The US and Israel are working together to prevent the International Criminal Court from issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other high-level Israeli officials, Israeli media has reported.
Haaretz reported that the Israeli government is working under the assumption that arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and IDF Chief-of-Staff Herzi Halevi could be issued as soon as this week. The report said that the US is already engaged in an effort to block the warrants.
Walla reported that Netanyahu is “under unusual stress” over the potential warrants and is leading a “nonstop push over the telephone” to prevent them with a focus on contact with the Biden administration.
In a statement on Friday, Netanyahu said an arrest warrant wouldn’t stop Israel’s mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. “Under my leadership, Israel will never accept any attempt by the International Criminal Court in the Hague to undermine its basic right to defend itself,” he said. “While decisions made by the court in the Hague will not affect Israel’s actions, they will set a dangerous precedent that threatens soldiers and public figures.”
Neither the US nor Israel are parties to the ICC, and the US has a contentious history with the court. In 2002, then-President George W. Bush signed a bill into law that would authorize the use of force to free any US service members or government officials brought to the ICC, which is based in the Hauge.
The controversial law, known as the American Service-Members’ Protection Act, authorizes the US to use “all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any US or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the” ICC, and is nicknamed the Hague Invasion Act.
The Trump administration sanctioned ICC officials for their investigation into alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan. The Biden administration reversed the sanctions but continued to put pressure on the court, which worked since the ICC announced it would “deprioritize” its investigation of US forces in Afghanistan.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Biden administration changed its attitude toward the court and backed its arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, which was issued in 2023. But now that Israel is being targeted, the US will likely resort back to its pressure tactics. Any criminal investigation against Netanyahu also implicates President Biden since he has provided so much support for the Israeli campaign in Gaza.
Israel is also facing pressure from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), another Hague-based court that rules it’s “plausible” Israel is carrying out genocide in Gaza, a ruling the US has rejected. The main difference between the two courts is that the ICC prosecutes individuals while the ICJ deals with disputes between countries.
I’ll believe it when I see it. The ICC is useless.
But aren’t you heartbroken over Netanyahu’s stress?
Yes I can hardly bear it more but I’ll suck it up and do my duty.
Sounds like another award winning movie idea for Steven Spielberg. If he can’t find an actor to star in this role, he may want to dig up Golda Meir’s bones. Demons never die.
Together with George Carlin they could produce a hit better than Charly Chaplin’s Hitler.
Who wouldn’t be? Dumb question.
It wouldn’t be useless if the US didn’t have the power to politicize it. The US is the only power who can do it and does do it. The ICC would have to go against the entire West, the press they own (expect a deluge of anti-Semite smears, diversionary tactics and found or invented dirt inflation 24-7), their intelligence services, the military, police, political and juridical branches in sofar as the can be corrupted, which the can and are. The ICC would be undermined from within also. It would be undermined by the Netherlands where they are physically located, who would not be very enthusiastic about guaranteeing the safety of the prosecution. And when all else fails the Americans or the Israeli with American assistance and cover could still legally flatten the Hague. If the Israeli do it, the Dutch would probably be less inclined to a object since that would make them all anti-Semitic.
If the ICC were useless neither Netanyahu nor Biden would care about these arrest warrants.
The act of issuing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu will bring additional attention to the fact that he is a criminal. It will embarrass and intimidate him wherever he goes. And it will unite opinion among almost all of the nations of the Earth. If it does nothing more than that, the ICC will have accomplished much.
There should be an arrest warrant on Biden too. If they succeed and there will be no warrant and all the vetoes in UN to cover Israel it would underline the double standard of the Americans for all the world to see. Nicaragua and Germany could add to all that. I hope so anyway. If nothing else it would be a lot of bad publicity.
That is pretty much true for all international institutions including officials in the UN. The rapporteurs, the people in the field still do honorable work and fight for the integrity of their work.
Some do. Some don’t (thegrayzone dot com/2024/03/07/media-concocts-un-hamas-rape-report/). I regard them as media operatives. In any event, the years-long racial bias of the ICC cuts against its authority. There will, of course, be no prosecution of the Butchers of Tel Aviv and Washington. There are, as you say, many people who “fight for the integrity of their work” in useless and/or criminal organizations.
When the USA or Israel wants someone taken out, they just do it. No legal niceties, no excuses, no accountability. Maybe another lone gunman. Maybe a Boston brake job. Both the CIA and Mossad are masters at this.
Courts are tough to take out. More of a chance bumbling Biden will piss them off and raise their ire to fever pitch!l
Bout time that some pressere is put on the Israeli to can it’s “Erase the children” campaign. …!!!!!!
Proof that the Joey Biden’s government are the real fascists and inheritors of the Nazi mantel!
