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din also welcomes the ruling, “citing evidence it has collected on ‘near-complete impunity’ for years of grave Israeli abuses of Palestinians & need for int’l intervention.”

The ruling ought to be a no-brainer for liberal Zionists. If you really oppose the occupation, and even believe in the possibility of Palestinian statehood, this is your moment to demand some consequences for Israeli violations of international law in the occupied territories with the hope of getting Israel to get out of the West Bank. There’s really no principled reason not to clearly and unequivocally welcome an ICC investigation into war crimes in Palestine.

The ICC’s decision on jurisdiction even gives these pro-Israel groups their beloved line, both-sides-are-at-fault — since the ICC wants to look into war crimes by both Palestinians and Israelis. It’s still not enough! And all this time we were told that liberal Zionists oppose BDS because the campaign calls for respecting the right of return. Or they oppose the “apartheid state” allegation because they want to support the Green Line. But here they face a finding that doesn’t challenge two states in any way– quite the opposite, an issue purely of the occupied territory and the settlements and killing of civilians that they claim to oppose– and total silence!

The reactions to the ICC prove what we knew all along: they don’t want any pressure on Israel. Even when it is accompanied by support for two states.

Again, I think this has to do with powerful stakeholders. The soul of J Street are people like Alan Solomont and Mark Halperin and Victor Kovner — leading Democratic advisers in their 70s or 80s who threw themselves into Israel support when it appeared to be an idealistic cause in the U.S. Old dreams die hard, but that’s the dream these people have.

J Street has created a footprint in the Biden Democratic Party (Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi address the organization) with the help of those stakeholders. None of those people wants to hear a word about the ICC.

Update: Here are portions of the Americans for Peace Now statement today from its president, Hadar Susskind.

 “The ICC’s decision and possible investigations are a sobering reminder for Israel’s leadership and for the Israeli public that the occupation, the settlements, and the ongoing military rule over a large civilian population are untenable. This 54-year-old status quo may seem to them like a situation that can be sustained in perpetuity, but the ICC decision is a clear example of the fact that the international community will not tolerate it. Neither will we or the many progressive American Jews who support our organization and Israel’s peace movement. Neither, of course, should Israeli citizens. 

“The prospect of seeing Israel accused of war crimes in an international tribunal is, to me, heartbreaking. But the response to that should not be hollow cries of ‘antisemitism.’ It should be a national reflection on 54 years of Occupation. It should not be an attempt to delegitimatize international law. It should be a clear-eyed look as to whether the IDF is, as is often proclaimed, ‘the most moral army in the world.’…

“A critical international examination of the occupation and measures to perpetuate it, whether settlement construction or the use of excessive force, is not antisemitic. It is the anticipated result – indeed the unavoidable consequence – of an ever-entrenching 54-year-old belligerent occupation.”