It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, May 27, 2024
Famed World War II Submarine USS Harder Discovered off Luzon
Just ahead of Memorial Day, the U.S. Navy's historical commission has confirmed the identity of the wreck of the USS Harder, a famed attack submarine that sank more Japanese warships than any other American sub over the course of World War II.
USS Harder was a Gato-class attack sub commissioned in December 1942, and she fought in the Pacific Theater until August 24, 1944. She sank her first target, a seaplane transport, on June 22, 1943. She continued on to claim many more victories, particularly in her famous fifth patrol. The sub departed Fremantle, Australia on May 26, 1944 - exactly 80 years ago Sunday - and transited to the island of Tawi-Tawi, where the Imperial Japanese Navy maintained a fleet anchorage at the western edge of the Celebes Sea. USS Harder sank four Japanese destroyers in a matter of weeks and heavily damaged or destroyed one more, singlehandedly disrupting Japan's fleet-level battle plans.
She also observed a heavy concentration of Japanese warships at the Tawi-Tawi anchorage on June 11, and she radioed this critical intelligence to the fleet. The early alert gave Adm. Raymond Spruance more information on Japanese plans for a "decisive battle" - the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Harder's actions helped set the stage for the American victory in that critical engagement, which effectively ended Japanese carrier airpower for the rest of the war.
Harder was lost on her sixth patrol during an attempted attack on a Japanese ship. Together with submarine USS Hake, she attempted to engage the escort ship CD-22, but the Japanese crew evaded the attack and pursued USS Harder with depth charge runs. The fifth depth charge attack sank USS Harder with all 79 hands aboard; USS Hake escaped.
Harder's commanding officer, Cmdr. Sam Dealey, received the Congressional Medal of Honor for the vessel's service, along with the Navy Cross, three Gold Stars and a Silver Star.
Courtesy USN / Lost 52 Project
Eight decades later, ocean search firm Tiburon Subsea and the Lost 52 Project found the wreck of USS Harder off Luzon in 3,000 feet of water. The wreck is relatively intact except for depth charge damage near the conning tower. Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) has now confirmed the identity of the site and designated it as a protected wreck.
“Harder was lost in the course of victory. We must not forget that victory has a price, as does freedom,” said NHHC Director Samuel J. Cox, U.S. Navy rear admiral (retired). “We are grateful that Lost 52 has given us the opportunity to once again honor the valor of the crew of the ‘Hit ‘em HARDER’ submarine that sank the most Japanese warships."
Previous finds attributed to Taylor and the Lost 52 project include USS Grayback, Stickleback, Grunion, R-12, S-26 and S-28.
Memorial Day Heroes: The Rescue of the WWII Sub USS Squalus
Refloated and renamed, USS Squalus would go on to sink a Japanese carrier and multiple merchant ships
Sailors haul the McCann-Erickson Rescue Chamber aboard the USS Falcon after its final trip to rescue sailors trapped on the USS Squalus after the submarine sank, May 23, 1939 (USN)
Thanks to World War I and the advent of the submarine, U.S. naval divers mastered how to make and survive deep ocean dives. But by the 1930s, they were still trying to figure out how to successfully rescue survivors from sunken vessels.
They finally figured that out in 1939, when Navy Lt. Orson Leon Crandall and three other master divers used a new piece of equipment to rescue nearly three dozen sailors from a sub that sank during a training incident. Crandall's expertise and calmness under pressure earned him the Medal of Honor.
Crandall was born on Feb. 2, 1903, in St. Joseph, Missouri, to Marshall and Bertie Crandall. He had two brothers and a sister, all of whom were older.
Crandall enlisted in the Navy in 1922 when he was 19. For the next decade, he served on several ships before going into diver training in 1932. By March 1939, he held the rank of chief boatswain's mate and was designated a master diver, the highest level a diver can attain.
Only a few months later, a disaster off the coast of New Hampshire would require Crandall to utilize his expertise in the most harrowing of conditions.