True. But he has company.
In 2002, then-President George W. Bush signed a bill into law that would authorize the use of force to free any US service members or government officials brought to the ICC, which is based in the Hauge.
The Trump administration sanctioned ICC officials for their investigation into alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan
Since the Nurnberg Tribunal there have been plenty of wars and war crimes committed, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos come to mind, but another tribunal never happened again. If anything it will begin and end with the young soldiers down at the bottom, like Abu GU rabe, Iraq. The Geneva Conventions will get a mention here and there, that is it.
Even the horrors in Gaza will be swiped under the rug unless there is an UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER to make a Tribunal possible.
Germany is still an occupied country, thousands of American soldiers and American nuclear weapons are still stationed in Germany under American control. The same is true for Japan.
All of this is a waste of everyone’s time. The war will be resolved long before there is any impact of any of this legal crap.
It’s not a war; it’s a genocidal massacre.
Yes, and the Russians will take Kiev in a week and be in Odessa and Moldova by April, 2022. You glorify war and treat it like a game.
Have they claimed that “ICC= HAMAS” yet?
They’re discussing their options. Calling them that, N@zis, or @ntisimitique. Heck. They may decide to go for all three and blame it on Putin. Don’t tell me you did N@ZI that.
Shouldn’t Biden be worried that an arrest warrant will be issued for him, Blinken, Members of Congress, etc.? If that were to happen, just think of the money American Taxpayers will save, no more traveling on our dime, less pollution, benefits all around. America has no business committing War Crimes, aiding/abetting War Criminals and time for us to elect Leaders who will uphold the Constitution and Rule of Law. We have Americans in prison for walking on the grass Jan 6, just exercising their Constitutional Freedoms, yet NO effort to “FREE” them. How can anyone be on the UN Security Council, have a vote in the UN, yet NOT abide by International Laws?
Yes, and think of the GH gas savings too …
Hopefully the warrants will be issued and Israel will be exposed as a rogue regime. Thinking about a single state solution. Reconstruction should include evacuation of all the settlements, return of Palestinian refugees from abroad, disenfranchising all former members of the IDF, Shin Bet and Mossad, disenfranchising all members of Zionist parties and elected officials from Zionist parties, and prosecutions for all Israelis accused of participating in, inciting or aiding and abetting genocide.
Sounds just like what was done to the former confederate soldiers after the US civil War-lead to the South being backwards for 100 years and the birth of the Klan.In other words-disenfranchise 99% of Israelis, with no consequences for Palestinians with blood on their hands.Precisely why Israel must be very strong, and ignore what its enemies like or don’t like.
Jake, please explain what is the difference between the concept of the “chosen people” and the concept of the “master race?”
Zionism is a fabricated construct that has no historical record or legitimate claim to Palestine. Israel is a fake nation created by terrorists to be a bulwark against Arabs and Muslims. You sir are as fake as they are..
Yes, Jake, just like what was done to the confederates. Andrew Johnson made a big mistake when he gave amnesty to most of the confederate soldiers. Johnson’s folly allowed the Ku Klux Klan to rise and eventually overthrow the democratic Reconstruction governments and set up the Jim Crow system of apartheid. The Zionists have proven they cannot be trusted to be good neighbors to the indigenous Palestinians. The Zionists need to be disenfranchised and encouraged or forced to leave Palestine unless they can individually demonstrate (i) that they have not committed war crimes and (ii) that they are committed to living at peace with their neighbors as good citizens in a majority Muslim state. There are plenty of countries, including the United States, that would welcome Zionists emigrating out of Palestine.
You have such a shallow grasp of history and twisted reasoning of events and facts. This issue is about the heads of the Israeli government who are participating in the current ongoing of genocide. Stop making blanket statements.
From your argument one will possibly you are from the south of the US or came from there. You are possibly very devoted Christian and read the bible literally and can not wait for Armageddon to take place . Such people do not care very much what to happens to whole humanity including Jews as long as the Bible prophecy is fulfilled.
This Tuesday – the ICJ will publish its judgement on the lawsuit against the German gov’t for aiding and abetting a “plausible” genocide.
Correction: The ICJ heard arguments on Nicaragua’s case charging Germany with genocide on Tuesday. There won’t be a decision for several months or several years. Germany has an interesting defense. The Germans claim that 98% of their aid to the IDF is for equipment like helmets, vests and binoculars. It is actually the US that supplies most of the firepower Israel uses. Germany and the other countries that aid Israel should all be found guilty of genocide. But the prime defendant should be the US. So who will bring the case against the US to the ICJ?
