Israel allegedly tried to intimidate former ICC chief prosecutor Bensouda

The former head of the Mossad (Yossi Cohen), Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, allegedly threatened a chief prosecutor of the international criminal court (Fatou Bensouda) in a series of secret meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes investigation, the Guardian can reveal. ... Another Israeli source briefed on the operation against Bensouda said the Mossad’s objective was to compromise the prosecutor or enlist her as someone who would cooperate with Israel’s demands. ... According to accounts shared with ICC officials, he (Cohen) is alleged to have told her (Bensouda): “You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family.” ... The Mossad also took a keen interest in Bensouda’s family members and obtained transcripts of secret recordings of her husband, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Israeli officials then attempted to use the material to discredit the prosecutor ... On one occasion, Cohen is said to have shown Bensouda copies of photographs of her husband, which were taken covertly when the couple were visiting London. On another, according to sources, Cohen suggested to the prosecutor that a decision to open a full investigation would be detrimental to her career.

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This week's report in The Guardian revealed how then Mossad chief Yossi Cohen tried to disrupt an investigation against then International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda ■ In 2022, Haaretz was about to publish details of the affair, but security officials thwarted it ■ The revelations could not have come at a worse time for Israel

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mindlight said:

Israel is not a member of the ICC and its repeated attacks on Israel provoke angry reactions. Its right to the land is God-given and the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Almighty.

Israel is fighting for its life against terrorist assaults from Hamas, Iran and other Iranian proxies. The ICC recognizes Palestine and acts on the basis that this is a legal entity - Israel does not. The ICC has been relatively silent on the travesty of the October 7th attacks that started the present troubles including major issues like the weaponization of rape by Hamas. But the ICC is quite happy to entertain South African prosecutors who falsely call Israel's intervention in Gaza a genocide and express the desire for a Palestinian state from the river to the sea - leaving no place for the Israeli people. The ICC turns a blind eye to the Hamas policy of human shields and the true definition of genocide which the Jews know all too well.

The incident you describe is a part of a broader conflict in which Israel has more right than the ICC. It is possible to support Israel even despite such occurrences with a clear conscience.

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mindlight said:

The ICC represents some kind of fictitious notion that a secular human authority can establish rules of conduct for the whole world. In practice, realpolitik is the dominant paradigm and ICC is merely a mask of convenient conventions by which lesser nations support their sense of self-importance. South African arguments about Gaza could well be conceived as posturing for the home electorate at the recent election. The ANC was trying to revive the spirit that overthrew apartheid by pretending parallels with the situation of the Palestinians. This strategy failed with their electorate, they have lost their majority for the first time since the end of white rule.

You are comparing individual misinterpretation with established doctrine as if they could be equated. God does not sanction mass murder or rape. The actions of an overzealous Mossad figure do not overthrow the right of Israel to exist.

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