On May 23, 1939, a diesel-electric submarine called the USS Squalus was practicing submerging at high speeds near the Isle of Shoals, an island chain off the coast of southern Maine, when it suffered a catastrophic valve failure. The sub — which carried 56 crew members and three civilian contractors — quickly filled with water and sank about 240 feet to the ocean floor.
Crandall was serving on the USS Falcon, which was tied up at New London, Connecticut, when the call for help came in. The Falcon was one of several salvage ships with divers that hurried to the scene to try to save anyone who was still alive inside the Squalus.
It took nearly a full day to prepare for the dangerous mission, but by the morning of the 24th, Crandall and about three dozen other divers were ready to get started.
"I remember that the water was rough and that the wind was pretty stiff, but after a while it calmed down some," Crandall recalled in a 1952 article in the Baltimore Evening Sun newspaper. "The descent was pretty fast — it took only about seven minutes to drop down to the 240-foot level where the submarine lay with her stern in about 12 feet of mud."
Shortly before noon, the Falcon lowered into the water a newly developed rescue device called the McCann-Erickson Rescue Chamber. Up until then, the chamber had only been used in training.
In theory, rescuers planned to lower the chamber via cables to the sub's deck, then seal it to one of the Squalus' hatches, according to Naval Institute archives. The crew would then blow the water out of the sub's chamber, open both hatches, and pull out the trapped submariners.
McCann Rescue Chamber on deck (Courtesy USN)
Courtesy USN
The process worked, but it took a long time.
"Because of the pressure, we could work for an average of only 18 minutes at a time. It took three hours to bring us to the surface," Crandall told the Baltimore Evening Sun, explaining that the slow ascent was necessary so they wouldn't get "the bends," a decompression sickness that happens when gas bubbles form in the blood stream from rapid changes in pressure.
Thanks to the skilled work of Crandall and three other master divers — Chief Petty Officer William Badders, Lt. Cmdr. John Mihalowski and Lt. James Harper McDonald — 33 men who survived the sinking were separated into four groups and rescued over the span of 13 hours.
Courtesy USN
Courtesy USN
At one point, Crandall narrowly escaped death. According to his Tampa Bay Times obituary, during one of his dives, carbon dioxide gas formed in his suit. As he lapsed into unconsciousness, he started to call out football signals — something he did as the quarterback of a shore-based Navy football squad. Thankfully, other crew members heard the strange chatter through his diving suit telephone and knew something was wrong, so they pulled him to the surface, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Over the next three months, divers and salvage crews worked to bring the Squalus back to the surface and retrieve the remaining 26 men stationed at the rear of the vessel who didn't survive. Crandall made more than 60 dives as part of that effort. The submarine was finally raised on Sept. 13, 1939. All but one of the sailors' bodies were found.
According to Naval Institute archives, a Navy court determined a mechanical malfunction caused the disaster. As a result, submarine hull valves were converted to quick-closing flapper valves to prevent future tragedies.
For Crandall's leadership, bravery and devotion to duty during the hazardous Squalus rescue, he was awarded the Medal of Honor on Jan. 19, 1940, during a ceremony in Washington, D.C. His fellow master divers during the mission — Badders, Mihalowski and McDonald — also received the honor.
Crandall remained in the Navy through World War II, and he became a commissioned officer and took part in several salvage and diving-related missions. He transferred into the Fleet Reserve in June 1946. He retired in December 1952 to St. Petersburg, Florida, where he decided to lay down roots.
At some point along the way, Crandall married a woman named Mary. According to the Tampa Bay Times, he operated a fishing guide boat out of Johns Pass during his retirement.
Crandall died May 10, 1960, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The heavy salvage ship USS Crandall, which served the Navy from 1967 to 1993, was named in his honor.
As for the Squalus, it was decommissioned in November 1939, renamed Sailfish, and recommissioned on May 15, 1940. It was decommissioned again after World War II. Its conning tower was cut away and can now be found in a park at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard where memorial ceremonies are held every year in May.
A vintage Russian cargo ship sailing on the Don River at Rostov-on-Don hit a vital train bridge that is used to supply Crimea. The Russian authorities as saying the Zelenga (built in 1978), malfunctioned causing the vessel to allide with the bridge. No trains were crossing the bridge and none were scheduled for today while an investigation is underway.
