 So we've got another story to file under completely predictable and unsurprising, nevertheless still really really infuriating. So as Brett Wilkins of Common Dreams reports, on Wednesday, ICC chief prosecutor Fatah Ben-Suda confirmed the decision announced early last month to launch a formal investigation of the situation in Palestine, including three major wars in Gaza that killed thousands of people, most of them civilians. Ben-Suda said on Wednesday that the court's decision followed a painstaking preliminary examination undertaken by my office that lasted close to five years, while vowing her office will take the same principled, nonpartisan approach that it has adopted in all situations. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's far-right prime minister called Ben-Suda's announcement absurd and in a tactic often employed in attacks to delegitimize criticism of Israeli policies and actions, undiluted anti-Semitism. Ben-Suda advocates, however, welcomed the ICC probe while condemning US opposition to it. So basically what's happening is the ICC is now formally investigating Israel's numerous human rights abuses of the Palestinian people and of Palestine. Now Israel predictably is responding by saying this is anti-Semitism, which is absurd on its face because if it's anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of a government, then we literally can't criticize any government in the world without being viewed as racist or Islamophobic or anything. So it's absurd. It's literally Israel weaponizing identity politics to shield themselves from criticism and it's just not persuasive. But the article referenced US opposition to it and, of course, the United States is against this investigation. Not shocking at all. And the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, who is a warmonger tweeted out this, The United States firmly opposes an international criminal court investigation into the Palestinian situation. Love the intentionally vague wording there to use instead of war crimes. We will continue to uphold our strong commitment to Israel and its security, including by opposing actions that seek to target Israel unfairly. So the Biden administration stance towards Israel is identical to the Trump administration stance towards Israel, which was identical to the Obama administration stance towards Israel, which was identical to the Bush administration stance towards Israel. I think you get the point here. The United States has been terrible in this regard. They are defending a modern day apartheid and it is absolutely morally detestable for a country that purports to care about human rights. It's funny how they always give Israel a pass. And if you question the actions of the Israeli government, which is a right wing government, that apparently means that you're anti-Semitic, like that's absolutely preposterous. Nobody is saying that the Jewish people or Israeli citizens are culpable here. What we're saying is that the actions of a government are creating a situation where the lives of citizens it is in control over, like Israel is occupying Palestine, it is leading to human rights abuses. And there are even war crimes, US says nothing. It's ridiculous. Now, thankfully, there are individuals in Congress now who are speaking up. Rashida Tlaib was one of them and she writes, no one is above the law. The International Criminal Court has the authority and duty to independently and impartially investigate and deliver justice to victims of human rights violations and war crimes in Palestine and Israel. The US should not interfere with its ability to do so. And that is exactly it. Like if the United States genuinely believed that the Israeli government had clean hands here, then what would be wrong with an investigation? OK, you know what we're confident? Go ahead and investigate Israel and you'll find that the government's actions, they're fine, like there's no wrongdoing. So go ahead, do your stupid investigation and you'll conclude that they're innocent. But they're not saying that because the US government knows that if there is an actual comprehensive and robust investigation into the actions of the Israeli government, they're going to find a plethora of war crimes, human rights violations. Palestinians are literally second class citizens in Israel. I mean, what we're seeing now is vaccine apartheid, where the Israeli government vaccinated lots of their citizens completely left out Palestinians from that equation. Like it's absurd. So the fact that you can't even look into human rights abuses and that that's like too much. That's being too unfair to Israel. It is absolutely just it's Orwellian. It is Orwellian to say the least. Now, Code Pink also had a really great response to this saying by Palestinian situation, do you mean Palestinians rightful resistance to Israel's extremely cruel and inhumane occupation of Palestine and apartheid against the Palestinian people? Because that seems a whole lot more unfair than the international criminal court doing their job. And that is exactly it. Like this is a double standard. If you dare to criticize the Israeli government and their right wing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is who is corrupt, then, you know, that that means you're anti-semitic. But it's not Islamophobic to turn a blind eye to the crimes that they're committing against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza. That's not Islamophobic. That's not the issue here. The issue only is that you're questioning the Israeli government. I mean, this is absolutely just it's idiotic to say the least. Like, I don't know how else to describe this situation. It's Orwellian. It's this ingenuous. It's it's gaslighting on behalf of the Biden administration. But it's not surprising at all. I mean, this is not something that anyone expected to change with the Biden administration. This is a stance that we're going to continue to see. Like even Barack Obama, when he got cooked by Benjamin Netanyahu and the Republican Party invited him to address Congress, like Obama still couldn't really speak up because the entire foreign policy establishment and military industrial complex would be against him like he felt like he couldn't speak up even when the Israeli Prime Minister made a fool of him in his own country that he's the leader of. So I mean, if that doesn't get anyone to change, then nothing else will. Like no president is ever going to do what they need to do, which is why we need, you know, a grassroots movement, pressure in the form of BDS to stop Israel from doing this, like put pressure on them in a different way since the US government very obviously is never going to do the right thing here.