Republicans vow retaliation after the International Criminal Court said it would seek an arrest warrant for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu about his handling of the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan on Monday filed requests for arrest warrants against the two leaders, as well as Hamas military wing commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri and Israel’s Defense Minister. Yoav Galant.
Republicans on key foreign policy panels rejected the decision and warned they would follow through on threats earlier this month to punish the international tribunal, of which neither the United States nor Israel is a member, if it went after Israeli officials to go.
“I will work feverishly with colleagues on both sides of the aisle in both chambers to impose devastating sanctions against the ICC,” said Senator Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) said shortly after the news became public.
In a statement, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that “Khan’s kangaroo court in Israel has no jurisdiction to pursue these anti-Semitic and politically motivated ‘charges’.” that he looks forward to ensuring that neither Khan, his associates, nor their families ever set foot in the United States again.
Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, labeled the action “absurd” — saying in a statement that the decision to simultaneously execute arrest warrants against Hamas leadership and Israeli officials ‘creates false moral equivalence’. between the actions of the two groups.
Republicans in the House of Representatives have introduced a number of measures to take action against the ICC, although Speaker Mike Johnson’s office did not immediately comment on whether the House would adopt them.
The outrage wasn’t just for Republicans. Democrats representing large Jewish American communities also rejected the decision. In a message on XRep. Ritchie Torres (DN.Y.) denounced the arrest warrants as “not justice, but rather retaliation against Israel for the original sin of existing as a Jewish state and the subsequent sin of defending itself in the midst of the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. ”
Progressives, however, celebrated the decision. “If Netanyahu comes to address Congress, I would like to direct the ICC to the House of Representatives to issue that order. Ditto for Hamas leader,” Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), a former head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, posted on X. A handful of progressive Democrats have previously indicated they support an arrest warrant.
The National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment. But the White House previously said it does not support the ICC’s investigation into Israel because Israel is not a member of the court. Earlier this month, the State Department also released a report that did not find that Israel had violated international humanitarian law during its war in Gaza.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke out against the warrant requests Monday afternoon: “We reject the prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It’s a shame,” he said in a statement. “This decision does not contribute to the ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire, which would allow the release of the hostages and increase humanitarian aid, and could endanger them.”
In a statement, President Joe Biden called the announcement “outrageous” and stated that “we will always support Israel against threats to its security.”
An arrest warrant could be “very problematic for the Biden administration because it puts not only Netanyahu, but also Gallant – who the Biden team has seen as a potential moderate alternative to Netanyahu – in the same category as Vladimir Putin,” Trita said . Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute think tank.
In March 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for the Kremlin leader for the forcible transfer of children to Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, restricting Putin’s international travel. And Johnson has said he plans to invite Netanyahu to address Congress, raising questions about whether the Biden administration would defy the ICC during such a visit.
But the arrest warrants for the Israel-Gaza conflict have not yet been issued, so there is a chance that the Biden administration will not address the issue during the war. Negotiators have been trying to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas for months, although talks have recently stalled.
Following Khan’s submission, ICC judges will determine whether the evidence he has provided is sufficient to formally issue the arrest warrants. That process can take several months.
Olivia Beavers contributed to this report.
