At first France said it would adhere to the decision of the International Criminal Court and arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he landed in Paris because he is wanted as a war criminal.
This angered Netanyahu. In a private telephone call with President Emmanuel Macron, the two leaders had a terse conversation on the international legality of the ICC decision. Netanyahu questioned its validity in the strongest manner.
While this was going on, France was interested in reaching a ceasefire deal on Lebanon and Hezbollah. Israel started another battle on its northern borders come mid-September and was busily attacking south Lebanon up to Beirut’s south district, seen as a Hezbollah stronghold.
The French government soon started its diplomacy and started to push for a ceasefire. Thus the context became that if France waived the Netanyahu arrest and that of his ex-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, should they travel to France, a deal can be reached on Lebanon.
And thus a 60-day ceasefire was finally reached; this was a ceasefire that could be extended.
Meanwhile France needed to provide its pretext for “arresting/not arresting Netanyahu” if he landed in France. Excuses had to be made: Israel wasn’t privy to ICC decisions because it was not a signatory to the world body as well it was felt that that Netanyahu couldn’t be arrested because he was a sitting prime minister.
This meant that the whole issue was becoming very confusing. But the ICC decision was binding on all 124 of its members in the world that includes France which is bound to follow the decisions of the international court with no excuses!
This political diplomacy maybe water on a duck’s back because Netanyahu is still promising that he will go after Hezbollah soon and that means an Israeli war on Lebanon is likely to start again in the near future.
But is this likely as well, since the north of Israel is clearly devastated and neither the Israelis nor their army would prefer to see war re-starts again. For the time being however, its touch and go.
Dr Asmar blogs at crossfirearabia.com