The Zelenga was built in Germany 46 years ago and currently operates for the Volga Shipping Company. The vessel is 1,755 dwt and 269 feet (82 meters) in length.
The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situation is reporting a steering failure on May 26 as the vessel was attempting to pass under the raised portion of the bridge. In the pictures and videos, the center section of the bridge is raised but the vessel was off course and hit a fixed section of the railway bridge. The vessel’s bridge appears to have been heavily damaged. There were no reports of injuries.
While there are no suggestions of sabotage, the Ukrainian media is highlighting the significance as the bridge is used to transport supplies into Crimea. They contend it is a major supply route for materials and armaments being used by the Russian forces occupying Crimea.
Local reports are that the bridge was undergoing inspections, but Russian reports were saying the bridge was operational. The vessel was later towed from the site.
Video: Salvors Work to Refloat Harbor Cruise Vessel off Lahaina
Hawaiian state authorities are working to defuel and remove a harbor cruise boat that ran aground off the coast of Lahaina, the seaside town that was hit by a devastating fire last fall.
The 100-foot harbor cruise boat Maui Princess went aground off Lahaina on May 16 after her moorings parted and she went adrift, and has remained high and dry ever since. Photos from the scene suggest that she grounded on a bar about 100 yards off the beach, in the surf zone.
Maui Princess had 2,500 gallons of diesel on board, and a contractor was hired to remove the potential pollutant threat with a rarely-used method, normally reserved for casualties in hard-to-access locations: repeated helicopter flights.
David Willoughby of Willoughby Consulting was hired to lead the defueling effort, according to Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources. In a statement, he estimated that it would take nine to 10 flights to remove most of the fuel. “Compared to some other groundings I’ve been involved with, while in the U.S. Coast Guard, and while owning my own company, this one is relatively easy,” he said.
Once the pollution abatement work is completed, the vessel will be refloated and removed.
According to the DLNR, high surf has prevented a full assessment of any harm to the marine environment, and this will have to wait for calmer conditions.
Hawaii Public Radio reports that Maui Princess lost her normal berth in Lahaina in the devastating wildfire last August, and has had trouble finding a mooring since. DLNR reports that she was anchored offshore in the time period leading up to the casualty.
The vessel's operator told Hawaii News Now that his crew had taken appropriate precautions to avoid a mishap, and that a component failure caused the breakaway and grounding. He emphasized that the vessel is insured.
A new book argues most white US Christians worship a religion of whiteness
Michael Emerson and Glenn Bracey depict a Christianity that worships a white Jesus and a set of sacred symbols, including the flag, the cross and, increasingly, guns.
“The Religion of Whiteness: How Racism Distorts Christian Faith" cover and authors Michael Emerson, left, and Glenn Bracey, right. (Courtesy images)
(RNS) — In 2000, two sociologists wrote a book about the fraught efforts of white evangelicals to diversify their congregations to better address racial discrimination in the church.
Now, one of those authors, Michael Emerson, has teamed up with another sociologist, Glenn Bracey, for an update.
It’s a controversial claim, but one they support through interviews with Christian church leaders, many of them Black, about the state of race in the church, as well as a set of national surveys they conducted over the past few years.
Emerson and Bracey depict a Christianity that effectively worships the white race with a white Jesus at its center and a set of sacred symbols, including the flag (both the U.S. flag and sometimes the Confederate flag), the cross and, increasingly, guns. Though their churches may be slightly more racially diverse, this religion of whiteness strives to maintain whites at the top of the racial hierarchy as part of God’s ordained order.
Religion News Service spoke to Emerson, a fellow in religion and public policy at Rice University, and Bracey, an assistant professor of sociology at Villanova University, about their bold conclusions. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You’re not using the word “religion” metaphorically in this book. You’re actually saying there is a religion of whiteness. Explain how you mean it.
