Last Friday 79 nations signed a statement condemning the announcement 24 hours earlier by genocide enabler US President Donald Trump, that he was imposing sanctions on officials of the International Criminal Court because they had issued a warrant for the arrest of architect of genocide of the Palestinian people, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Shamefully, but given this nation’s appalling record on human rights and its supine posture on matters Washington perhaps not surprisingly, Australia did not sign this statement. Perhaps the Albanese Government did not want to upset the Americans while Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles was handing over $800 million of taxpayer funds to Washington as part of the obscene AUKUS deal.

As likely an excuse is that the Australian body politic, with a few principled exceptions such as the Greens and Independent Andrew Wilkie, is completely captured by the Zionist lobby in this country.

According to that lobby the ICC should not have sought a warrant for Netanyahu despite the overwhelming consensus of legal scholarship arguing that this is a leader who has committed serious war crimes. Quoted in the Netanyahu Times, aka The Australian, on Saturday was one of the leaders of that relentless lobby group, Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin. He thinks Trump is right because, “[t]he lawless behaviour of the ICC threatens every democracy, every member of the armed forces, and every politician who has to make difficult decisions of national security.” In other words, if you lead a democracy it’s ok to commit atrocities against innocent men, women and children and orchestrate genocide. So why shouldn’t everyone else who is on the end of an ICC warrant say, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander?

The breathtaking gutlessness by the Albanese Government in not signing Fridays statement should send a shudder down the spine of anyone in this country who believes that human rights crimes should be prosecuted irrespective who it is, who is alleged to have committed them.

Trump’s threats, and decision to harbour a politician wanted for war crimes, means one thing. Washington, and any nation that backs its decision last week, is a rogue state. It, and they, can no longer condemn the West’s favourite whipping boys such as Russia, China and Iran.

The ICC is an important global institution. That the Americans and the Israelis dont like it tells you that both nations have long thought they can murder, bomb, and slaughter their enemies and be allowed to get away with it.

Trumps threats should have the Australian Government rethinking its sycophancy towards Washington. After all Canberra loves to trot out the line that Australia is committed to the rule of law and human rights.

So why didnt Marles cancel his visit to Washington, or at the very least make a strong statement condemning his hosts for seeking to destroy the work of the ICC? Or is it that Australia, by its silence, is happy to see the ICC brought down a peg or two for fear of the harassment and bullying of the Zionist lobby being ramped up even further?

And how is it that Australia supports the ICC in issuing an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin in respect of his actions in Ukraine, but refuses to say anything about Trump and Netanyahu? The latters evil actions in Gaza make Putins war in Ukraine pale in comparison.

While the ICC has many flaws and has been accused in the past of a pre-occupation with African countries it is, as Chatham House scholar Elizabeth Wilmshurst KC puts it, fundamentally sound and that its role is as necessary as when it was first established. She quotes the great South African jurist Richard Goldstone, a former chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, who has said, If there were no ICC in existence today, many people in many countries would be agitating for and demanding one. That we have one is a singular achievement. It behoves us to make it the best possible and to assist it, as states, civil society, and individuals, in the best and most productive way possible.

Trumps sanctions against officials of the ICC deserve a serious response from Australia. Albanese and Wong either believe in international criminal law being allowed to work, or they do not. They cannot sit on the sidelines because they are scared of supporters of two well-known criminals Trump and Netanyahu.