On January 26, local time, the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) made a ruling on the case of South Africa suing Israel for committing "genocide" in the Gaza Strip, and decided to take urgent measures against Israel, ordering it to take all measures to prevent genocide and take measures to improve the humanitarian situation within its powers, and Israel must submit a statement of specific measures to implement the ruling within 30 days.
It is reported that the International Court of Justice is the most authoritative international judicial body (not the same thing as the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant to Russian President Putin), and belongs to one of the six major organs under the jurisdiction of the United Nations.
Delegations of South Africa (left) and Israel (right)
In this regard, the South African government and the Palestinian government immediately expressed their welcome, and senior Hamas officials said that "the verdict is conducive to isolating Israel", and then UN Secretary-General Guterres, the European Union, Iran, and many other European and Middle Eastern countries expressed their support for the verdict, and Algeria even asked the Security Council to convene an emergency meeting as soon as possible to implement the verdict.
The Israeli side rejected the verdict, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the accusations "false and outrageous", and US State Department officials said that the accusations of genocide against Israel were groundless, but the demand for Israel to reduce civilian casualties is in line with the consistent position of the US side.
Netanyahu
However, it should be noted that the ICJ's ruling does not mention the ceasefire, so strictly speaking, this judgment is still based on humanitarian considerations, but in any case, as long as international public opinion can force Israel to rein in its actions in Gaza, it will also have a positive effect on promoting a ceasefire to some extent.
Similarly, the landing of the ruling order of the International Court of Justice is also a test for the United States, because if the United States continues to veto the resolution to implement the ruling when almost the whole world welcomes the ruling order, it means that it is standing on the opposite side of the whole world, and to support the Security Council to support the ruling will have to face the wrath of Israel.
Israeli forces bombed Gaza indiscriminately
Netanyahu's attitude shows that Israel is not willing to accept the ruling, even if it wants to push forward with the plan to eliminate Hamas in the face of strong international public condemnation, which actually reflects the problem that the Netanyahu government is unwilling to give up this opportunity to completely annex the Gaza Strip, and if the United States chooses to support the implementation of the ruling, it will definitely affect the US-Israel relationship.
Although the Biden administration has been actively calling for a ceasefire, and has also sent Secretary of State Blinken, National Security Adviser Sullivan and other senior officials to visit Israel and Middle East countries to mediate, in fact, the United States has always blocked the voice of the international community calling for a ceasefire, including its repeated vetoes of Security Council resolutions, and its own resolutions advocating a "limited" ceasefire.
Blinken visits Israel
The fact that the ICJ decree does not mention a ceasefire may be partly due to the fact that South Africa's prosecution is mainly focused on Israel's genocide, and partly because the United States has played a certain role in it, after all, opposing a ceasefire or delaying it is itself the true attitude of the United States on the issue of the current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Since the outbreak of the new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the conflict has seriously spilled over, including the Houthi blockade of the Red Sea and the attack on US military bases by militias in the Middle East.
The United States and the European Union
In addition, it will also aggravate the antagonism between the United States and its allies, after all, for Europe, the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait are its "lifeline", and only when Israel stops its offensive on Gaza can the Houthis stop, and the EU's statement of support for the ruling of the International Court of Justice has already shown that European countries no longer hide their dissatisfaction with the United States' embarrassment.
Therefore, the United States must re-examine its stance on the Palestinian-Israeli issue, whether it will continue to shield Israel from triggering a possible greater conflict, or whether it will sincerely prevent the conflict and seek peace in the Middle East.