It now seems fairly likely that the Palestinian Authority will be able to sign and ratify the International Criminal Court Convention, thus making it able to file suit with the Hague-based court with"war crimes" charges against Israel(despite warnings that some of Hamas's own activities fall under the ICC's jurisdiction as "war crimes" in their own).

True, in the event of a formal indictment by the ICC, Israeli leaders(civilian such as PM "Bibi" Netanyahu as well as military brass), are hardly likely to meekly troop up to the ICC for trial and sentencing, but this misses the wider point- an indictment by the ICC would turn Israel into even more of a virtual pariah state than it is- no country in their right senses would wish to have anything to do with Israel- even the United States would be unlikely to do that.

The question is:what would the US do if the Court took Israelis into its custody on war crimes charges?- I refer of course to the "Hague Invasion Act" or the American Servicemembers Protection Act of 2002 which empowers a US President to use force(presumably including "deadly force") to secure the release of US servicemen or those of any allied nation held by the ICC. Israel may not be a fellow member of NATO but it is generally seen as an American ally)).

In reality, any such move would most likely lead to an inter-NATO war(not just between the forces sent by a President to free the "unjustly held" personnel and those of the Netherlands but those of its NATO allies(including the UK) pursuant to Article 1 of the NATO Constitution- "an attack upon one is considered to be an attack on all"), which I doubt(whoever won), Obama or his hypothetical successor, say Hillary Clinton, is looking forward to as it might mean the literally end of NATO!

Either way: once the ICC decides to even begin a preliminary investigation of war crimes committed by the IDF(The 2010 Mavi Marmara assault by Israeli naval commandos is under investigation), that will be a "game changer".

Anybody think as I do?

Terry