Michael Emerson. (Courtesy photo)
Emerson: This is hard for people to understand, but we’re saying we cannot make progress in our country on race until we understand the depth of what it all means. It is wrapped literally in a religion that has all the markers of the way we define religion. It’s a unified system of beliefs and practices that worships or sacralizes, not some God in this sense, but whiteness. Whiteness is the god. It declares that everything else that isn’t supporting whiteness is profane, it’s wrong, it needs to be shunned.
Bracey: And when we say whiteness, we’re talking about the dominance that white people enjoy over people of color. So it’s not as though someone is saying, ‘I attend the Church of Whiteness.’ It’s that they find themselves caught up in the worship of the dominance that white people enjoy.
As you say, this religion doesn’t call itself a Church of Whiteness. Why not?
Emerson: There’s a couple of rhetorical moves that are made so you never have to actually name it. One of them is that Jesus is white, and Jesus by definition is supposed to be for everybody. So Jesus is universal. So as long as Jesus is white and Jesus is universal, then whiteness is universal. And once you do that, you no longer have to name it, because that is truth. Anything else, is an argument against truth.
You also point out that churches across the country are becoming more diverse.You mention that 20% of Christian churches are racially diverse, up from 6% in 2000. Doesn’t that argue against a religion of whiteness?
Bracey: So that’s a very good question. It’s important to note that 80% of the churches are still homogeneous. The difficulty is, the whiteness of the church can remain, even when the church is not entirely white.
White evangelical churches in particular have race tests to either exclude people of color or make sure that people of color will support whiteness in the way that the church wants it supported. So those tests, I call utility-based tests, to tolerate and support these performances of white dominance. Those race tests are working. They’re doing a good job of filtering out people who would disturb the worship of whiteness in those churches.
Describe how these tests work.
Glenn Bracey. (Photo by Kevin C. Brown)
Bracey: I went to seven churches across four different states, all majority white and evangelical. In one church, I was asked on my first visit to go up on stage and sing, even though I have no history of singing in churches. In another church, I was asked if I wanted to adopt a biracial baby because this child had a biracial family and the father who was white had left, and they were looking for someone to step in and be a father.
Other times, there were exclusionary tests and the exclusionary tests are really obvious and painful. I went to a Bible study, segregated by sex. So I was in the men’s group, the men’s group was about eight people including six white men and a Latino man and me. It was his first time as well. They introduced themselves by saying what their names were and what their favorite gun was, and how recently they had shot it. So they established a gun culture, dominance and a sense of threat.
And at one point, the host of the Bible study stands up and says, I don’t know what the name of my favorite gun is. I just know when I shoot it, it goes chink, chink, chink. So I call it my China gun. So, without saying anything overtly, there was a performance that let you know the space was dangerous for people of color. It was racially stereotypical and hostile. If you were going to stay, you had to be willing to put up with the kinds of behaviors that established this space as a very white dominant space.
You also did some surveys to better define the belief systems of churches that practice the religion of whiteness. How did you get at whiteness in those surveys?
Bracey: We have a set of survey questions that ask people, do you think the Bible should be followed under all circumstances? The people who say “always” are the only people that we then ask follow-up questions. The Bible says not to speak unwholesome words. And so it’s wrong to curse. The majority say you should not curse. But then when we ask things that are racially inflected — how to treat immigrants, how to treat racial minorities within the church — then they abandon their Christian commitment to the Bible and show a commitment to something else. And that something else is whiteness.
Some Blacks have embraced this religion of whiteness. How do you understand that?
Bracey: A lot of people get involved with the religion of whiteness, not because they’re attracted to whiteness, but because they’re attracted to the authentic or the real. Because whiteness is considered real, they come to think that real Christianity is what white folks say it is. People are attached to dominant things. There’s a lot of psychological benefit, in addition to monetary benefit, from being a person of color in the religion of whiteness. People are constantly telling you you’ve done the right thing, you’ve broken from what they would say is the Democratic plantation, you are serious about faith, you put God before race. Frankly, that is enough to sustain a lot of people.
How is there a monetary benefit?
Bracey: I’ll give you an example. (Earlier in my life) a pastor took me to meet one of the Republican members, a Black Republican in our county and recruited me to run for office. And he said plainly, if you want to be a Black Democrat, there’s a million of those. But if you want to be a Black Republican, we’ll give you a lot of money and attention and air time. So there was a material offer put there.
