The International Criminal Court (ICC) has decided to investigate the complaint against Israel for war crimes brought by the Palestinian Authority. The decision provoked fury in the Israeli government and was condemned by other countries, including The United States.
These negative reactions were provoked primarily for the following two reasons:
- The Palestinian Authority is not a state, and thus has no standing to bring cases to the ICC.
- The investigation will be one-sided, with no consideration of possible war crimes on the part of Hamas, such as firing hundreds of rockets into Israel, which was, after all, the cause of the summer war between Hamas and Israel.
One of the problems with Israeli public diplomacy is that it is predictably reactive and generally negative. Something happens, and the Israeli government reacts.