Posted on 05/22/2024 8:49:44 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he disagrees with arrest warrants sought against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC), suggesting that U.S. leaders could be next.
The ICC this week said it would seek arrest warrants for Mr. Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and the Hamas leaders, prompting criticism from both Israeli and top U.S. officials, including President Joe Biden. The ICC claimed that the warrants for the Israeli leadership were over the country’s conduct in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
Mr. Netanyahu said the warrants against himself and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the country’s conduct in its fight against Hamas in the Gaza Strip set a “dangerous” precedent for other democratic countries, including Israel’s allies.
“Israel is given here a bum rap. I think it’s dangerous. Basically, it’s the first democracy being taken to the dock when it is doing exactly what democracies should be doing in an exemplary way,” he told CNN in a televised interview. “It endangers all other democracies. Israel is first, but you’re next. Britain is next. Others are next, too.”
Also in the interview, Mr. Netanyahu asserted that the ICC claims were “false, dangerous, and outrageous,” and that chief prosecutor Karim Khan is only exacerbating the problem. It’s also false to see Israel and Hamas as equals, he added.
“He’s equating the democratically elected leaders of Israel with the terrorist tyrants of Hamas. That’s like saying, well, I’m issuing arrest warrants for FDR and Churchill but also for Hitler. Or I’m going to issue arrest warrants for George W. Bush but also for [Osama] bin Laden. That’s absurd,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
A panel of three judges will decide whether to issue the arrest warrants and allow a case to proceed. The judges typically take two months to make such decisions.
Israel is not a member of the court, so even if the arrest warrants are issued, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution. But the threat of arrest could make it difficult for the Israeli leaders to travel abroad.
Mr. Khan, the prosecutor, said in a statement Monday that the two may “bear criminal responsibility” for “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Gaza, including the alleged starvation of civilians, willful killing, persecution, and more. As for Hamas, the ICC said its leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri may be responsible for crimes against humanity, taking hostages as a war crime, torture, various inhumane acts, and more.
International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, the wife of actor George Clooney, served on a five-member expert panel that advised Mr. Khan. She said the panel had agreed unanimously that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that both the Hamas and Israeli leaders had committed war crimes, according to a statement issued by her office.
In a statement issued on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington rejects the ICC prosecutor’s announcement that he would seek arrest warrants, adding that “we reject the Prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful.”
“Hamas is a brutal organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans,” he added in the statement.
Hamas, a U.S. State Department-designated terrorist organization, also denounced the ICC prosecutor’s actions, saying the request to arrest its leaders “equates the victim with the executioner.”
Inside the United States, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said he backed the ICC’s move, saying “these arrest warrants may or may not be carried out, but it is imperative that the global community uphold international law,” according to a statement he issued earlier this week. “Without these standards of decency and morality, this planet may rapidly descend into anarchy, never-ending wars, and barbarism.”
Israel is separately facing a South African-brought case in the International Court of Justice, the top court of the United Nations, in which it accused the country of genocide. Israeli officials have denied those claims.
The ICC was established in 2002 to prosecute people linked to war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, and aggression.
Last year, the ICC issued a warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on charges linked to the ongoing war in Ukraine. The Kremlin responded by issuing arrest warrants for Mr. Khan and other judges on the international panel.
Other prominent individuals who have been charged by the ICC include former Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, who died in November 2011 amid the “Arab Spring” uprisings of the same year, as well as his son Saif Gadhafi, former Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, and African warlord Joseph Kony.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
He got that right.
But only if Trump is elected. They’ll never touch Biden.
Exactly
BiBi is correct.
The ICC is a dangerous fake court, controlled by international communists/nazis as it has made abundantly clear
They’re trying it out on a small democratic country as practice to launch it against America for sure, probably also UK...Jerusalem is just a convenient practice target
I doubt the ICC can do much to really harm Jerusalem but as a pesky annoyance... it is definitely not needed... and especially while the Jews are struggling to defend themselves and get rid of their attackers. Just saying, watch the He.. out because this fake court is just another one of the “globalist” tools designed to undercut and eventually erase western civilization with a universal tyranny (along the lines the old Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were seeking)
Screw the ICC!
My exact thoughts.
This Jack Smith scum was with ICC.
I CC is not a legitimate court.
Hamass is loving this!! The ICC is now attempting to incarcerate the State of Israel leaders for defending their own State of Israel. Hamass leaders are being accused of doing something that is in their godless government’s founding documents, i.e. kill Jews. The ICC will attempt to martyr the Hamass leaders only bolstering their godless status amongst the Palestinian people. GO ICC! Keep cheerleading for Hamass! Bibi is correct. In summary, FIRST the SATURDAY people - THEN the SUNDAY people!
Hamas, which is also the Palestinian leadership, is a collection of war criminals. What has the ICC done to hold Hamas to account for its continuous and unrelenting policy of war crimes against Israel?
The enemy of your enemy can be your friend, when needed. Israel and the USA should assist Russia in capturing Mr. Khan and the other judges on the ICC. Get your secret agencies to work in bringing the ICC criminals to Russia for arrest.
If this goes through, Israel needs to order arrest warrants against those at ICC. Mossad has an international reach.
Lawfare is another form of warfare.
Bibi is right.
The GOP-e thinks they are immune.
They are next on the hit list as the Base knows they can be bought.
They have the records and are just waiting for the right time to “leak” them.
Iceland, Ireland and Norway are recognizing the Terror “State” of Palestine. The damn Krauts
are threatening to arrest Netanyahu. If I were Trump as president, I would pull out of NATO, kick the UN out of the US and stop supporting ALL these globalist groups, send Israel military support and watch as Putain gobbles these wussy socialist European Eloi up.
No more Guiness for me. Norway makes NOTHING worth buying and Iceland can go to Ragnarok.
I wonder if Mossad is loyal to deep state or to BiBi.
Israel has a deep state or Oct 7 would not have happened.
POTUS DJT, he means.
I’d trust a food court before I’d trust the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Indeed.
It’s just like what I’ve been saying about the Trump Lawfare:
“If they can do it to HIM, they can do it to YOU.”
The head of the court is a MUSLIM.
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