How did you two scholars find each other?
Emerson: My earlier book, “Divided by Faith,” focused on white evangelicals. At that time, evangelicals were considered to be making a big change, bringing race into the conversation, advocating racial reconciliation. In the book I show there are particular ways of understanding the religion that actually makes matters worse. I argue these churches have three main religious cultural tools that they use: individualism, personal relationships and an antistructuralism that does not allow them to understand issues of race and racial inequality and what the solutions would be.
When we met, Glenn asked me, “Did you ever wonder if maybe it isn’t by chance that white evangelicals have these three cultural tools that just happened to not allow them to see what race really is?” I thought, “OK, I’ve got to work with this man.”
What’s been the response to your findings?
Emerson: I get two extreme reactions. I literally can hear crying in the audience, usually people of color, sometimes clapping, cheering and then some really serious questions: What is my motive? Am I a Christian? What has happened to me? These are coming mostly from white folks really who are very, very angry.
Bracey: If I am attending a church that’s practicing the religion of whiteness, they’ll obfuscate in the way that Michael described. There’s a “not me” syndrome happening. I would just invite people to think a little longer and see where their attachment to white Jesus is. How strong is it? Where would they find themselves in the book?
These three anti-Zionists were just ordained as rabbis
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College still defines itself as Zionist and is committed to Israel's existence and its right to self defense. But it is also open to other perspectives.
Hundreds of demonstrators calling for a cease-fire in Gaza gather in the U.S. Capitol’s Cannon House Office Building rotunda on Oct. 18, 2023. The group was primarily organized by Jewish Voice for Peace. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)
(RNS) — Late last year, hundreds of protesters crowded the U.S. Capitol to protest Israel’s brutal invasion of Gaza, shouting “cease-fire now,” and “not in our name.”
Among them were two-dozen rabbis and three self-declared anti-Zionist rabbinical students from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Pennsylvania.
Last week, their peers wrapped them in a tallit, or prayer shawl, and their elders handed them an ordination diploma at a graduation ceremony in the sanctuary of a nearby synagogue.
The three — Noah Rubin-Blose, Eli Carson Dewitt and Rachel Kipnes — are long-time activists in Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist organization. They are proud of their commitment both to equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians as well as to Jewish study and ritual.
They are among a small but growing group of rabbinical students who are challenging American Jews to rethink their long standing allegiance to Israel and to the Zionist project of building and maintaining a Jewish-dominated state.
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College graduated and ordained 11 new rabbis on May 19, 2024, at the Old York Road Temple – Beth Am in Abington, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jordan Cassqay)
This year, following Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 35,000 Palestinians, the passion and organization of the anti-Zionist movement has become a force to be reckoned with. Mounting their largest demonstrations ever, they have grabbed national headlines, most recently helping to support a wave of campus encampments.
In the process, they have confounded mainstream Jewish institutions, some of which have labeled them antisemitic. After the shock of the Hamas attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people, most of them Israeli, many American Jews found themselves fractured and divided.
“We have had our hearts broken repeatedly,” acknowledged Rabbi Deborah Waxman, president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College during the May 19 graduation, alluding to the difficult seven months since Oct. 7. “We have been forced to, like it or not, discover new resilience.”
But Waxman also made clear during the ordination ceremony that the Reconstructionist movement is willing to embrace critics of Israel, including anti-Zionists, as it forges a new post-Oct. 7 path.
The rabbinical school, she said, does not have a litmus test on Israel or Zionism.
“There is a litmus test,” Waxman told the graduates and their families. “It is a litmus test about the capacity to center relationships and to build covenantal communities across our differences.”
Reconstructionist Judaism is the smallest of the American Jewish denominations, with 95 congregations representing about 46,000 people. Founded in the early 20th century by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, Reconstructionism understands Judaism to be “the evolving religious civilization of the Jewish people.”
The movement still defines itself as Zionist and is committed to Israel’s existence and its right to self defense. But, Waxman said, it is also open to other perspectives.