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/9/germany-rejects-allegation-of-aiding-genocide-in-gaza-at-icj
Press Release from ICJ…. 26 April 2024
Alleged Breaches of Certain International Obligations in respect of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Nicaragua v. Germany) – Request for the indication of provisional measures – The Court to deliver its Order on Tuesday 30 April 2024 at 3 p.m.
Procedure(s):Provisional measure….
My comments: The German defense team ( led by the 2nd in command of the German secret police ) argued that:
1) those 3,000 shells delivered since 2.Oct were only to be used by the IDF for training
2) the only new military orders accepted and approved since 2.Oct are for defensive weapons only.
3) the entire case should be tossed because the Israeli gov’t wasn’t included.
> Walla reported that Netanyahu is “under unusual stress” over the potential warrants
At least some good news!
I’m an idiot who knows noting except one thing for sure. The “news” released about the ICC’s possible decision was not spontaneous.
It dropped in Israel first 🙂
What’s that? Why did you wake me up? US Zi@nists call for bombing the ICC?
What a surprise! The criminal syndicate run by you-know-who is in panic and wants to stop the International Criminal Court from issuing an arrest mandate against those despicable characters involved in the genocide in Gaza. Let’s hope it won’t succeed.
“Let there be Peace on Earth and let it begin with me, with every step I take, a Peace for eternity”…. And justice as well!
One war criminal covering up for another war criminal it supplies weapons to to commit crimes. How is this surprising?
Who is the prosecutor at the ICC who drafted and requested the arrest warrant, I wonder? K. Khan did so for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova and Vladimir Putin, on unclear grounds (the existence of the arrest warrants was made public, but their contents were kept secret). Khan seemed to be both pro-Ukraine and pro-Israel.
If this is true, then it is evidence to support the ICC also indicting Genocide Joe. And Blinken. And Sullivan. They are fashioning their own nooses.
Seyed Mohammad Marandi
@s_m_marandi
·
1h
The US is a genocidal regime no better than the Zionist regime in occupied Palestine.
American elected officials have no decency regardless of party, red or blue, it is all the same. Our presidents are criminals, no crime is too brutal for them. They are intellectually and morally totally bankrupt. For money and power they will kill their mothers.
They can’t do that to Netanyahu, he is Biden’s proxy in case they arrest genocide joe must go.
The news leak is the start of smear of the nonstop campaign and attacks against the ICC .
ICC lost credibility when they put out a warrant against Putin
based on the Biden demand only and without any kind of evidence.
The CIA has undermined international institution including charities. Nothing is beneath them, the Americans are despicable.
I believe the worst until there is credible evidence proving me wrong that is.
This is a prime example that US law system sucks…! The law title indicates it is meant for US citizens but it’s now for the benefit of the Crime Minister…! Does he have US citizenship or is it just the United State of Israel…?!
A little bribe here, a little headshot there, poof! ICIC case gets dropped.
Has a reward for bringing him in been offered?..
Asking for a friend.
The reward is 100 trillion Zimbabwean Dollars. The good news is that the Zimbabwe’s 100-Trillion-Dollar Note Has Gained in Value. The BAD news is that 100 Trillion Dollar Zimbabwe Note is now worth only 40 cents U.S. $O.40. Not worth a trip to Zimbabwe.
Worth it!
I think ordinary prison is too good for Netnyahoo and his chauvinistic acolytes like ben gvyr and smotreach. Their enablers or supporters in the United States and elsewhere also ought to be held accountable appropriately.
YES…!!!!!!! Biden is dirty, he sent Netanyahu the bombs to genocide the innocent Palestinian Families & their children. what did defense defense secretary Austin say that 30,000 Palestinian had been killed a week or so ago…???
Anything the US of Genocide wont do to keep the genocide going?
I find it amazing that any leader of any nation, would stand in opposition to the i.c.c. When they don’t recognize it’s jurisdiction, they clearly fear they too might be prosecuted for the war crimes they have commited. Well too bad, if you do the crime you have to at least be tried. No wonder these countries screw everything up, they are constantly violating humanitarian and international laws. Time yo pay the piper! Hopefully.
“US Working To Prevent ICC Arrest Warrant for Netanyahu”
Biden explains US position:
‘First they came after the Nazis, but I said nothing because I was not a Nazi.
‘Then they came after the Hutu genociders in Rwanda, but I said nothing because I was not a Hutu.
‘Then they came after the Israeli high officials inciting genocide.
And it was then – then! it suddenly hit me – that, in standing up for Israeli mass murderers, I was standing up for state mass murderers everywhere! – Blinken and Miller and Sullivan and Psaki and Patel and yours truly.
‘I say again! A blow for Israeli impunity is a blow for war criminals everywhere. In the words of a great American, “Either perpetrators of crimes against humanity hang together, or we hang separately”!