The Players:
Israel is a country in the Middle East.
The United States of America (the US) is a country in, well, North America.
The US is an ally of Israel.
The European Union (EU) is a group of 27 countries.
The International Criminal Court (the ICC) is a court based in the the EU.
The US is not a member of the ICC.
Microsoft is a giant technology company based in the US.
The Events:
The ICC issued a warrant of arrest against the Israeli Prime Minister.
The US did not like this decision and the President of the US issued an Executive Order placing sanctions on the ICC Prosecutor.
The Order, among other things, basically prohibited the provision of “technological support” to the ICC Prosecutor.
Microsoft, being a US-based company, had to comply with US directives and therefore the ICC Prosecutor’s email service that Microsoft was providing was disconnected.
The ICC Prosecutor was thus left without official email service.
Not necessarily because of these events, Denmark (or at least parts of it) and at least one German state have plans to move away from Microsoft software (like Windows and Office) to open-source alternatives (like Linux and LibreOffice).
The Lessons:
If you’re a player of a certain size, as much as you can, rely on your own technology and service providers that are not controlled by external parties.
Reduce your risk of being shut off based on decisions made by others who are not part of your contracts.
Take time in advance to consider alternative services in case the ones you use become unavailable for some reason.