The college requires students to spend a 10-12 week summer session in Israel, although for some of the 11 men and women ordained as rabbis this month, that requirement was waived because of COVID. The three anti-Zionist rabbinical students said they were grateful for that exemption.
Most other Jewish rabbinical schools also require students to spend time in Israel. The Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College requires a full year of study at its campus there.
Eli Carson DeWitt, a rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, is handcuffed and arrested at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 19, 2023, during a protest calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. (Photo courtesy Rachael Warriner)
In interviews after their graduation, these anti-Zionist rabbis said it was precisely their activism that drove them to embrace a commitment to Jewish religious practice and a desire to study for the rabbinate.
“Organizing work was, and continues to be, very important to me, and it’s what drew me to rabbinical school as well — a desire to serve my Jewish community, which was, and is, the Jewish left,” said Noah Rubin-Blose, who is 40.
Last year, while still a student, Rubin-Blose started an anti-Zionist congregation called “Makom” in his hometown of Durham, North Carolina. Its outdoor High Holiday services this past fall drew about 200 people.
He is also continuing his activism. In April, he and 30 rabbis and activists flew to Israel in an attempt to deliver food aid to Gaza through the Erez crossing in the northern end of the Gaza Strip. They were repelled by the Israeli army, which prevented them from doing so.
Rubin-Blose, who is a trans man, was turned on to activism as a high school student through the global justice movement and later the LGBTQ+ movement and Black Lives Matter.
A delegation of American and Israeli rabbis from Rabbis for Ceasefire and other activists march toward the Erez crossing to the Gaza Strip with food aid for Gaza civilians and to call for a cease-fire, in southern Israel, Friday, April 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Eli Carson DeWitt, 31, grew up in a Conservative Jewish home that valued “tikkun olam,” the Jewish imperative to “repair the world.” DeWitt, who uses they/them pronouns, said it was their older sister’s anti-war activism that set them on the anti-Zionist course.
Rachel Kipnes, 32, grew up a Reform Jew. She went to Jewish day school and attended Jewish camps and Jewish youth groups. While living in New Orleans after college, she became active in Jewish Voice for Peace and realized, she said, “her anti-Zionism and Jewish practice were actually one and the same.” She said her mission is to work toward envisioning a Judaism of liberation and solidarity — “one where Palestinians are free, one where antisemitism no longer exists, where Islamophobia is not baked into the core of institutions.”
Before 1948, unconditional support for Israel and for Zionism was not always a given in American Jewish society. But over the past few decades, especially since 1967, it has gradually evolved into the status quo. For many older and more traditional Jews, the reality of anti-Zionism has been hard to swallow.
At least two rabbinical students left the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College this past academic year saying they found it a hostile environment for pro-Israel Jews.
“We were … surprised by the loud anti-Zionist sentiment among the student body and the culture of silence and intimidation that dissuaded students from expressing any positive connection with Israel,” wrote Talia Werber and Steven Goldstein in an op-ed in The Forward.
Werber and Goldstein first tried to fight back by forming a Students Supporting Israel chapter. Of the 55 students at the rabbinical college this past year, only eight joined and several later withdrew.
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College graduated and ordained 11 new rabbis on May 19, 2024, at the Old York Road Temple – Beth Am in Abington, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jordan Cassqay)
The two told RNS they were accused of being racist for supporting Israel.
“For me, as somebody who stood for racial justice, to be called a white supremacist because I believe Israel has the right to exist, this was brutal for me and, God knows, I have my problems with the Netanyahu government,” said Goldstein, a 61-year-old lawyer who is now enrolled at another Jewish rabbinic school.
Other graduates said they found the anti-Zionist students to be tolerant, supportive and caring of their Zionist peers.
“I don’t feel like any of us would say that we were disrespected,” said Adam Strater, who also graduated last week. “In spaces that have been traditionally Zionist, people who are non-Zionists or anti-Zionists, their very presence is interpreted as a sort of protest when they’re just trying to learn like anybody else.”
