Netanyahu had it coming – he has brought these war crime allegations on himself

Calls for the Israeli prime minister’s arrest have been denounced as a ‘blood libel’ – but the threat of legal proceedings in The Hague may yet have an impact on the war’s conduct where agonised warnings by Western governments have failed, says Donald Macintyre

Arrest warrants could be issued for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant (via REUTERS)

Benjamin Netanyahu’s denunciation of the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor’s call for his arrest for war crimes was, even by his own robust standards, ferocious.

By coupling the indictments of him and his defence minister Yoav Gallan with that of Hamas officials, this “collaborator” with Israel’s enemies had committed a “blood libel”, and drawn a “twisted moral equivalence” akin to comparing the actions of Franklin D Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler during the Second World War.

Before debate on the ICC decision is enveloped in a fog of rhetoric – on both sides of the argument – it is worth considering what it is not, as well as what it is.