What will President Biden do now? Washington endlessly warned Israel against entering Rafah, creating a global echo  chamber in the process and abetting the South Africa-led lawfare war on Israel. Last week Pretoria returned to the International Court of Justice to demand that it order Israel to end the Gaza war. Today the court at Hague partially obeyed, ordering an “immediate” end to Israel’s military operations at Rafah. 

As read by the court’s president, Nawaf Salam, Israel must “halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” Is that an escape hatch? In a statement, Israel reacted by saying it “has not and will not carry out military operations in the Rafah area” that would bring that kind of destruction on civilians. 

More than 800,000 Gazans were evacuated from Rafah to nearby Mawasi, where Israel built a tent city, complete with field hospitals and other life-saving facilities. As the Wall Street Journal notes, Washington now seems to support the Rafah operation. After long claiming Israel had no credible plans to evacuate Rafah civilians, it now says that “the Israelis have updated their plans. They’ve incorporated many of the concerns that we have expressed.” 

In reality, Israel did have a plan, but President Biden opposed the dismantling of Hamas’s remaining organized battalions that are holed up at Rafah. Washington’s objections, undoubtedly in the hope for an end to war before November, delayed Israel’s operation at Rafah for more than two months. So Washington extended the war. Long operational pauses also function as an invitation to global scrutiny of every move the IDF is making in Gaza. 

President Biden’s constant insinuations that Israel is too cavalier about Gaza civilian suffering bolstered Pretoria’s preposterous allegation that Israel is intent on genocide. Much of the case read at Hague today hinges on the notion that Israel is targeting Rafah civilians, rather than the Hamas terrorists who use them as human shields. No military campaign in history has received more negative, factless, and bigoted a critique, including at Hague today. 

That the decision was read by Judge Salam — a former Lebanese UN ambassador with a history of spurious attacks on Israel — is beside the point. The 15 judges (minus two, including Israel’s former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak) based their decisions on UN reports that are heavily biased against Israel. That upcoming famine in Gaza? Somehow it never seems to materialize, even as Washington fails to refute such reports. 

Based on UN assertions, the ICJ is ordering Israel to immediately open the Rafah crossing for deliveries from Egypt. In fact, since the IDF seized that crossing’s Gaza side from Hamas, it has begged Cairo to reopen it on the Egyptian side. Yet, this week Egypt vowed to keep it shut until Israel evacuates the crossing in Gaza. The ICJ ruling, warts and all, has  now been sent to the UN Security Council, where a resolution will quickly be drafted .

Such a resolution will likely go further than the ICJ, to include an order for Israel to immediately leave Rafah or else. Unlike the ICJ, the council has enforcement mechanisms, including sanctions. Mr. Biden will then face a dilemma. As a supporter of the UN, he must defer to its top court. Yet, unless he vetoes an anti-Israel resolution, he’d be accused of betraying an ally. Which is the latest White House position? Which constituency will it heed?