There are at least five other self-declared anti-Zionists at the school who will be ordained in the years ahead. More than half of the Jewish Voice for Peace’s 45-member rabbinical council is made up of Reconstructionists. Among the group, Rabbis for Ceasefire, which does not define itself as anti-Zionist, about 30% are Reconstructionist rabbis, far higher than their percentage in the American Jewish population.
“We can, and we will, do more at helping our students to know how to talk about the diversity of opinion around Israel and Palestine,” said Waxman. “Part of what we think about training rabbis is about helping them to be in community with people they don’t always agree with. We need communities of people who don’t always agree with one another.”
The US Attitude to the ICC Has Always Been Defined by Self-Interest
Washington’s approach to the court has largely been tied to a broader assessment of U.S. foreign policy goals and the anticipated costs and benefits that supporting the court could bring.
The International Criminal Court is pictured in The Hague, Netherlands. (Photo: Vysotsky/Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 4.0)
This week, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, or ICC, applied for arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in connection with the ongoing war in Gaza.
The reaction of the United States, Israel’s main backer, was swift. U.S. President Joe Biden condemned the prosecutor’s action against Israel’s leaders as “outrageous” and accused the ICC of drawing false moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel.
While it is not yet clear if the ICC’s judges will decide to issue the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the Biden administration has already hinted at the possibility of imposing U.S. sanctions against ICC officials.
The U.S.’ apparent about-face when the court targeted its ally is nothing new. Nor is it surprising.
Yet, just a year ago, when the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and another Russian official for alleged international crimes in the Ukraine war, U.S. officials were full of praise for the court. Biden welcomed the action, calling it “justified.”
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in fact, the U.S. has continually displayed its support for the ICC. One top U.S. official, the ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice, said the ICC “occupies an important place in the ecosystem of international justice.”
The U.S.’ apparent about-face when the court targeted its ally is nothing new. Nor is it surprising.
Rather, this vacillating approach is merely symptomatic of the U.S.’ complicated relationship with the ICC since its creation in 1998. Its hostile reaction to the Israel-Palestine situation will certainly have been expected by court officials. Wariness From the Court’s Inception
I worked for many years as a cooperation advisor at the ICC’s office of the prosecutor. During that time, Washington’s position towards the court shifted several times—it supported the court at certain times and criticized it at others.
This has largely been tied to a broader assessment of U.S. foreign policy goals and the anticipated costs and benefits that supporting the court could bring.
The U.S. was initially a keen supporter of the creation of a permanent international criminal court and was an active participant in the ICC treaty negotiations in the 1990s.
This law also allowed the U.S. president to use “all means necessary”—a phrase understood to include armed force—to free American officials or servicemembers should they ever be detained for prosecution in The Hague, the seat of the ICC.
But it ultimately voted against the Rome Statute that created the court in 1998 due to concerns with the court’s jurisdictional framework. The U.S. feared it could allow for the prosecution of Americans without U.S. consent.
Although the U.S. still signed the Rome Statute, President George W. Bush later effectively unsigned it, saying the U.S. would not ratify the document and had no legal obligations to it.
The U.S. remains a non-member state to the ICC today.
Once the ICC was created, the U.S. adopted laws to restrict its interactions with the new court. Most importantly, it passed the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act of 2002 (ASPA) that prohibited providing any support to the ICC.
This law also allowed the U.S. president to use “all means necessary”—a phrase understood to include armed force—to free American officials or servicemembers should they ever be detained for prosecution in The Hague, the seat of the ICC. This earned it the nickname of “ The Hague Invasion Act.”
That same year, however, an amendment was passed to the law allowing exceptions for when the U.S. could assist international courts to bring to justice:
Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosovic, Osama bin Laden, other members of al Qaeda, leaders of Islamic Jihad, and other foreign nationals.
The amendment created significant flexibility, demonstrating that the U.S. was ready to assist international justice efforts as long as they targeted designated U.S “enemies” or other foreign nationals. U.S. Support in African Cases
The U.S. soon adopted a pragmatic approach toward the court, supporting its activities depending on the circumstances and its interests.
In 2005, Washington allowed a United Nations Security Council referral to the ICC in relation to possible genocide and war crimes committed in Darfur, Sudan. The conflict was among the U.S.’ top foreign policy priorities in Africa at the time.
