 Israel accuses the ICJ of, you guessed it, anti-Semitism. The International Court of Justice rejected Israel's request to dismiss the genocide case brought against it by South Africa on Friday, ruling by a massive majority that the case shall proceed and instructing Israel to refrain from killing and harming Palestinians in the interim. Many Palestine supporters have expressed dejection that the ICJ did not explicitly order a ceasefire, while many others, including South African officials, argue that the ruling is very positive and tantamount to a ceasefire order because it demands the end of harm to members of the protected group. Imperial media are aggressively emphasizing the absence of a ceasefire order in their headlines and many Israel apologists are framing that absence as a victory for their favorite ethno-state. But such performative chest thumping is severely undercut by the way high-level Israeli officials are currently accusing the ICJ of anti-Semitism and saying Israel should ignore its rulings. The International Court of Justice went above and beyond when it granted South Africa's anti-Semitic request to discuss the claim of genocide in Gaza and now refuses to reject the petition outright, complained Israeli Defense Minister Yov Galan in response to the ruling. The decision of the anti-Semitic court in the Hague proves what was already known. This court does not seek justice, but rather the persecution of Jewish people, said Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gavir. Ben Gavir also tweeted, immediately after the ruling was issued, which will probably go down in history as the most Israeli tweet of all time. Everyone's arguing about whether or not the ICJ's ruling is helpful, and I don't know enough one way or the other to be sure either way, but from where things stand right now it does seem unlikely to me that managers of the Israeli war machine would be getting this freaked out and whipping out their tired old anti-Semitism song and dance if there wasn't something of substance to it. International lawyer Francis Boyle, who won provisional measures against Yugoslavia at the ICJ in 1993, said the following of the ruling, quote, This is a massive, overwhelming legal victory for the Republic of South Africa against Israel on behalf of the Palestinians. The UN General Assembly now can suspend Israel from participation in its activities as it did for South Africa and Yugoslavia. It can admit Palestine as a full member, and, especially since the International Criminal Court has been a farce, it can establish a tribunal to prosecute the highest level officials of the Israeli government, both civilian and military, end quote. So take that for whatever it's worth for you. In any case, the butchery in Gaza still urgently needs to be ended, and only time will tell whether Friday's development had any major effect on the outcome of this horror. But man, what I wouldn't have given to be a fly on the wall at the meetings they were having at the U.S. State Department on Friday. It's days like this that remind you why Empire managers switched from talking about international law to using the meaningless phrase, rules-based international order.