RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/the-international-criminal-courts-latest-anti-israel-salvo/

The court’s politicization of war-crimes investigations harms the cause of international justice.

In a move singling out Israel, International Criminal Court head prosecutor Fatou Bensouda declared Wednesday that her office is beginning an investigation into “war crimes” committed in the West Bank and Gaza.

This investigation will ostensibly cover atrocities committed against Israelis as well, but Bensouda has for years shown a single-minded determination to take Israel to court, navigating numerous procedural hurdles to lay the groundwork for yesterday’s announcement.

“Israel has come under attack,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday in reaction to the announcement, calling it “undiluted anti-Semitism and the height of hypocrisy.”

Given the ICC’s record, one would be hard-pressed not to see a political motive to Bensouda’s decision. Even the Biden administration expressed its disappointment, reiterating its opposition to the February court ruling that granted the Palestinians standing to bring the case. “The ICC, as we have said, has no jurisdiction over this matter. Israel is not a party to the ICC, and it has not consented to the court’s jurisdiction,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said. “And we have serious concerns about the ICC’s attempts to exercise its jurisdiction over Israeli personnel.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17138/arabs-biden-obama

The Biden administration, some Arab writers have said, “has adopted a policy of “antagonizing allies while appeasing enemies.”

[Syrian journalist Abduljalil] Alsaeid said he believed that former Obama administration officials, who are now part of the Biden administration, are intentionally trying to damage US-Saudi relations.

“The Obama wing inside the ruling Democratic Party accepts the Iranian regime and turns a blind eye to Iran’s terrorism in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.” — Abduljalil Alsaeid, Syrian journalist, Al-Ain, March 2, 2021.

“President Biden has the right to talk about America’s democratic values, but why have these values ​​not been expanded to hold Hezbollah accountable for the recent killing of [anti-Hezbollah Lebanese publisher] Loqman Slim or the slaughter of thousands of thousands of Syrians by pro-Iranian groups?” — Abduljalil Alsaeid, Al-Ain, March 2, 2021.

The Biden administration was “rewarding Iranian despotism while punishing Saudi Arabia.” — Emad El Din Adeeb, a prominent Egyptian businessman and famous political television show host, elsharkonline com, March 3, 2021.

The Biden administration was dealing harshly with Riyadh “because of one crime, the killing of Khashoggi, while rehabilitating Tehran, which has carried out a million crimes worse than Khashoggi’s crime.” — Emad El Din Adeeb, al-ain.com, March 3, 2021.

Adeeb pointed out that Iran was continuing with its human rights violations while Saudi Arabia has in recent years embarked on large-scale reforms.

According to al-Sawafi, the release of the report on the slain Saudi journalist was a sign that the Biden administration “stands against the aspirations of the Saudi and Gulf people in achieving reform and stability.

“Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was right when he asserted that the Iranian regime understands only the language of force.” — Zuhair Al-Harthi, Saudi columnist and political activist, Al-Arabiya, February 27, 2021.

The last three years of the Obama presidency were “catastrophic in every sense of this word,” al-Harthi said. “Will Biden fall into the same trap? Washington’s standing declined during the Obama presidency. Will Biden repeat Obama’s fatal mistakes? The US dealings at the time with regional issues were a source of ridicule, as Washington delivered Iraq and Afghanistan on a golden platter to Iran and supported the Muslim Brotherhood.” — Zuhair Al-Harthi, Al-Arabiya, February 27, 2021.

Prominent Arab political analysts and commentators are dumbfounded that the Biden administration has chosen to appease Iran and Islamists instead of working with Washington’s traditional and long-time allies in the Arab world.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/nine-killed-in-myanmar-as-regime-seeks-to-crush-anticoup-protests-11614775439

At least 38 people were killed as Myanmar’s new military rulers, who overthrew its democratically elected government Feb. 1, continued to unleash a lethal campaign to suppress protests that have swept the country for nearly a month.

The death toll, announced by the United Nations, makes Wednesday the deadliest day since the takeover.

Security forces opened fire at protesters in numerous cities, according to demonstrators and medics responding to the violence. A 19-year-old woman, wearing a T-shirt that read, “Everything will be ok,” was fatally shot in the head. Men were struck by bullets in their eyes and chests as they ran, and police assaulted medics.

Protesters had been more cautious since a crackdown on Sunday, when police killed at least 18 people. Security forces who had only occasionally shot live rounds before that day have since used gunfire frequently, according to civil-society groups, protesters and medics.

Protesters have poured into the streets for 26 straight days demanding that the coup, which ended a decadelong transition to democracy, be reversed. Demonstrations at times drawing tens of thousands have taken place, with crowds mobilizing in towns and cities across the country. The large-scale participation has underscored the broad rejection of the military, which governed Myanmar for half a century before the democratic shift began.

The killings on Sunday and Wednesday indicate that the generals are turning to the same approach used during decades of army dictatorship to crush dissent: bloodshed, mass arrests and nightly raids to strike terror. Commander in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, who is now in control, has shown no willingness to compromise or respond to the widespread international condemnation of the military regime’s actions. He has said authorities are acting with restraint.

On Wednesday, six people were killed in the country’s largest city, Yangon, according to a doctor at the North Okkalapa General Hospital. Others died in the central cities of Mandalay, Monywa and Myingyan, according to rescue organizations helping the injured in those places.