Later, the Obama administration formally adopted a “case-by-case” strategy to cooperate with the ICC when it aligned with U.S. interests.
Under this policy, the U.S. played an important role in the 2011 referral of alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Libya to the ICC. This was, again, in line with U.S. foreign policy interests.
U.S. diplomats also provided vital support in the arrest of Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda, who was later sentenced to 30 years in prison by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity. And the U.S. assisted with the arrest of Dominic Ongwen of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, who was later sentenced to 25 years. Another Falling Out Over Afghanistan
The relationship between the U.S. and the court soon soured again, though, during the Trump administration.
In 2020, ICC judges authorized an investigation into U.S., Afghan, and Taliban forces. Soon after, the U.S. imposed sanctions on the ICC prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and another senior ICC official.
This week’s request for arrest warrants for Israeli leaders demonstrates yet another shift in the U.S. approach to the court.
After some delays, the investigation is continuing again, with a focus solely on crimes allegedly committed by the Taliban and Islamic State Khorasan Province. Other aspects of the investigation have been “deprioritized,” an implicit reference to the U.S. and its allies.
Soon after taking office, the Biden administration lifted the sanctions against the ICC officials, returning to a seemingly more collaborative period in U.S.-ICC relations.
These relations became closer following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the adoption of new laws that broadened the possibilities of U.S. cooperation with the court. The goals of the U.S. and ICC had seemingly aligned again, at least for the time being.
But this week’s request for arrest warrants for Israeli leaders demonstrates yet another shift in the U.S. approach to the court. It continues the pattern of the U.S. supporting the court when it suits it, prioritising its own foreign policy goals over wider international criminal justice efforts.
Call to the International Criminal Court to investigate on Ursula von der Leyen for complicity in war crimes and genocide committed by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and in Gaza
27 May 2024, Geneva. On May 22, 2024, the Geneva International Peace Research Institute (GIPRI), the Collectif de Juristes pour le Respect des Engagements Internationaux de la France (CJRF) and a group of international concerned citizens, submitted a legal brief to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan requesting the opening of an investigation against Ursula von der Leyen for complicity in war crimes and genocide against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including the Gaza Strip.
This legal brief, endorsed by various human rights groups and prominent academics and experts in international criminal law, calls the Prosecutor to initiate investigations on the basis of the information provided against Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen. The latter has been repeatedly informed of violations of international humanitarian law committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, particularly in the Gaza Strip, through reports from international organizations and foreign governments. This is evidenced by a letter sent to her on February 14, 2024, by the President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, and the then Irish Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar. 1
Mrs Ursula von der Leyen is responsible for aiding and abetting the commission of crimes and violations of international humanitarian law, within the meaning of Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Mrs von der Leyen enjoys no functional immunity before the International Criminal Court by virtue of Article 27 of the Rome Statute.
The President of the European Commission is complicit in violations of Articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute by her positive actions (military, political, diplomatic support to Israel) and by her failure to take timely action on behalf of the European Commission to help prevent genocide as required by the 1948 Genocide Convention. Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen cannot deny awareness of the plausibility of these crimes, especially following the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures order of 26 January 2024 in the pending ICJ case South Africa v. Israel. More importantly, Mrs. Von der Leyen has failed to take appropriate action to prevent such crimes, whereas the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the Statute of the International Criminal Court make prevention an erga omnes obligation.
For any further information, please contact:
Gilles-Emmanuel Jacquet, Vice-President of the Geneva International Peace Research Institute (GIPRI), Geneva, Switzerland. Contact : ge.jacquet@gipri.ch ; +41 78 895 24 40
Collectif de Juristes pour le Respect des Engagements Internationaux de la France (CJRF), Paris, France. Contact : comite.cjrf@gmail.com
The Geneva International Peace Research Institute (www.gipri.ch) is a non-governmental organization with UN consultative status. It was founded in 1980 by Professor Roy Adrien Preiswerk, Director of the Institut Universitaire d’Etude du Developpement and Professor at the Institut Universitaire des hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva
Courtesy USN
Courtesy USN
