Of course, this may not be necessary as the court may not grant the warrant. The defendants will have every opportunity to challenge it, whether for lack of evidence or for lack of legal weight. If the court rules that he has a case to answer, it should grant him bail so he can continue his political life in Israel until his trial gets under way.

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This was done in the case of the Kenyan prime minister who respectfully attended the court and fought the indictment until it was withdrawn. If Netanyahu’s case goes all the way to trial, he will have a fair opportunity to answer the charges before independent and impartial judges.

The allegation that the Israeli ministers used starvation as a deliberate tactic of war will depend on the facts and the prosecution must prove them guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

The accusation of indiscriminate bombing, which by now has killed more civilians in Gaza than the 25,000 who died at Dresden, is more significant because this is not a war crime as such but requires the court to decide whether the deaths and injuries it has caused are “clearly excessive” in relation to the military advantage achieved by the slaughter. This has been kept vague because of British embarrassment over Dresden and American defensiveness over the Tokyo firebombing.

The prosecution had the opportunity to clarify this crime back in 2003 by charging NATO over its infamous bombing of Belgrade (hitting bridges with civilians on them, the water supply, a TV station and the Chinese embassy) but lacked the gumption to do so. The Netanyahu case, if it does go to trial, will clarify the law about the proportionate use of bombs and drones in tightly packed cities.

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It is to be hoped that Netanyahu has the integrity – he claims to have the confidence – to submit himself to this justice process and fight the case, not on the battlefield but in the courtroom (where the casualties are much fewer). If convicted, he would have an appeal, and in mitigation the court would take account of the Hamas provocation and the sentence would be no more than seven years.

Netanyahu may, if found to have a case to answer, simply stay in Israel and refuse to answer it. His status then, as an indicted war criminal, would not be comfortable, either to himself or for his country.

And history would note the irony that a law forged at Nuremberg to prevent repetition of the sufferings of millions of Jewish people was, 77 years later, dodged and despised by none other than the leader of Israel.