It is, of course, preposterous and disgusting for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to treat Netanyahu and Gallant the same as arch-terrorists Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif. Both Biden and Netanyahu promptly condemned the ICC’s chief prosecutor, a Muslim named Karim Khan, for his demand that arrest warrants for possible “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” be issued for the leaders of Israel and Hamas.
More on this outrage can be found here: “Israel, US Blast ‘Outrageous’ ICC Request for Netanyahu’s Arrest,” by Debbie Weiss, Algemeiner, May 20, 2024:
US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday issued blistering condemnations of the International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor’s demand for arrest warrants for the Israeli premier, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas terror chief Yahye Sinwar.
Biden said the move by Karim Khan was “outrageous” and “shameful,” adding, “Let me be clear: Whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken added that the US “fundamentally rejects the announcement.”
In a video message, Netanyahu called the warrant application “absurd and false” and said it “was not directed only against the prime minister of Israel and the defense minister, but against the entire State of Israel and against the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers, who are fighting with otherworldly heroism against the depraved Hamas murderers who attacked us with savage butchery on the seventh of October.”
Addressing the chief prosecutor, Netanyahu continued: “With what chutzpah do you dare compare the monsters of Hamas to the soldiers of the IDF, the most moral army in the world? With what audacity do you compare between Hamas that murdered, burned, butchered, raped, and kidnapped our brothers and sisters, and the IDF soldiers who are fighting a just war that is incomparable, with a morality that is unmatched?”
In addition to Sinwar, the request also called for the arrests of Hamas’ political leader in Qatar, Ismail Haniyeh, and the Palestinian terror group’s military head, Mohammed Deif, on charges of war crimes.
Blinken called the prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas “shameful.”
“Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans,” Blinken said.
He emphasized that the ICC had “no jurisdiction” over the war, and noted that both Israel and the US are not parties of the Rome Statute, the international treaty that established the court. The top US diplomat also called into question “deeply troubling processes” by Khan, who was supposed to send a team to Israel on Monday to coordinate his own visit next week….
That team, which was to be sent to Israel to prepare for Karim Khan’s visit a week later, never did arrive. Apparently it was called off, because Karim Khan no longer thinks he has a duty to find out directly from Israel what its defense against his charges will be and what exculpatory evidence it can provide. Khan is impatient to get on with it, and apparently feels no duty to hear the Israelis out before bringing his charges.
Israel will likely lobby the US Congress to pursue sanctions against the ICC. Several Republican senators last month warned against issuing warrants, saying they would push for sanctions against Khan including barring entry to the US.
One of them, US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), said on Monday he will “feverishly work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle in both chambers to levy damning sanctions against the ICC,” adding that “Prosecutor Khan is drunk with self-importance and has done a lot of damage to the peace process and to the ability to find a way forward.”
Former US national security adviser John Bolton also called for the US to impose sanctions on the ICC, saying the Hague court had proved its “fundamental illegitimacy.”…
Congressional leaders such as Lindsey Graham are prepared to make life hell for the ICC, in response to Karim Khan’s outrage. So are members of the national security apparatus, such as John Bolton. One likely sanction — now raised in Congress by Graham — is to deny Khan himself entry to the United States.
Karim Khan, the ICC lawyer, will soon be made to realize that because of his grotesque insistence that Hamas leaders and the state of Israel’s leaders are morally equivalent, not only will he have achieved nothing practical; as Israel, like the US, never joined the ICC and so is not subject to its jurisdiction, but the ICC will be held in even greater disrepute than before. Khan may find himself barred from the United States, a humiliating outcome for this self-aggrandizing public figure, who thinks of himself as the world’s most important enforcer of morality. And the ICC, for which Karim Khan works, will have shamed itself yet again, in not taking a firm stand against terrorism, but instead having muddied our collective clarity by concluding that Israel and Hamas exist on the same moral plane.
Walter Sieruk says
It very much needs to be reiterated that even a partially fair investigation and hearing by the Marxist infested and influenced International Court of Justice is very unlikely if not impossible regarding and libelous accusations of genocide against Israel when , in reality, it’s those jihadists of Hamas who committed action of attempted genocide against the Jewish people.
For it was Hamas that stated that current war in the Middle East by murderously invading Israel, on October 7,th , and now has its jihadists hide their terror and weapon centers among civilians ,including children in Gaza and then have the gall to blame the Israel Defense Force when civilians are killed.
