It is a perversion of justice that Israel is in the dock, and not Hamas

TEL AVIV — Watching American Justice Joan Donoghue read the decision of the International Court of Justice, live at 2 p.m. Israel time on Friday afternoon, was surreal.

Everything about this legal proceeding is grotesque and represents a perversion of ethics and law that is beyond difficult to process. South Africa, a signatory to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide — as is Israel — brought this application to the court with the support of some rather nefarious international actors. There has been a significant uptick in activity and contact between South Africa and the Islamic Republic of Iran of late, either a coincidence or reflecting an enhanced alignment of values between the two countries. Iran, of course, is the head of the proverbial Islamist snake, openly fomenting antisemitism globally and responsible for significant acts of violence targeting Jewish civilians.

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The moral inversion of all pertinent circumstances giving rise to the Israeli military action in Gaza was of secondary importance in the ICJ hearing, presided over by Justice Donoghue, the court’s chair, and with an unprecedented panel of 17 judges.

Hamas invaded Israel on Saturday Oct. 7, shortly after 6 a.m. on a quiet holiday. The stated intent of Hamas, before, during and after the well-documented savagery unleashed on that day and into the following night, was, is and remains to obliterate the state of Israel and annihilate every Jewish person living in its borders. Hamas’ hatred of Israel and Jews is so primal that any person it encountered on this particular mission was marked for murder. If the odd non-Jew got in their way they were not spared, either. It seems that the crime of merely consorting with Jews is enough to justify murder, to Hamas.

Hamas leaders and supporters worldwide have gloated over the suffering........

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