US threatens ICC over Israeli arrest warrants

In another sign United States allowing Israel to violate international law, Washington stands accused of threatening a UN court from issuing arrest warrants against the Israeli leaders.

Senior Republican officials say President Biden’s administration backs their stance toward the International Criminal Court (ICC) if the body goes ahead with its plan to issue arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Speaking to reporters, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson says there is support among Democrats in the White House for the ICC to withdraw its position amid reports the UN Court is set to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu as well as other high-ranking officials including War Minister Yoav Gallant and military chief of staff Herzi Halevi for war crimes. 

In a direct threat to the ICC, Johnson underlined that “they’d better not do that … I think that it would make us as a nation respond in kind to the ICC”. 
“I think a group of senators and House members who would move expeditiously and we might just turn the table on the ICC. They better be careful,” the Republican leader warned. 
According to Johnson, who spoke to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, the Biden administration totally agrees.  

Blinken “confirmed that the position of the White House is our position … they are calling for the ICC to stand down,” Johnson told reporters. 

According to Axios, Congress has informed the ICC that any arrest warrants against Israeli leaders will be met with US retaliation with legislation to that effect already in the works. 

In a statement, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, echoed those warnings from his party leadership.

The Israeli occupation regime does not recognize the authority of the ICC, but issuing warrants would mean that the 124 countries that have signed up to the body, including some of Tel Aviv’s closest Western allies, would be obliged to arrest Israeli officials if they enter their territory.

Many have called out the US hypocrisy in its response to war crimes investigations against the Israelis, whose war on Gaza has so far led to the murder of around 35,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza is another Israeli war crime that reports indicate the ICC is pursuing the arrest warrants for. 

Last year, Biden welcomed an ICC decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying it was justified over what the US president said was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia says the warrant against Putin is a meaningless campaign by the West to damage Russia’s reputation and denies war crimes during its military actions against the US and NATO-backed Ukrainian army. 

“This is evidence of the stratification of consciousness,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a post on social media in which she hinted that Israel is a satellite of the United States. 

“On the one hand, the ICC judges are under US sanctions; on the other hand, Washington fully supported, if not stimulated, the issuance of ICC warrants against the Russian leadership; on the third, the American political system does not recognize the legitimacy of this structure in relation to itself and its satellites.” Zakharova pointed out. 

The Russian diplomat was responding to White House Press Secretary Karin Jean-Pierre who stated, “The US authorities believe that the investigation of the International Criminal Court into Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip, as well as the issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli high-ranking officials in this regard, goes beyond the jurisdiction of the court.”

ICC arrest warrants would be one of the most severe diplomatic setbacks for the Israeli occupation regime and its political and military leadership since the start of the war on Gaza.

Tel Aviv is already facing a genocide case, brought by South Africa, at the International Court of Justice as well as widespread accusations of indiscriminately carpet-bombing civilian infrastructure in Gaza and causing famine by preventing aid supplies from entering the enclave. 

Experts have highlighted that they do not believe the prospect of any ICC action would derail negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying such reports emerging in the US are part of wider tactics being deployed by Washington and Tel Aviv to delay the warrants being issued. 

Israeli media say Netanyahu is worried about the ICC issuing an arrest warrant against him, as reports indicate the US is lobbying its Western allies to pile pressure on the top UN Court.