Some institutional failures unfold not through scandal but procedure, with acts of sabotage dressed up in the language of good-faith inquiry and accountability. By the time anyone notices what is happening, the damage has been done.
I fear that this is what we are witnessing in attacks against Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
Recent developments seem to satisfy goals that the United States and Israel have spent months working toward.
The story starts in April 2024, when a group of US senators warned—in fact, threatened—Khan that if he dared to seek an arrest warrant against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes, he would become a target himself.
Undeterred, Khan did just that, filing applications for warrants to arrest Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas commander—just as he had previously sought the arrests of Russian president Vladimir Putin, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, and the Taliban leadership.
