Starmer backing the arrest of Netanyahu says more about who he fears than his friends - Garry Mond

The key reason, of course, is that they see it as an attack on all Israelis and Jews everywhere, not just on a political right-winger whose views they generally despise.

They also know that, if the 2022 Israeli elections had kept the politically centrist former prime minister Yair Lapid in power – or even had led to the election of a left-wing Israeli government – the overall response to the Hamas massacres of 7 October 2023 would have been very similar and led to the same antisemitic ICC charges, albeit for different individuals. Israel is overwhelmingly united in its opposition to the arrest mandates.

What, however, about the rest of the world? Views as to whether countries should comply with the demands of the ICC arrest warrants are very split, but a clear pattern has emerged.

Those countries with Islamist or left-wing governments support the arrest warrants, and those which have conservative or right-wing governments do not.

Already in the former camp, there are France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey. In the latter camp sits Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

The split view in Italy is in line with this principle (perhaps also because Italy has a long tradition of governmental chaos).

As for the United States, the Biden viewpoint is promulgated by the fact that he is leaving office soon and knows full well that incoming President Donald Trump will act against the ICC and its leading figures.

And what of the UK and two-tier Keir? Our position is ambiguous and deliberately so. It is incongruous to say, on the one hand, that one supports Israel’s right to defend itself, label Hamas a terrorist organisation and say that the Israeli government and Hamas are incomparable while on the other hand, pay respectful service to the ICC and consider endorsing its arrest warrants.

Our Labour Government is not acting with any principles – it is exceptionally mindful of its political base. It knows that opposition to the warrants would lead to an even greater haemorrhage of support from its Islamist voters than happened at the general election. By contrast, the UK Jewish community is sadly far too small and irrelevant to figure in its calculations.

On the other hand, unqualified outright support for the arrest of Israeli government ministers (which many in Labour would wish to offer) would upset the new Trump administration with potentially severe consequences. Had Kamala Harris been elected this past 5 November, we can be sure that our government would have backed the arrest warrants to the hilt.

So where does this all lead? Going forward, this issue is going to remain high in people’s minds all over the world. It will shine the spotlight on the workings of the ICC and continue to trigger debate for years to come.

In some countries which hold democratic elections, it may even become a voting issue, especially if such countries have parts of their electorates for which the Israeli/Arab conflict is high up on their agendas.

Ultimately, especially if the new US government takes as strong a line on this as appears to be the case, it will lead to the complete discrediting of the ICC.