The truth is undeniable: if the United States claims the authority to forcibly capture Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, it has no moral, legal, or political justification for shielding Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is committing genocide in Gaza.
The contrast could not be starker. Maduro, a controversial but recognized leader of a sovereign state, was seized through foreign military force without international mandate, without judicial process, and with the violation of Venezuelan territory. Washington framed it as defending democracy, restoring stability, and enforcing international norms. Sovereignty was treated as optional because the target was weak and politically isolated in the Global South.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu remains free. He leads a government responsible for the deliberate killing of tens of thousands of civilians, the destruction of hospitals, the starvation of entire neighbourhoods, and the obstruction of humanitarian aid. Scholars, legal experts, and human rights organizations increasingly define these actions as genocide. Arrest warrants have been issued. The International Criminal Court has investigated. The legal mechanisms exist. The only thing missing is political will. Netanyahu is not untouchable because the law is unclear. He is untouchable because he is protected.
This is not a malfunction of international law. It is how international law operates when it is selective, hierarchical, and politicized.
When leaders of the Global South defy Western power, law enforcement is swift, decisive, and uncompromising. When allies commit mass atrocities, the law is slow, cautious, and ultimately ineffective. Justice is no longer blind. It knows precisely whom it serves.
If Maduro can be kidnapped, why is Netanyahu shielded while committing genocide? If sovereignty can be violated in Caracas, why is it inviolable in Tel Aviv? If law can be enforced through military power against the weak, why does it fall silent in the face of the strong?
Indonesia’s warning that military force against Venezuela risks creating a dangerous precedent is correct but incomplete. The true danger is not only the use of force but its selective application. A precedent enforced against some and suspended for others is not a rule. It is domination disguised as legality.
For Indonesia, this is not an abstract moral argument. As a leader of the Global South, a champion of non-alignment, and a consistent defender of Palestinian rights, Jakarta has long insisted that international law must apply to all to be legitimate. Silence now undermines that principle far more effectively than any foreign pressure ever could.
Speaking plainly does not require defending Maduro or endorsing Venezuela’s internal politics. Condemning an illegal capture is not support for the captive. Demanding Netanyahu’s arrest is not radical. It is the consistent application of the standards Washington claims to uphold elsewhere.
There is also a practical reason to abandon ambiguity. Selective justice today becomes selective vulnerability tomorrow. If law can be wielded against disfavoured countries while shielding allies, no nation outside the circle of power is truly safe. Prudence cannot mean permanent silence.
The United States insists it upholds a rules-based international order. That claim collapses when rules are applied only downward. Shielding a leader committing genocide while celebrating the capture of another accused leader does not defend law. It destroys it.
The world is watching, not from press briefings or diplomatic communiqués, but from the rubble, hospitals, and siege-stricken neighbourhoods. Palestinians in Gaza, Venezuelans under foreign force, they understand what polite statements often conceal.
If accountability is enforced in Caracas but ignored in Gaza, it is not law. It is power masquerading as principle. Indonesia should have the courage to say so, clearly, publicly, and without apology. Silence in this moment is not prudence. It is complicity.
It is time for Jakarta to speak the truth. If the world is serious about law, accountability must extend to all. If it is serious about humanity, genocide cannot be protected. If the United States can arrest Maduro, it must arrest Netanyahu. The precedent Washington sets today is not abstract. It is the measure of what the international order truly values. Indonesia, along with the rest of the Global South, must call it out before it is too late.
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