For it was Hamas using its jihadists stooges then attempted to commit genocide against the Jewish people and the jihadists of Hamas even went further in heinous evil by kidnapping many Israel’s and raping many Jewish females .
Those Hamas jihadists are so cruel and vicious that they even took Jewish infants and burned them to death while they were still alive.
In spite of all those facts, some despicable people want to have acquittal for Hamas from all is wicked jihad terrorism and release its jihadists from the monstrous Islamic evil that they have so vicious committed and are very guilty of, and yet condemn Israel for striking back and Hamas in self- defense. This is absurd and wrong. Very absurd and wrong.
To add to this m libelous and slanderous of false charges of genocide are made against Israel about it heads of government and the IDF.
Such charges are as absurd as they are also wrong. Those changes are very absurd.
Related to this, the Bible informs its reader that “Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent – – the Lord detests them both.” Proverbs 17:15. [N.I.V.]
Ray Jarman says
Today Biden is backing Israel but tomorrow, who knows?
James Lincoln says
It totally depends on which way the political winds are blowing, Ray.
somehistory says
The khan creep heads a court of criminals. and blinken helped him by claiming that Israel had likely broken international law in its war to eliminate hamas.
If there are sanctions ….money withheld and travel prevented…the terror supporters may back down. But they probably will just bide time and wait for another opportunity.
Frank Anderson says
Issuing illegal warrants against Israeli officials for performing their duty to defend the people of Israel is itself a WAR CRIME. US law applies here because the US ratified the Treaty of London (1945) establishing war crime law. Article 6 Clause 2 of the US Constitution makes war crimes part of US law which is to be enforced by US courts. Also under US law, 18 United States Code Section 2, “anyone who aids, abets, counsels or acts in furtherance of a federal felony” is equally guilty. Hamas committed war crimes October 7, 2023, and before. The ICC is aiding abetting, counseling and acting in furtherance of the HAMAS war crimes. Under US law judges are immune from civil suit but not criminal prosecution. If I were in charge, I would indict in a US Grand Jury every person and the ICC itself for war crimes, issue and execute arrest warrants and bring them to justice in US courts. Israel could do the same in its courts.
James Lincoln says
Frank,
Much thanks for your very informative post.
somehistory says
And seconded.
Frank Anderson says
J L and SH, I love the teaching that says, “Every good deed is at the same time a MINIMUM of 3: For the person who receives it; For the person who does it: And to the Glory of The God Who makes it Possible.” Can you guess where I heard that teaching for the first time? Always best wishes to you and all reading.
OLD GUY says
I’like that, but it will be a COLD DAY IN HELL before our current Administration and Judicial system would take such action.
David A Grisez says
One of the questions I had after reading this article was this. Is Karim Khan of the International Criminal Court a Muslim? From looking at information on the internet it sounds like he is an Ahmadiyya Muslim. So it is possible that his beliefs are influencing his decisions to issue arrest warrants for leaders of the nation of Israel. Also these decisions to issue arrest warrants for leaders in Israel appear to be part of the big trend of anti-semitism going on all over this world.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
This whole concept of arresting leaders of sovereign countries is ridiculous, since they’re doing what they are doing as top officials of their countries. I don’t care whether it’s Netanyahu or Putin or Raisi or Erdogan. If you wanna get a person, the right way to go about it is to launch a war against the country in question, defeat them, arrest and later try their leader. Like we did w/ Saddam. Or launch a military attack that takes out the person in question, like we did w/ Qassam Soleimani
Arresting the leader of a peacetime sovereign nation while they’re going about their official work is a complete travesty of justice
Westman says
When Russia responds to an F-16 or a missile originating outside of Ukraine and the US, UK, and EU kids (who don’t know what river and what sea they are shouting about) realize they may be drafted, Israel and Hamas will be forgotten – and they will switch to protesting the Ukraine War.
Currently, what we see is the displacement of the angered-frustration of kids and marginal adults, who don’t see a good future for themselves, onto a cause in a stampede mode.
Black Sabbath says
According to the Hamas sympathizer Karim Khan, fighting terrorism is a war crime. It is ironic to see an islamist at the helm of the International Criminal Court when the largest criminal organization in the world today is his religion itself. Since ICC is morphing into an extension of ISIS, it is time to terminate it.