Will President Trump sanction countries where courts prosecute Israelis for defending Jews against genocide? Failing at physically erasing the country from the face of the earth, Israel’s enemies are trying lawfare instead. Since October 7, 2023, at least 12 war crime cases have been launched against Israelis abroad. Legal foes are using social media postings to harass Israelis visiting countries that vilify the Jewish state. 

A survivor of the Nova festival massacre, Yuval Vagdani, and his family were forced to flee to Argentina from Brazil, where a local court issued an arrest warrant against him. Judge Raquel Soares Charelli issued the writ following a complaint by the Hind Rajab Foundation, a Brussels-based group “devoted to breaking the cycle of Israeli impunity,” according to its website. It is part of a larger trend that aims to criminalize being an Israeli.  

To nab Mr. Vagdani, Hind Rajab used video postings the Israeli reservist made in Gaza, where it claims he participated in “genocide.” Videotaping battles might be unwise, but as Secretary Blinken told the Times, Israel was “traumatized” after October 7. In our eyes medals, rather than a Brazilian lashing, are owed to survivors of the attack on the Nova dance party, who then, like Mr. Vagdani, responded by going to battle. 

Sharing content on social media might help Israelis deal with the horrors they encountered, even as the military warns against posting from Gaza. Now Israel’s enemies are using video posts as evidence of war crimes. The Hind Rajab Foundation has honed the practice, including in Mr. Vagdani’s case. Hamas’ own GoPro filming, on October 7, of rape, shooting of children, burning houses, and the rest, are yet to be referred to courts. 

Hind Rajab seems to be a foe of both Israel and America and describes itself as dedicated to the quest for justice in response to the crimes perpetrated by the Israeli state. “Sweet revenge” is how its founder, Dyab Abou Jahjah, referred to the September 11 terror in America, according to Israel’ s diaspora minister, Amichai Chikli, who reports that Belgium’s De Standaard newspaper stopped publishing Abou Jahjah’s anti-Israel diatribes. Earlier he had “declared ties to Hezbollah,” Mr. Chikli writes on X.  

Mr. Chikli attended at Jerusalem the other day a meeting chaired by  Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to address Mr. Vagdani’s close call in Brazil. Mr. Sa’ar identified at least five countries where Israelis are at a high risk of being prosecuted for alleged war crimes: Ireland, Brazil, Spain, Belgium, and South Africa. It happens that beside these countries’ legalistic-sounding claim of “universal jurisdiction,” their leaders are extremely hostile to Israel.

Ironically, a few years ago Mr. Vagdani might have escaped to Brazil from Argentina, rather than the other way around. When President Bolsonaro was at the helm at Brasilia, he was an enthusiastic supporter of Israel. At Buenos Aires President Fernandez moved in Latin America’s Iran-friendly circles. Now, with the philosemitic president, Javier Milei, in Argentina and a hostile president in power in Brazil, things change. It’s about politics, not law.

The International Criminal Court’s case against Israel could be but the tip of the spear. After the ICC issued arrest warrants against Prime Minister Netanayhu and the former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, the House passed a sanctions bill, citing the Hague-based court’s “effort to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies.” Senator Schumer and President Biden blocked it.

A Republican Senate might now send such a law to Trump’s desk. Any failure to take a stand against courts claiming the right to try foreigners on crimes that were allegedly committed in faraway lands is alarming. The ICC, though, has open cases against Americans who allegedly committed war crimes in Afghanistan. Brazil and its ilk might be more careful if Washington makes clear that putting our soldiers, and those of our allies, in the dock will be punished.