TEHRAN - Like Israel, Britain and the United States feel irritated as International Criminal Court Prosecutor General Ahmad Khan is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war minister Yoav Gallant for “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” against the Palestinian people in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

“To draw moral equivalence between the Hamas leadership and the democratically elected leader of Israel, I think, is just plain wrong,” British Foreign Secretary Foreign Minister David Cameron said as the chief prosecutor has also requested arrest warrants for three Hamas officials, Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif.

There is a big question for Cameron as to why a “democratically elected leader” commits war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Cameron has closed its eyes to the fact that so far Israel has killed about 32 Palestinians in Gaza for every person killed in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. However, findings show that most of those 1,140 who were killed in southern Israel were targeted by Israeli troops and air force fighters.

It may be argued that Hamas initiated the war. However, the question is which side has created such a situation. Backed unjustifiably by certain Western countries, including the U.S. and Britain, Israel has refused to implement UN Security Council resolutions 224 and 338 that oblige Israel to return to the 1967 borders and refused all initiatives including the land for peace initiative by the Arab countries.

Israel has not only refused to implement the legally binding Security Council resolutions it has also annexed more Palestinian lands in the West Bank at a higher speed. It has also put 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza in a cage.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also said the arrest warrant request for Netanyahu is “a profoundly wrong-headed” decision that would complicate the prospects of reaching a deal on negotiations to achieve a hostage deal and a ceasefire.

Cameron also echoed Blinken, arguing the move will complicate efforts to release hostages and establish a ceasefire. “I don’t believe for one moment that seeking these warrants is going to help get the hostages out, it’s not going to help get aid in, and it’s not going to help deliver a sustainable ceasefire,” Cameron told the House of Lords.

Blinken and Cameron are quite aware that their respective countries along with certain other Western countries are part of the problem rather than a solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the current Gaza war in particular.

On May 7, Hamas accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but Israel said the deal did not meet its core demands and it was pushing ahead with an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Before May 7, the United States had blocked all efforts by the UN Security Council to announce a ceasefire in Gaza.  Even after long efforts and many amendments the Council approved a draft ceasefire resolution, Israel did not heed it and went ahead with its carnage in Gaza. It is chiefly because Israel is aware that its allies – the U.S. and Britain – will protect it from being held accountable for its crimes.

The motives for Israel’s behavior are clear. It wants submission.

However, after nearly eight months of war, Israel has failed to release hostages. Hamas agreed to release about 100 hostages, mostly women, elderly and wounded hostages, only after a temporary ceasefire. Contrary to what Cameron and Blinken claim Israel is not seeking the release of hostages. Israel wants to drive the Palestinians out of Gaza no matter if all its remaining hostages are killed as a result of its bombardments.

In his address to the House of Lords, Cameron used the term “sustainable ceasefire” in Gaza.  Yet, he knows very well that a “sustainable ceasefire” is only achieved through a “sustainable” deal according to which Palestinians have their own independent and sovereign state within the 1948 borders otherwise any talk of sustainable peace is just a mirage.

The United States has also become so aggressive that it is openly threatening Ahmad Khan. Blinken said the Biden administration would be happy to work with Congress to formulate “an appropriate response” to the ICC chief prosecutor. Earlier, certain hawkish senators had signed a letter threatening the ICC judges.

In his interview with CNN on May 20, when Ahmad Khan first broke the story that the ICC is seeking an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, he said some elected leaders had told him that the ICC was built for Africa and “thugs like Vladimir Putin”. Although Khan did not mention leader or leaders, it is clear that he was referring to President Joe Biden.

Biden has also described the allegations against Israel as “outrageous”. Speaking at a Jewish American Heritage Month event at the White House on Monday, Biden said, “Let me be clear, we reject the ICC’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders.”

The U.S. along with certain other Western countries are just prolonging the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through their unmeasured remarks, unjustified support, and erroneous actions. For example, the proposal by American Senator Lindsey Graham to nuke Gaz is only comparable with the statement by ultra-right Israeli ministers such as Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu who also proposed dropping nuclear bombs on the Gaza Strip. Or when the United States stands against the global will backing Palestine’s full membership in the United Nations and unfortunately some lackey states vote in tandem with Washington.

In summary, siding with war criminals like Netanyahu and trying to protect them from facing justice is scandalous and shows disdain for international law.